End-of-Year Activity for Grades 6-8: Advice Column Scavenger Hunt

What better way to welcome new students in your class next year than to share advice from your current students?   

The end of the school year is the perfect time for students to reflect on the learning and growth that has taken place over the year; and to think back on all of the fun memories that you have created as a class. 

Provide students with a list of sentence starters to help them reflect on the year.  Examples include:

• 6^th grade is better than 5^th grade because…
• You will love when…
• My best advice is that you…
• My favorite academic subject was… because…
• The best part of 6^th grade was…

Using the VariQuest software, print a poster-size copy of the End of Year Reflections poster for each student.  Customize each poster by uploading each student’s picture to the template.    

Click the image of the poster to download this sample 6th grade advice column poster template as a PDF, or click here for a word document you can edit to suit your grade level! 

Have students edit each other’s reflections, then fill in the blanks on their poster.

Before the school year begins next year, display the posters students created throughout your classroom or in the hallway.  On one of the first days of school next year, have your incoming class conduct a scavenger hunt. Have them read the advice from last year’s students and look for specific answers (ex. Find a student whose best part of 6^th grade was when Isaac fell in the stream during the canoe unit for gym class).  This is a great way to welcome students in your classroom and allow them to get to know a little bit more about what to expect for the school year.  

Julia Cremin is a 6th grade Reading, Language Arts and Math teacher at O'Keeffe Middle School in Madison, WI. She is certified in Elementary Education (grades 1-9) with a minor in Mathematics. This is her third year teaching middle school.