End of the Year Activity and Gift
Will I make it to the end of the year? 🥺
You’re probably asking yourself this same question. The end of the year is hard for both teachers and students. In the last week alone, my son underwent surgery to get one of his ear tubes pulled out. We had six total hockey practices plus 3 games. 3 soccer practices and one game. A fourth grade music performance, I needed a mammogram, an after school district meeting, and a hair appointment. This is just what is happening outside of school hours and does not take into account the planning, grading, assessing, end of your tests, parent emails, program changes oh, and perhaps the most exhausting...playground disagreements Every.Single.Day. It seems I can never begin math on time because I have to help students through another dilemma!
To make my life easier and more streamlined I have created a student activity, the name compliment plate, that doubles as the gift/keepsake for the year. The beauty of this idea is that the students create it! There is absolutely no after school hours needed. I have used this project with second, third, and fourth graders successfully. As soon as the students have finished recording compliments for their peers, they then return to their plate and begin reading intently. Many want to share the compliments aloud while others read silently with a small smile on their face. I even had a fourth grader begin to tear up because he was so surprised that his classmates felt so positively about him.
Follow the following steps to recreate this simple end of the year gift for your students:
Give each child a piece of paper. It can be any color just make sure you can easily see the marker or the writing utensil you will use on it.
Instruct the students to write their own name in the middle, they can use fancy lettering if they would like.
Students will then leave their paper at their seat.
Students will rotate around the room and record detailed compliments on each of their classmates’ papers.
It is important to explain to the students that each compliment needs to be specific to the child. I give a couple of examples such as, “I like the way you lended me your eraser when I didn’t have one.” Or, “You are kind to everyone, even if the person is not your closest friend.” I then allow the students to give examples. As they share examples, I listen to make sure the compliments are detailed.
After that we have a discussion about how it would feel to have a silly or mean message on our papers. The students share how they would feel. I also chime in with how it would make me feel if I had a mean message (I also have a paper out with my name on it). In all of the years I have completed this activity I have never had an issue with inappropriate messages. As the students are leaving compliments for one another I also rotate around the room. I leave compliments AND read messages so I can address any problems that might arise.
Students can move from one compliment plate to another at their own place. For example, one student may record 3 different compliments in the time it takes someone else to record one compliment. This does mean that some students will not get to all papers and I am okay with that. To make sure each paper has many compliments I monitor as I am moving around the room. If I notice a paper that is not getting much activity I encourage a child to move to it.
Once the name compliment plates are full I instruct the students to return to their own. This is when I see smiles spread across students' faces. Some children want to share what was written while others like to treasure the comments by themselves. All students are head over heels excited to take their end of the year gift home!
This easy yet meaningful project is a win-win in my book!
I hope you find this activity creates connection and full hearts before break. If you want to learn more about how I use growth mindset in the classroom room checkout this post.
