The end is in sight! We are nearly there!

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I think teachers and parents should start a movement to rename the month of May to “May-hem.” It’s such a busy few weeks as we wrap up testing, celebrate graduations and advancements, have awards ceremonies, spirit weeks, field trips, and more!

To take some of the pressure off (of me) during this chaotic busy time, I like to assign my students a large project that will keep them occupied learning and engaged for a few weeks, if possible.

It’s a great time of year for students to showcase all the reading, writing, researching, speaking/listening skills they’ve been learning and practicing throughout the school year.

Here is a list of some of my favorite projects to assign during the month of May(hem).

End-of-Year Projects and Activities for Middle School Language Arts

End-of-Year Poetry Writing Portfolio

Usually, by this point in the school year, my students have a pretty solid understanding of how to read and analyze poetry (click here for my favorite way to teach all things poetry), but the end of the year is a great time to practice writing poetry.

Students can write original poems or, for those who are less inclined to be creative in that way, they can imitate famous poems. This is a great way to get reluctant poets cranking out verses! Simply choose a poem that students are familiar with and ask them to write their version.

It’s fun to see students writing their imitations of Shakespearean sonnets or even Shel Silverstein favorites.

They can do one for each of the poems you’ve studied as a class this year!

Greek Mythology – End-of-School Unit

For most middle school students, Greek Mythology is always a hit–and for good reason! The stories and myths about the ancient gods and goddesses and heroes are so fascinating to study!

Here are my top three Greek Mythology Units:

​Introduction to Greek Mythology ​

​The Hero’s Journey​

​Intro to God and Goddesses of Olympus​

​End-of-Year Animal Research Project (One of my Favorites!)

I love this one! For this project, students practice their inquiry and research skills to learn all about an animal of their choosing. After they have written an information piece of their findings, they can put that new knowledge into their very own children’s picture book.

Patterned after the Diary of a ___ series by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss, this is such a fun way for students to incorporate their research into a creative project.

I have the entire process prepped and ready so that all students can create a great final project which you can find here!

Author Study

Similarly, students can pick a favorite author, research their life and writings and put together a paper, presentation, and more to share their findings with the class.

https://mrsnelsonteaches.com/2024/07/10/writing-paragraphs-middle-school/https://www.brennanelsoncoaching.com/blog

Book Trailers

Students LOVE this one! Using their multimedia skills, students will create a “trailer” for their favorite book from this year–something that would entice future middle schoolers to read that book!

As a bonus, ask students to present their trailers to the class; other students may be enticed to try out new books! Win-win!

Character on Trial – End-of-Year Fun!

Transform your classroom into a courtroom by putting a character from a class novel or short story on trial. Was he guilty? Was she justified in her behavior? Assign roles for each student: judge, jurors, prosecutors, defense, etc.

If you get into it yourself, your students will buy in as well and this can be a really fun and memorable way to work on persuasive writing/speaking.

​Literary Analysis​

Engage your students’ critical thinking skills as you ask them to analyze a book that they have read on their own this year. Students can critique the novel and create some type of visual to share their analysis with the class–this could be done digitally or on paper.

Here’s an easy way to engage students in literary analysis!

Podcast Episode

Students can write and record their own podcast episode! The sky is the limit when it comes to possibilities for this one: they could do more literary analysis, interview a “character” from a story, explore the theme of a story, etc.

Your students will love the challenge of creating an original podcast!

Shameless Plug: Speaking of podcasts…have you checked out mine? Tune in to The Next Level Teacher podcast each week for practical tips and tools to stay mentally and emotionally well throughout the school year! Yes, even during May-hem!

Persuasive Writing – End-of-Year Project

By the end of the year, middle school students have a lot of opinions! Let’s capitalize on that with some persuasive writing. Topics for this are endless as well. They could write about an issue important to them. They could compose a letter to the principal or school board advocating for change. They could argue about what the best toilet paper is (I’ve surprisingly received at least a dozen of these–unprompted!)

End-of-Year Project Rationale

The key to each of these activities is that students have a large amount of work to produce which will take them some time, but doesn’t require a lot of direc instruction once you get them going. Of course they will still need help, but this allows you a little more wiggle room as you start wrapping up the year as you are not constantly planning lessons and scrambling to make copies before each class!

Do yourself a favor and assign a project!

Until next time,

Brenna (Mrs. Nelson)

P.S. Check out this week’s podcast episode: Teacher Appreciation. I sure do love all my teacher friends! Thanks for all you do!