There are plenty of ways to you can engage kids as the year draws to close. The best bit, you don’t have to break the bank doing so. Have fun with these end of year classroom activities and let us know which ones you try!
- Run Minute to Win it science gamesGet out your stopwatches and have some fun with these physics-based science challenges! Highly engaging for kids and they don’t need expensive materials.
- Grow sugar crystal rock candiesStart this off with a couple of weeks to go and the kids can watch the sugar crystals as they come towards the end of the year. You can add food colouring too if there are no allergies. Nice!
- Grow borax snowflakesThis experiment is great to set up at the start of December so that you have enough time to grow the snowflakes. You can then hang the ornaments up in your room!
- Make lemon juice Christmas cardsA little bit of fun and still based in science. Follow the step-by-step instructions so that kids have Christmas cards to send to their family and friends.
- Make Christmas fizzy bombsA Christmas gift idea! Very quick to make and kids can give these as presents.
- Have a paper-plane competitionWhat kid doesn’t love a paper plane throwing competition? Find a space where you have room to make these fly!
- Have some quiet time colouring in these designsSome break-out time is always good for kids. These black and white colouring-in sheets are ready for printing.
- Run a cup stacking challengeWho can build the cup tower and then stack the cups back together again the fastest? It’s all about dexterity and concentration
under pressure! - Build a Rube Goldberg machineFind random things for each group so that they can create a strange contraption that moves energy from one part of the room to another. Lots of fun!
- Have a marshmallow tower building competitionEdible science! Who can build the highest tower?
- Run a sink the foil boat challengeWith some foil, a bucket of water and some marbles you can have the kids busy for quite a while!
- Make a pizza box solar ovenTake advantage of those hot summer days in Australia – build a pizza box solar oven! Perhaps combine this with a pizza day to double the fun.
- Make cube-shaped bubblesHead on outside to create strange bubbles using pipe cleaners. Kids love this and you can talk about geometric shapes whilst they make them.
- Make a cobra weave This one is awesome! The cobra weave takes time to create but it’s all worth it when you release the pressure! A great demonstration of potential and kinetic energy, plus it’s a perfect engagement tool for the end of the year.
- Make rainbow bubble ringsDarken the room and blow bubbles! As you shine a light on the bubbles you get to see the rainbow interference patterns. Grabs attention!
- Play science jeopardyJeopardy is always challenging for kids but you can shape the questions based on what they have learned through the year. Remember, the answer must in the form of a question!
- Use our science trivia for quizzesWe have a wide collection of science trivia on this website, use it to test students’ knowledge!
- Make an end-of-the-year podcastEach student can talk about their favourite science activity they did this year. A great memento of the year!
- Make a science song!Use this as a tool for reflection about the kids have learned this year and challenge them to create a fun song that can be performed in front of others.
- Create a science poemPoetry opens up an opportunity for kids to express themselves in yet another medium. Kids can reflect on what they learned this year with this activity too!
- Extra idea – Have an end-of-year Christmas science show!
What better way to combine the end of the year and science with a whole school Christmas science show!
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End-of-year science activities are a lot of fun and open up an opportunity for kids to let their hair down after a long year whilst still learning about their world. Let us know which activities you do!
Happy teaching,
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