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Summer is near and we are now ending the school year! Ending the school year can be a little bittersweet since it is also time where us teachers say goodbye to our students. During this time, I love doing meaningful end of year activities with the students to allow them to reflect back on the school year and look forward to their amazing futures. My favorite thing to do is using end of year read aloud books and pairing them with activities that will allow them to reflect, think, use their voices and look forward to next school year.
I love to start out my week of end of year read alouds with I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
What is this end of year read aloud book about?
This little picture book has such a sweet message that makes it perfect for the end of year read aloud.
At the end of the school year, students often struggle with knowing how to say goodbye. Even us, teachers, have a hard time with it.
The future of next year is uncertain, especially for kids.
Will they be in the same class? Will another kid move away during the summer? Will they still stay friends with their classmates?
So, instead of saying goodbye and focusing on the uncertainties, why don’t we talk about wishing each other well for the future. I Wish You More read aloud talks about wishing someone more good than bad in a metaphorical way. This end of year read aloud also doubles as a quick figurative language review!
Which teacher doesn’t love that?
In my fourth grade classroom, I started out my last week of school activities with this read aloud.
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I Wish You More Read Aloud Lesson Plan for End of Year:
Objective:
To suggest another way to say farewell at the end of the school by wishing another person well.
Pre-Reading
Before we started the read aloud, I did a quick figurative language review with my 4th graders. We just talked about what it meant and they gave some examples.
Then I moved on to using my favorite discussion strategy, Turn and Talk! I asked the questions below and allowed the students to talk!
Questions for Turn and Talk:
- Why do we say farewell?
- How do we write a farewell letter?
During Reading
I stopped after a few pages and using Turn and Talk again, asked the students the questions below:
- What is the purpose of the wishes? What do they mean?
- Why did the author use figurative language for the wishes?
We even had some students make connections with how people usually gave wishes during Christmas or in special holiday cards.
Post Reading
After reading, we discussed how we could use wishes to say farewell to one another.
We created an anchor chart, brainstorming things/words that represent something “Positive” and “Negative.”
With the anchor chart, the students were able to generate multiple “I wish you more” statements.
Then, it was time for the final activity.
End of Year Read Aloud Activity:
Every year, I collected all the letters that the students wrote to each other and created a booklet for each student.
So, after the I Wish You More read aloud lesson, students were able to write letters to each other adding the “I wish you more” statements.
Farewell letters are not just limited to the students! You can also add this to your End of Year student gift bags. Grab a free copy of the letter template at my TPT store here.
Check out my posts on DIY End-Of-Year Scratch-Off Cards and DIY Student Word Art Self-Portrait for more student gifts ideas.
Need to save this for later?
Pin this Blog Post or the In A Jar Read Aloud Lesson Plan for later use!
Need more last week of school ideas? Check out my other end of year read alouds below:
- End of Year Read Aloud: Book #2 – Say Something
- End of Year Read Aloud: Book #3 – In A Jar
- End of Year Read Aloud: Book #4 – The Invisible Web
- End of Year Read Aloud: Book #5 – Wherever You Go
I hope that you have found this helpful and what are some fun end of year read alouds that you love?
I Wish You More Read Aloud Lesson Plan:
Thank you for reading! Follow me for more teaching ideas 🙂
Grab a free copy of the card templates at my TPT store here:
What are some of your favorite read alouds at the end of the school year?
Prima from LittleYellowStar
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