End of the School Year in Kindergarten - FREE PRINTABLES
FREE 🎓 End of the Year Keepsake Boxes and Poems for Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade
More information about how I make these boxes and celebrate the end of our year is on this blog post!
END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
KEEPSAKE BOXES 🎓 PORTFOLIOS 🎓 MEMORY BOOKS
…and so much more! Let’s get started!
The end of the school year is almost here!
This is such a bittersweet time of year, and it is exciting, exhausting, happy and sad all at the same time.
My sweet kinders have come so far this year, and it is hard to imagine sending them off to another teacher.
But… I am also ready for summer break!
So what do I teach the last two weeks of kindergarten?
The trick I have learned is to keep your routines, activities and procedures the same as much as possible or things can go haywire very quickly.
I tend to over-plan activities and lessons because not having enough to do or being under-prepared can lead to chaos.
But we have a lot of fun activities planned!
I am sharing free end of the year resources!
On this blog post, you can print a huge pack of kindergarten review freebies and a free kindergarten keepsake memory box.
I will also walk you through my end of the year kindergarten bundle:
how I make my kindergarten portfolios
end of the year assessments
kindergarten memory books
kindergarten keepsake boxes
kindergarten reading, math, writing and phonics review activities
end of the year awards
volunteer thank you gifts
Plus so much more right here on this blog post!
Let’s get started!
I am excited to share ideas and resources, and hopefully take some of the stress off your plate.
This is a longer blog post than usual, but we cover so much!
You’re going to love my free kindergarten keepsake printable and free end of the year poem I give my students.
KINDERGARTEN SKILLS REVIEW PACKET
I make each student a kindergarten skills review packet. You can just staple all the pages together because this will come in handy so much throughout the last couple weeks of school.
We get them out while some kids are finishing projects, testing, for a lesson, end of the year centers or whenever I need a filler.
It is seriously such a lifesaver!
It covers almost everything we worked on this year, and my goal was to have activities students can complete independently, so they are not constantly asking for help.
Students practice writing the entire alphabet - both capital and lowercase letters.
We review almost everything we learned in phonics, reading, math and writing. Included are worksheets that target CVC words, long vowels (Super E), consonant blends and digraphs.
In math, this packet reviews numbers and counting 1-20, putting numbers in order, teen numbers and place value, using number lines and ten frames and more or less.
We also review addition, subtraction and story problems.
Included are tons of printables that are so fun for kiddos to practice their skills including color by sight words, color by sums/differences, mazes, dot-to-dots and word family houses.
We have so many fun writing activities planned for the last couple of weeks too.
The kids love writing letters to their future first grade teachers.
I have included several differentiated options - with sentence starters and without.
They can tell their teacher how they feel about going to first grade, what they may need help with and what they want their teacher to know about them.
The first grade teachers love getting these in the student’s portfolio.
Do you have your students complete writing prompts?
As you may know, I am a huge advocate for using picture word banks and scaffolding for my students in our writing program.
Over 58+ pages of printable activities for the last couple of weeks in kindergarten.
This pack also is perfect to send home for over the summer review.
CLICK HERE to purchase.
This pack is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle
Do you make kindergarten portfolios for your students?
I have always been required to send “files” to first grade teachers, and this portfolio is super simple, easy to make and the first grade teachers really appreciate it.
Each student gets a manilla folder, and I staple the cover on the outside.
Then I staple the assessment checklist to the inside flap, and the rest of the portfolio can be stapled together and placed inside.
The portfolio is actually what I use as an end of the year assessment to document where students are at.
Students fill out the activities and this is the perfect end of the year assessment/portfolio of their work. I keep it all together and this is what I include in their portfolio for their first grade teacher.
All portfolio printables come in both color and black and white (except the writing picture word banks only come in color.)
The sight word printable is editable for you to type your sight words list. Simply edit in Adobe Reader (free at adobe.com)
Included in this portfolio assessment are activities to document and show their skills in:
phonics (CVC words, long vowel, blends and optional digraphs)
writing capital and lowercase letters
reading comprehension
reading and writing sight words
writing their first/last name
writing complete sentences
addition and subtraction equations
story problems
geometry
data and graphing
numbers and counting (1-20)
four different writing prompts.
You can include what you wish and exclude any pages that don’t fit your needs.
Teachers love having a one stop glance and overview of each student as well.
The page at the top is what I glue/staple to the inside of their portfolio folder.
If the student has mastered the goal, I check the box. If not, I leave it blank and their teacher next year can quickly see where they are at.
Then, for further information, they can look through the samples included in the student’s portfolio.
I love having students do a self-reflection, and sometimes their answers surprise me.
I include this in their portfolio as well. This is the same self reflection included in my report card and assessment kit.
My sweet kinders worked so hard this year, and I love creating these portfolios to show their future first grade teachers what they learned in kindergarten.
I also tell my students, “Look how much you have learned this year! You are so smart and I can’t wait to show your first grade teacher!”
My students simply beam with pride. I love making a big deal out of hard work in my classroom.
This folder serves as a great data binder to show parents and administrators as well.
Please note: this portfolio and assessment kit covers many, but not every single standard in kindergarten.
Both a color and black and white kindergarten portfolio and assessment are included in this one kit.
CLICK HERE to purchase.
This resource is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle
KINDERGARTEN MEMORY BOOKS
This is the perfect activity to take you through the last week of school. I make a memory book for students to be working on while I put together and finish kindergarten portfolios and finish assessing students.
I recruit as many parent helpers, volunteers, high school students that need community service hours and even 4th and 5th grade students to help my students complete their memory book.
All the planning and prep work for your last few days of kindergarten has been done for you!
This is an adorable keepsake for students to take home on the last day of school.
CLICK HERE to purchase.
This resource is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle
INCENTIVE CHARTS AND PUNCH CARDS
Motivation, focus and task completion can be a little tricky at the end of the year.
The kids may not be on their normal routine as you’re finishing up assessing, we are working on memory books, there are assemblies and so many class disruptions.
So how do I keep my kids on task, focused, encourage good behavior and motivate students to finish their work?
Well kindergarten students love popsicles and popcorn! And I love celebrating and rewarding the positive behavior instead of focusing on the bad behavior.
There area few ways to do this.
I have created three different mini incentive kits but they work like a charm.
For example, if I have asked students to complete a specific page in their memory books while I am assessing a student, I tell them they must have it done within a certain time period and then they can color a popsicle on their chart.
This is great motivation and holds students accountable for the task that has been given.
You can use it for behavior as well.
Sometimes if the class is rowdy, as a thank you to those who are behaving I ask them to simply go color a popsicle on their chart and that quiets everyone down real quick.
Also included are adorable punch cards and these can be used in a similar way.
Three versions are included: popsicle party, popcorn party and class party (you choose!)
Once they have colored all their popsicles, popcorn kernels or stars, we get to have a class party!
Or you can do it invidiually and once they color all of their popsicles for example, they can have their popsicle at recess. Either way works and will help your students work hard and stay on task… and you’ll keep your sanity!
Print these adorable incentive coloring pages and punch cards
CLICK HERE
This resource is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle
Do you celebrate students with end of the year awards?
I love having a little celebration during our kindergarten graduation ceremony where I call each student up to the front and give a little talk about how special and unique they are.
We all cheer and I give them an award. Students are beaming and it is such a great way to end the year on a high note.
These awards come in both color and black and white. And because I know some of you teach in all girl/boy classes, I separated the awards into two files. All the girl awards are in one file and all the boy awards are in the other.
If you teach a mixed class this is still easy for you as all awards come in both girl and boy versions.
I used these pages to assign each student an award. There are 24 awards for boys and 24 for girls, for a total of 48 awards. They come in both color and black and white, plus they come in editable files (using Adobe 11 Reader). If you prefer, you can just print and handwrite the awards as well.
If you do a little kindergarten graduation ceremony, this would be a cute thing to do in front of parents. Just wait until you see how excited the kids are to receive their award and how proud the parents are. Seriously… too cute!
If you’re worried about time, the exact same awards are available for both girls and boys.
Consider discussing one award at a time, and then call up both a girl and a boy for the award.
Then you can give a quick talk about each individual child, but your award ceremony will go faster.
For example, there is a “Counting King” award and a “Counting Queen” award, a “Mr. Super Spell” and a “Miss Super Spell” and this goes for all 24 awards (you won’t need them all… since there are 48 total.)
These awards can be used year after year, and they can be used for any grade level.
I use these end of the year awards as my end of the year gift for students too. One less thing to stress about! Just tape a mechanical pencil or stackable crayon to the back and you’re set.
CLICK HERE to purchase.
This resource is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle.
VOLUNTEER/TEACHER AIDE GIFTS
Over the years, I have had the most incredible volunteers in my classroom.
They have been such a lifesaver for me, and for a few years made it much easier to have 26 five year olds in my kindergarten classroom.
I can’t spend a lot of money, but I like to give them a personalized card and little thank you gift to recognize the time they spent in my classroom with my students.
These also work perfect for the instructional aides I have.
The most I have ever had an aide was for 30 minutes a day, but it was still very helpful.
I have all of my students sign the back of the “Three Cheers for Volunteers” poem.
You can personalize the To and From part on this page with your volunteer’s name and your class/name.
All editing can be done simply using Adobe Reader - free at adobe.com - the fonts will be matched for you and editing is super easy! Simply open the file, click in the text boxes, type and print.
The shaded blue areas are the editable fields.
The shaded blue won’t print… only your personalized text will. These can be edited year after year and printed as many times as you like.
Gifts I use:
Thanks a latte card - $5 coffee gift card (Starbucks, Dutch Bros, etc.)
Volunteers are very important pieces - Reese’s Pieces
Thanks for being a helping hand - their favorite soap or lotion, gardening gloves, manicure kit, etc. I use these cards for my instructional aides as well.
Three Cheers for Volunteers - this prints on a full page and I have every student sign it. You can give any gift with this print out or just pair it with one of the smaller cards and gifts.
Four different editable options are included.
This is such a cute way to thank the people who worked along side you this year help your students learn and grow.
I am so thankful for my classroom aides and volunteers!
CLICK HERE to purchase.
This resource is also included in my kindergarten end of the year bundle
Ready to finish up the last couple weeks in kindergarten with this end of the year kindergarten bundle?
It comes with all of the resources shown on this blog post:
kindergarten reading, math, writing and phonics review activities/and or summer skills packet
kindergarten keepsake box and poem (freebie link is below)
My goal was to share resources to take some of the end of the year stress off of your plate.
SAVE WITH THE BUNDLE!
CLICK HERE
KINDERGARTEN END OF THE YEAR FREEBIES
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How adorable are these kindergarten keepsake boxes? They are perfect for storing and then having students take home their precious keepsakes from their year in my classroom.
I purchase these white boxes HERE on Amazon.
They come out to less than $1 each, and you can split them with another teacher/class if you have less than 25 students.
This is also what I use them as an end of the year gift. What better gift than to preserve their hard work for them to look back on?
Seriously… too cute! Families love them, and I love the poems.
I searched high and low for quality, white pizza boxes and those are the best I have found.
You may have luck having a local pizza shop donate them to you as well.
The printable posters come in both color and black and white.
The keepsake poster/poem for the front of the box, plus the poem on the inside of the box are both FREE for our members.
Also included in our free member library are these adorable end of the year review activities!
If you’re already a member, please CLICK HERE to login.
Not a KMKB freebie member yet? All you need is your email to sign up at the top of this blog post.
You’ll receive a link so you can immediately access our free resource library, including these adorable end of the year kindergarten printables!
Over 300,000 teachers, educators and homeschool parents are already members.
