Creative ways to end the school year

The end of the school year marks a unique opportunity for educators to create lasting memories with students. If you aren't able to try any of these activities out this year, keep them in mind as beginning of the school year rolls around or use them at the close of next year.

STEAM challenges

• Students choose a book, either a new one or a past read that they enjoyed.

          They must create an object that goes with the book. Then they share the story and what they chose to create with their classmates. These can go on display or be taken home, depending on the materials used with the books. 

Pictured here are my students using LEGO blocks:

• Use a picture book to challenge students to construct an object from the story, for example, we read the new version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen:

Students were challenged to build a troll bridge out of LEGO blocks. I gave them a piece of blue paper as the water and the only stipulation I made was that it had to be elevated, not touching the water.  As the students worked they found that they wanted to continue the challenge with more requirements, like the ones that are the sturdiest, tallest, etc. 

The best part was listening to them share their strategies for building and helping each other when they got stuck. It also inspired some to want to perform a reader's theater of the story! 

• Put up a big Spot the Difference to complete as a class. Then challenge students to make their own and trade with one another. They can use old magazines to cut out pictures and words or use Google Slides or another digital format to make their pictures. 

The one shown in this video is from the publisher's website for the book, Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler and Loren Long. 

• Challenge students to create a BookFace photo. They will need access to a camera and book covers You can do this with book covers that are already separated from books or from the books themselves. In small groups, 3 people is usually good, students select a book cover that they can finish with their own bodies, faces, or other objects. Then students pose in a way that aligns with the book's cover art and another student takes the picture. Pictures can be edited and cropped so that only the BookFace remains.  Here are some of our favorites from this past year:

Blast From the Past

This is a fun way to look back on the school year and reflect on those moments of growth, humor, and classmates who have come and gone.  

• Show photos and ask students to recall those lessons. I also record or have them write down what they are interested in at the start of the school year.  At the end, I share with them what they said and ask if anything has changed since then.  It is so neat to hear how their interests and lives change.

• Roll videos produced by students, for example, stop motion films, book trailers, etc.  After looking at some, students asked to make more next year and for specific events, like, Talk Like a Pirate Day.  We even made several of our own as a class on our last library day!

• Have students rank their top reads of the year. Our library management system allows them to see their circulation history, so students were able to rank their favorite books they checked out. 

Looking ahead

• Share with students special days, holidays, or hide them in plastic eggs around the room. (I got the list from LM_NET and had to cut some out due to the age of my students.) Students select one to learn more about and then share with their classmates what they learned. You can have them write it on a sticky note, make a poster, or a digital copy.

This poster displayed here is from my Capstone Publisher representative:

• Survey students about their opinions about the library program or your classroom.  I've had students use devices to fill out Google Forms and I've had them write their ideas on paper posted around the room.  This helps to shape the next year and gives students a voice:

Play unplugged games

• Peep Knock-out: you take turns with a partner trying to knock a Peep off of the side of a table using only a plastic egg that you roll.  I heard about this game from a librarian colleague of mine and was waiting to play it on a special occasion. My 1st graders played the game and then we came together to critique it and adjust the rules for playing it again in the future. 

• "Water Balloon Battle" or "________ Battle": You take turns launching a balloon on paper towards your opponents figures, also drawn on paper.  Your eyes are closed when launching and if you hit the figure then you succeed.  I first saw this on a fellow librarian's Twitter account and had my students play it, they loved it!  They also had fantastic ideas for adjustments.  
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  Follow the directions below for the rules to the tabletop game: 

Of course there are so many fun ways to end the school year or engage with learners to build community, please leave your favorite activities in the comments or if you have specific questions, send them my way.

Who protects nature? Legends of Lotus Island, a new middle grade series

"I'd never known my parents. I was just a baby when a storm capsized their boat on the open sea." - Plum

The new middle grade fantasy series, Legends of Lotus Island: The Guardian Test, by award-winning author, Christina Soontornvat, is the ideal story to share with children.  She writes of an orphaned farm girl, Plum, who is raised by her grandparents since she was a baby. She knows nothing of the rest of the country and is shocked when she is invited to join the elite school so that she may become a Guardian, a protector of the natural world.  

It is difficult for Plum to leave the security of her grandparents' home where she is comfortable taking care of the crops and livestock.  As she learns about the other cities in her country and meets children from those places, her eyes are open to how important Guardians are in this society. Readers can connect to this as they, too, are learning about the vast world and their place in it.  As Fred Rogers famously said, "Look for the helpers." This is perfectly applied to this story.  The natural resources are being depleted and it is up to the Guardians to save what is left for everyone's well-being, even if they are vilified for it.

Readers who enjoy magical school stories, like Harry Potter and Amari and the Night Brothers may also like this series. It is significantly shorter than both of those series at under 150 pages, so it is not as intimidating to pick it up.  The teachers and cast of students are all unique and bring a sense of humor and danger to the story. After a month of lessons, students are given a Guardian test in which they must transform into their creature form that will allow them to protect the natural world.  Plum has had difficulty with this and is on the verge of quitting.  Will she find what is inside of her to allow her to transform?

Another aspect of this story that readers will find interesting is the role of meditation in it. One of the lessons that the students learn each day is to sit and focus and on their breathing.  In this era of constant noise and entertainment, this is an important practice that will bring much-needed calmness to many young people.  As an educator I have witnessed the effects of my students being unable to control their emotions.  Daily practice of focusing on their breath helps to center them when they feel their emotions start to get out of hand. Soontornvat also wrote about this meditation practice in her nonfiction account of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team rescue in the caves in her award-winning book, All Thirteen.   The boys said that their coach taught them to meditate and that is one reason that they were able to stay calm and get through the many days of being trapped in the caves before they were able to be rescued. 

The last part of the story that drew me in the most is the mystery surrounding Plum and her mother. In the opening chapters the readers learn, along with Plum, that her mother was from the big island to which she didn't want to return.  When Plum sees this place up close and meets people from there she wonders how her mother would've been there. As the series continues, I hope that Plum uncovers her mother's past and why Plum has a set of powers that nobody else exhibits. Soontornvat's books are all ones that I recommend and this one is no different. It belongs on all bookshelves and in readers' hands. 

(Thank you to the book's publisher, Scholastic,  for sending an ARC to my book review group, #BookExcursion!)