Compare and contrast essays are one of the most common writing assignments on standardized tests. I found it helpful to have an organizer for my students. Having specific questions that prompt students about what to write in each part was especially helpful for my ESL kids. Here’s the one I used for our social studies unit on world religions (research and compare/contrast 2 world religions):
Some of my students struggled with the concept of general vs. specific. After a mini-lesson on the difference (including common vs. proper nouns), we used this worksheet to practice. NOTE: The example is not done for you. This is for you to use in your mini-lesson and transition to independent/partner practice. Enjoy!
Here’s a really simple (and quick) worksheet for kids to use during their independent reading time or as a homework assignment to help reinforce parts of speech. Although it may seem repetitive (identifying 15 of the same part of speech), this is what some students need to catch on to the idea. For the students who already understand parts of speech, it’s PAINLESS and can be accomplished in a matter of minutes.
Click here to download the worksheets:
Verbs in My Reading Book worksheet
Nouns in My Reading Book worksheet
Adjectives in My Reading Book worksheet
Prepositions in My Reading Book worksheet
*You can modify these worksheets on Microsoft Word so they focus on other grammar concepts your class may struggle with.
So many of the important assessments students face nowadays require competent writing. I used the end of the year as a chance to reinforce basic paragraph construction with this yearbook. I created pages on Microsoft Word (feel free to change the pages or add your own) that focused on specific aspects of our school year. For example, we had a grade-level Olympics in conjunction with our study of ancient civilizations, so I included a page that focused on this fun event. This was a great way to help students review the things they’d learned during the year. This would be very easy to modify for younger grades.
As a class, we made a checklist of the tasks required to complete the yearbook (each student copied down the list). Each student was required to write a rough draft on regular notebook paper, and have a peer edit it before they could go on to the final draft. Once the checklists were made, the students were free to work on whatever page they wanted. Each student completed the entire list, but could choose which page to work on each time we started working. This entire project took my 6th graders about 2.5 – 3 weeks to complete (45 min- 1 hour a day). One parent had taken pictures of school events (like track & field day and our Shakespeare play) and generously printed some of them for us. Each student ended up with 2-3 pictures from the year to glue into their book. I suppose you could encourage students to bring in a picture or two to glue in if they wanted. The students especially enjoyed signing each others’ yearbooks once they were all completed (we added a few blank pages at the end for autographs and messages).
Here are the Word files if you want to download them:
Yearbook Cover
Shakespeare Play page
Mathematics page
Medieval Day page
Guided reading page
Olympics page
Favorite Things page
Project Requirements
Writing page
Science page
Teachers page
Lunch & Recess page
Friends page
*When I uploaded these files, my cute fonts, didn’t get uploaded, so you might want to change them on your own computer to make them more interesting.
2022 Note: I’ve had some people message me that some of the pages aren’t downloading from Google Drive where they’re uploaded. I’m sorry, and I’ll do my best to figure out the issue.
What are some of your favorite end of the year projects/activities?
From a 2nd grade teacher friend:
So you’ve heard of a boomerang, right? You throw it and it comes back to you. This is the basic idea of Boomerang Folders. You choose one day (or two days) a week and let parents know that the Boomerang Folder will be coming home. STICK WITH THAT SAME DAY OF THE WEEK (unless you notify parents ahead of time). Put all the important papers in that folder and send it home. The expectation is for the folder to come back (with certain signed papers, with a signature on a tracking sheet or whatever your system is). In order for this to work, it’s helpful to teach your class about boomerangs at the start of the year. The best thing is for each kid to have a chance throwing a boomerang. This has been successful in my third grade and second grade classrooms, so I hope it helps you too!
Remember, right click the image below. Choose “save image as” and save it to your computer. Then you can choose the size to print it and glue (or laminate) it to the front of your take-home folders.
At the end of the year, it’s tempting to do activities that just fill time. Great teachers still use end-of-the year activities as a chance to teach thinking skills (like self-evaluating) and academic skills (like writing). This simple activity does both. (This form can also be used as an assignment to complete at home with the family as a review for a calendar year rather than an academic year).
Click here for the printable PDFs:
Year in Review form – blue paint splatter Year in Review form- Boys 1
Year in Review form- Girls 1 Year in Review form- kids 1
Squarehead Teachers 