End of the Year Music Activities

End of the year Music Activities

Right after spring, I get out my big collection of end of the year music activities and start planning some exciting summer songs and games for the end of the year. As my students leave the building for the summer, I love sending them on their way with a catchy and exciting tune in their head. This can be the trickiest time of the year for maintaining classroom management in the elementary music room. So, I like to mix high energy review games and movement activities with opportunities to play instruments and sing.

After the hectic and difficult year that I’ve had, I was so thankful to have my summer songs already put together in one binder. You’re probably feeling the same strain this year too. Read on in this post if you want to save time and discover some kid tested and approved activities for the last week of school.

Boomwhacker Music Activities

If you have a few sets of boomwhackers in your classroom, then I have found that these make for fantastic fun towards the end of the year. With boomwhackers, there is not much planning to do, other than teaching students how to play them the correct way and to select a piece to learn.

On YouTube, you can find a wealth of great play along videos specifically for boomwhackers. When looking for a song to practice, consider your students’ reading level, length of class, and available boomwhacker notes. Also, you will find that many videos show the melody for students to play while others show the chords.  

If you’re interested in some of my favorites, check out my playlist on YouTube, Boomwhacker Play Along Videos.

Playing Instruments

Towards the end of the year, I love using instruments as much as I can with my students. They just love playing them, and I want to send them on their summer break with a great feeling.

With Pre-K and Kindergarten students, I often use cumulative songs where each student plays their assigned classroom instrument only on their specific phrase, animal, action, etc.

Here are a few of my favorite (and my students’ favorites) cumulative songs for the end of the year:

1. Mister Sun
2. My Aunt Came Back
3. The Green Grass Grows All Around
4. Over in the Meadow
5. We All Go Traveling By
6. Had a Little Rooster
7. Bought Me a Cat
8. She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain

With older students, I love adding rhythmic instruments to kid-friendly pop songs. I know these have been around for awhile, but my favorites are still “Happy” and “Fight Song,” among others. I have students read the rhythms (ostinati) for their instrument and part of the song. My students just love these!

Sometimes, we just play the rhythm shown in play-along videos for a pop song. Here is a collection of videos that you use in my classroom.

Dance Party for the End of the Year

Next, I simply must add in some dancing! During May and June, I find dance and movement activities to be the perfect activity to add into each music lesson. Certainly, students are full of energy and excitement, especially at the time of the year, and they need that time to move. (Their classroom teachers will thank you later.)

Earlier in the year, I taught my younger students about the different dance terms that I will be using throughout the year.

Types of Dances:

1. Free-style dance (whatever kids want to do safely)
2. Guided dance (following motions of teacher or from a video)
3. Folk dance (learning a preset dance routine)

Dance Terms

1. Dance in your place/Non-locomotor
2. Dance around your space/Locomotor
3. Find a friend
4. Longways set
5. Circle
6. Double circle
7. Scattered

My students are ready for all types of dances now. And I do use a little bit of each kind for some end of the year music fun. Sometimes, I choose to use a dance party as an incentive for classes who earned it during the last quarter. Performing dance moves like this can also help young students recognize musical elements, like dynamics, form, tempo, and lots more. 

One dance resource that I have used for many years are the collections from New England Dance Masters. Their books are fantastic, and I highly recommend them. They have a great variety of difficulty levels for all grades.

Cup Music Activities

Before Covid, I never really used cup games in my elementary music room. But ever since I started, they have been such a big hit that my students get so excited when I pull them back out at the end of the year.

There are so many different things you can do with cups. For example, using cups in the music room can be a fun break. Also, you could prepare a composer activity or even a mini performance all with cups. I try to create very simple motions for Kindergarten and 1st graders, and then add slight variations for the older students. If you have 4th graders or higher, you can even have them make up their own cup routine to their favorite piece of music. 

You can check out my cup game video collection below.

I hope you were able to find some new ideas to use in planning your end of the year music activities. I’d love to hear what you tried and how it went. Send me an e-mail at beth@bethsmusicclassroom.com or message me on Instagram @bethsmusicclassroom.

Want to find more videos and playlists for elementary music teachers? Follow me on YouTube.

Here’s another post that may interest you! Click here to read about another great song and activity for the end of the year!

End of the Year Music Activities