End of Year Activities For Third Grade

Third grade teachers can end the year well with these activities.

There are two occasions during the school year that many schoolchildren look forward to, the end of the calendar year and the end of the school year. It is a common practice in many schools, especially at the elementary level, for teachers to host end-of-the-year activities for students. There are several activities that third-grade teachers can assign their students that will reinforce the year's lessons.

Top 10 Things I Learned This Year

This is an activity that third grade teachers could do with their classes that would certainly reinforce the lessons conveyed during the year. The teacher could have the students make and present a list of the top 10 (or five or three if it is a large class) things they learned during the year. The top-10 list should be specific to the subject that particular teacher teaches (meaning that a math teacher would ask his class to present the top 10 math concepts learned).

Quiz Bowl

An end-of-the-year quiz bowl is a great idea that teachers could do with their third grade classes. The teacher would divide the class into two teams and prepare several subject-related questions for the teams to compete to answer. The students would take turns answering (so that everyone would participate). Teams have to press a buzzer or ring a bell to answer, and whichever teams answer the fastest and answer correctly would get a point. The team with the most points wins first prize, and the other team is second (though it would be good to reward both teams at the end).

Favorite Memories of the School Year

Students could create presentations of their favorite memories from the third grade school year and from past school years as a year-end activity. The students could make up a group play about the year's activities, bring in something that represents a positive memory from the school year and talk about it, or create a class collage of third grade memories and lessons learned.

New Year's Resolutions

This activity is specific to the end of the calendar year. The teacher could instruct her third grade class to write down and present five new year's resolutions. The resolutions could be personal (things the student wants to improve about himself) or academic (academic goals that the student wants to reach).