The end of the school year is always such a crazy busy time. While balancing all the end-of-the-year chaos, there are still tons of ways for kids to celebrate the start of summer break.
These ideas can work for kids of all ages from preschoolers to kindergarteners to even middle schoolers. Honestly, I’m pretty sure even high schoolers will still enjoy an ice cream treat on the last day of school.
Hopefully one of these fun ways to Celebrate the Last Day of School will work for your family. Keep reading for lots of activities to make the end of the school year a special time!
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Fun Ways for Kids to Celebrate the Last Day of School
Even though all the field trips, play days, award ceremonies, graduations, and paper piles have you exhausted to the point of tears, you want to make the last day of school special for your kids.
If you’re running short on energy & time then you need the last day of school activities that are easy to pull off. It doesn’t hurt if they are easy on the checkbook too. Especially with all the craziness going on in the world right now.
Keep scrolling to see all of our favorite ideas and activities to make the last days of school special for your kids. Hopefully one or two will work perfectly for your family.
The Big List of Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year
There are so many fun ways to celebrate another school year ending. This list was created by a tired Mama who barely survived “Maycember” so most of these activities are simple, but yet your kids will still love them.
We do several of the activities listed below each year, and they have almost turned into the Last Day of School Traditions in our home. To the point, if we don’t do them, my boys seem to notice and request them.
So pick a fun activity below and start creating memories and maybe even a new family tradition along the way!
MAKE A SUMMER BUCKET LIST
This is one of our family traditions that we do every year on the last day of school.
We brainstorm fun (and doable) ideas that we want to do for the summer. Then we pick our first one off that list, which typically involves ice cream, and do it that evening.
If you want a free summer bucket list, with a fun watermelon theme, click here to see our latest printable. It’s blank so you can fill in the bucket list items that work best for your family.
TAKE A LAST DAY OF SCHOOL PORTRAIT
Another fun way to celebrate the Last Day of School is to take a picture using a fun Last Day of School sign! We have a free printable Last Day of School Sign for grades preschoolers through seniors that would work perfectly.
It is one of my favorite things to look at the differences in my boys between the start of the school year and the end. They seem to grow so much in that short time.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL SELF-PORTRAIT PRINTABLE
Admittedly, drawings are incredibly hard for me to throw away. Not the coloring book pages, those disappear magically with ease.
But the drawings that my kids creatively do are some of my favorite keepsakes. That’s how this Last Day of School Self Portrait Activity became a tradition in our family. It’s a fun activity for the kids and a great souvenir to hold onto as well.
CELEBRATE THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL WITH AN ICE CREAM CELEBRATION
Do you have a favorite ice cream shop? Today is the day to start summer off right and go enjoy its sugary goodness.
Or if you want to skip the expensive ice cream places, head to your local grocery store and go crazy in the ice cream aisle. Or go for vanilla and serve up all kinds of crazy toppings!
It’s actually about the same price, if not cheaper to buy whole containers of ice cream. Plus, you’ll have ice cream treats for several summer days, not just the last day of school.
WATER BALLOON ATTACK
Nothing says “Welcome to Summe”r more than a water balloon attack!
If your kids come home on the bus, have the balloons ready and begin the surprise attack as they make their way home.
If you pick your kids up, you could still have the balloons prepared and let the fun begin when you get home.
FILL OUT A LAST-DAY-OF-SCHOOL INTERVIEW PRINTABLE
There are tons of these floating around Pinterest. Find one that you love, there are a few on our School Pinterest Board, and print it out!
If you don’t have a way to keep your child’s important school papers, certificates, and artwork organized, think about simply placing them in their yearbook.
You could tape it to an empty page, or slip in a sheet protector & store it that way. The same goes for the Last Day of School self-portrait!
CELEBRATE THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL IN THE WATER
The end of the school year here in the Midwest means hotter days and fun in the sun! There’s no better way to start celebrating that than to enjoy some water time.
Head to a local lake, beach, or pool to start your summer with a splash, or make your own fun in the water at home. You could set up the sprinkler, do water balloons, water gun fights, or even use a small blow-up pool to get your summer started right.
GO ON AN OUTSIDE ADVENTURE
If the weather isn’t warm enough for water fun, pick another outside activity to entertain your kids. You could go for a hike at a local State Park or take a bike ride down a trail.
If bikes aren’t your thing, do a “park hop” around town. This simply means you visit as many of the parks as you can until you run out of daylight or energy.
Pack up a special snack or picnic for supper before heading out to your favorite spot.
GO ON A DOLLAR STORE SHOPPING SPREE
Want to kill two birds with one stone? Take your kids on a frugal trip to the Dollar Store to stock up on summer supplies.
You can find everything from chalk, bubbles, pool toys, and bug catchers to name a few in their summer section.
Also, it’s a great time to stock up on fun inside activities for those super hot or really rainy summer days. Check out their coloring and activity books, puzzles, and craft supplies.
We always buy a ton of large poster board when we are there too. It would be perfect to use for making a BIG bucket list as we mentioned above!
INVITE FRIENDS OVER FOR THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FUN
If you are daring -wink- you can let your kids invite friends over to help you celebrate the last day of school.
If you don’t want to leave the house, make it a fun movie and popcorn night; a backyard campout; or just let the kids pick what they want to do. Sometimes their ideas are the best!
HIT UP ONE OF YOUR CHILD’S FAVORITE PLACES
You have a lot of summer days and nights to keep your kids entertained, but there are always those few places that your kids are willing to go to unlimited times.
For us, it’s playing Putt-Putt! We could play it every day and they would never turn down the chance to go.
Other ideas could be water parks, arcades, fun gaming restaurants, trampoline parks, splash pads, conservation areas, and more!
PLAN A SPECIAL FAMILY DINNER
There are so many ways you can make the Last Day of School Dinner something that your kids won’t want to miss.
You could have the family make dinner together. Recipes like homemade pizza and taco bars are two of our favorite family dinners we all work on together.
Another way to make it special is to eat somewhere you normally wouldn’t. You could have a picnic in the backyard, or eat on blankets in the living room while watching a movie.
Hopefully, you have found some fun ideas to make the last day of school fun for your kiddos! Let me know in the comments below if you have something special you do for your child. I’d love to add it to the post and share it with others.
4 Comments
What a fun list of suggestions to make the last day even better! I wish I would have read this last week, haha! I will definitely be saving it for next year!
So glad you like the ideas! We’ve done several of them over the years and they are all a hit with the kiddos!
Thanks for sharing these ideas! I like the summer bucket list. It gives everyone an exciting feeling to look forward to what they will be doing during the break.
The summer bucket list is my favorite too!