This post contains my favorite end of the school year craftivities and bulletin board displays that I have used over the years.
I love doing creative writing craftivities that help students reflect on the school year and then showcasing their work with pride in our classroom or hallway with a cute display! Parents, teachers, & students all enjoy reading about our favorite memories or seeing how much we have learned this year. The displays also make perfect decorations for our graduation ceremony and end of the school year celebration.
If you are interested in using any of these end of the year displays in your classroom and want to save time creating them, the patterns, printables, detailed instructions, & bulletin board titles/letters are available in a money-saving bundle pack here OR individually by theme: Spring, Beach, Graduation.
Digital versions and printable pages that do not require a craft have been added for distance learning purposes. CLICK HERE to see how these cute writing prompts have been adapted for digital learning.
This Year was “TOAD”-ally Cool! & “Un-FROG-ettable” Memories Frog Craftivity and Bulletin Board
I must admit that this is one of my favorites! We usually do a frog unit towards the end of the year so it fits in perfectly with our theme!
To make the frogs, I first fold paper plates in half and have each student paint the top green and the inside pink.
Then while the plates are drying, students cut out their frog’s legs, arms, eyes, and tongue and draw/write about their favorite memory from the school year on their “My Favorite Memory” lily pads. I let students choose whether they write directly on the lily pad or write/draw on a frame that they glue to their lily pad.
When the plates are dry, they glue their frogs together.
They look so cute on display in our classroom! Here is another title you can use:
We Had an “Un-BEE-lievable” Year! Bee Craftivity & Class Display
This cute, bee-themed bulletin board / classroom display will get your students “buzzing” about their favorite memories and accomplishments of the school year.
Prior to making our bees I wrote “I liked” across the top of an anchor chart and “I learned” across the top of another anchor chart. We discussed favorite memories from the school year and I wrote them under the “I liked” heading. We also discussed some things that the students were proud of learning and I wrote them under the “I learned” heading. I gave the students the choice of which heading to use on their bees or they could use both or make two bees.
Students cut out the bee body and color the stripes black starting with the first stripe at the top.
I gave students two different options for wings, white construction paper or wax paper that resembled the transparent appearance of bee’s wings. They cut out the wings of their choice along with antennas and a stinger and attached them to their bee bodies.
Then students referred to the anchor charts and wrote what they liked or learned this school year in the yellow lines of the bee body and drew a face for their bee on the top.
This Year Flew By! Kites Writing Craftivity & Bulletin Board
Students will be flying high after they reflect on all that they learned during the year!
There are 2 different ways that students can make their kites – they can write and/or draw what they learned on the kite itself OR they can write individual things that they learned on each kite tail.
This Year Has Been Buckets of Fun! Sand Bucket Craftivity & Bulletin Board
I use this display when our end of the year, graduation theme is the beach.
Each student makes a sand bucket and shovel. Students can choose whether to write their names on the their shovels or on their buckets. I provide a number of different art supplies from which students can choose to decorate their buckets (glitter, paint, crayons, markers, dot painters, etc.). I also bring in sand and allow students to glue sand in the top of their buckets.
They write and draw about a fun activity or event from the school year and then glue their handle and shovel to their buckets.
We Had a Ball This Year! Beach Ball Craftivity & Classroom Display
This is another personal favorite of mine not only because I love how they turn out but now we create them digitally using Pic Kids (Pic Collage)!
Students first used the Clip tool to crop their pictures to a circle shape and then placed them in the center of the beach ball (a pattern that I provided and the students set as the background).
Then students used the text feature and either pictures from the school year stored on the camera roll, stickers, or web search pictures to complete each writing prompt on the beach balls.
To save ink, you can use a black and white beach ball pattern, print them, and then have students color in each section or use a colored pattern and print the full-color versions.
If you don’t want to have students create the beach balls digitally, they can complete them by hand as well.
“Sea” What We Have Learned! Fish Craft & Bulletin Board
For this end of the year display I combined a favorite fish craft with a writing prompt.
To make their fish, students first painted a paper plate. While their plates were drying, they cut out their bubbles and wrote “I learned to” in the first bubble and then what they learned in the other two.
The next day, students cut a v-shape for the mouth and then glued the cut out piece to the other end for the fish tail. They then glued cut up cupcake liners to their fish as fins.
This Year Has Been a Real Treat! Dog Craftivity & End of the Year Bulletin Board
As a dog lover, of course I had to do a dog themed end of the year display to match my room theme!
This craft was simple to do and turned out so adorable! Students simply wrote something they liked about the school year on the dog bone and then colored and cut out their dogs.
Smart Cookies Craft & End of the Year Bulletin Board
This end of the school year display turned out yummy LOL! I had students glue icing on a cookie pattern that was entitled “I’m a smart cookie!”. Then they glued their pictures in the center and wrote things that they can do now that they could not do at the beginning of the year. Afterwards, they had the choice of adding construction paper sprinkles, dot painter dots, or fingerprint dot decorations to their cookies.
Grinning Graduates Graduation Craft & Bulletin Board
I have been doing this graduation bulletin board for many, many years and it is always a parent favorite!
Students color a face to resemble their own and glue a graduation hat to it. I have done the hat tassels 2 different ways – a paper cut out and a simple yarn tassel that is poked through a small hole in the hat and taped to the back.
Students then write and/or draw a favorite memory from the school year on their certificates, cut them out along with hands, and attach them to their face.
If you would like the patterns, printables, detailed instructions with pictures, and bulletin board titles/letters for each of the end of the year bulletin boards shown above they are available in a money-saving bundle pack. Click here for details.
You can also purchase them individually according to theme.
End of the Year Bulletin Board & Craftivities Kit – Spring Theme (Frogs, Bees, Kites)
End of the Year Bulletin Board & Craftivities Kit – Beach Theme 3 Ideas
End of the Year, Graduation Bulletin Board & Craftivities Kit – 3 Ideas
