An end of year countdown is a fun way to keep students engaged and on track during those last few crazy weeks of school! Today, I’m sharing a fun countdown to summer activity that your students will absolutely love and will have them on their best behavior!!!
This is a whole-class behavior incentive idea. Your students will work together as a group to earn the prizes inside of the cups! This project is similar to my Countdown to Christmas activity.
Create the Punchboard
This project starts with creating a fun summer themed punchboard! Each cup on the board will have a piece of paper inside telling the students the treat they have earned.
You’ll want to prepare the punchboard ahead of time. You’ll need a few basic supplies such as disposable cups, a piece of foamboard, tissue paper, rubber bands, hot glue, and the printable pieces.
End of Year Countdown Idea: Ice Cream Party
One option is to plan an ice-cream party for your class! Each cup will have one supply or topping inside for students to earn. They will start by earning their bowl and spoon, then ice cream, and then fun topping such as chocolate syrup, cookie pieces, candy, and whipped cream. The more cups they get to open, the more topping options they’ll have on the day of the ice cream party.
End of Year Countdown Idea: Daily Rewards
Another option is to have smaller daily rewards inside of each cup. Each time students earn the prize inside the cup; they’ll get to participate in that activity that day (or maybe the next day)! Prizes include activities such as sidewalk chalk, popsicles, extra recess, lunch in the classroom, a movie, just to name a few.
Don’t want to use a certain reward? No problem, you’ll also have access to an editable version, where you can add your own rewards!
How Students Earn the Rewards
Now, for the best part! This is where we can really encourage positive behaviors for those last crazy weeks of school! You start by giving each students a coloring sheet of one of the summer icons. And, you have slips of paper with coloring directions for that icon.
Each time your whole class displays excellent behaviors you read one of the coloring clues to them. Students color the matching part on their page. Most of the icons have about 7 coloring clues for your class to earn, perfect for positive reinforcement throughout the entire day!
Once students have colored the entire picture, it’s time to open the punchboard and reveal the prize! Each prize should take about 1 day to earn, but you might want to factor in an extra day or two, in case they need more time to earn some of the prizes. Once students earn one reward, celebrate! Then, you would give them the next coloring picture to begin working on the next prize!
There are 12 cups/prizes total, so you would want to have at least 2 1/2 to 3 weeks planned for students to be able to earn most or all of the rewards.
Learn more about the End of Year Countdown in my TPT store.
