End of the Year Speech & Language Therapy Activities

Is anyone else checked out at this time of the year?! Let’s be real, we are just as checked out as our students. We are always on the hunt for some quick, easy, no-prep activities to get us through to the end of the year, while also continuing to target our students’ goals. It’s so important to engage not only our students, but ourselves as we count down the days until summer. Check out a few of our favorite end of the year activities:

END OF THE YEAR CONVERSATION STARTERS

Our students love when we tell them they don’t have to take out their laptops or folders. To them, that means no work, but to us, that means time to work on some oral language skills. Oral language is the foundation for many other skills, including writing. End of the year conversation starters get your students talking and reflecting on their past year. You can even turn conversation starters into a writing assignment and have them write down their responses.

Some of our favorite questions to ask our students are:

What advice would you give to someone who will be new to your school in September?
Who helped you the most in school this year? (We love when they say it was their speech and language teacher!)
If you could change one thing about this school, what would it be?
Would you want to skip a year of high school to graduate early? Why or why not?

CREATIVE WRITING

You can do so much with a picture. Give the students a picture representing an end of the year scene and have them write about it – so easy! Use your own pictures, or have them find a picture they would like to write about. We love using these writing strategies (listed below), and don’t forget to give them a graphic organizer to help them plan out what they want to write.

5 Senses: Have students take the perspective of a person in the photo. Use inferencing skills and the five senses to describe the picture or scene that the person is in.
Unfreeze the Scene: Press play and let the picture come to life. Infer what happened right before the picture was taken, as well as a prediction about what will happen next based off of the clues in the picture.
Plot Diagram: Create a story based on the picture. Make sure to add all parts of a plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

SELF REFLECTION

Give students the opportunity to reflect on their speech and language sessions this past school year. Use the feedback to help you plan goals and activities for the following school year. Some ideas to get you started:

What is something the provider did for you this year that you really liked?
What is something the teacher could have done differently to make this year better?

SUMMER BUCKET LIST

Whenever students come back from any break and we ask them what they did, they always respond “sleep.” Really!? You slept the entire break?! Have them create a summer bucket list including things they want to experience or achieve this summer. In September, they will hopefully be able to check some items off their bucket list.

THANK A TEACHER

We love how meaningful this activity is. Have your students choose a favorite teacher and write a handwritten note or email thanking them for all they have done. Provide your students with guiding questions to help them express their thoughts and ideas clearly. As a teacher, there is nothing better than receiving a thank you note from a student!

FAVORITE PHOTO

These days, we take pictures of everything! Have students look through their phone and choose their favorite photo from this past year. Challenge them to create a caption that explains the photo and why it is special to them. They can even add fun #hashtags to go along with their favorite photo.

REFLECTIONS FROM A-Z

This is a fun activity for students to work on as a group or individually. Have students come up with one word or a phrase that starts with each letter of the alphabet. The words or phrases should include reflections, memories, a teacher’s name, or something they learned this past year. Challenge your students to complete all 26 letters.

SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR NEW STUDENTS

Have students write advice or tips to share with incoming students. Create a book filled with advice for new students. Our students wish they had this advice when they first started school, wouldn’t you? Some questions to think about:

What do you wish you knew when you started this school year?
What helped you get through the school year?
What did it take to pass a class?
How did you get involved in the school community?

DIGITAL YEARBOOK

We had so much fun creating these activities as we looked back on our own yearbooks! Students love looking at our yearbook pictures from “back in the day.” This is a fun activity to complete with your speech and language group to reflect on their year in school, no matter what year they are in. Just because your students might not be seniors in high school, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a yearbook!

Our students’ favorite activities from this resource include:

Now & Then: Students will write important/memorable events that happened in the world this year and events that occurred the year they were born.
That was Lit: Students will write down their favorites so they can remember what the year was like.
Superlatives: We created our own version of superlatives. Students can choose a superlative they think they would receive and explain why they deserve the award. They can even add a selfie.

HI-LITER GIFT TAG

Who doesn’t love an end of the year gift? Give them something they can use and remember you by. Purchase a box of highlighters and attach a note that says, “You’ve been the HI-LITE of my year! Have a BRIGHT summer!” Click for our FREE hi-liter tag!

These activities are sure to keep not only the students engaged, but you as well! Leave a comment and let us know what you do at the end of the year with your students to keep them coming till the end.