Dear Teacher,
Throughout the year, you’ve worked tirelessly to create a positive environment where learners feel supported and valued. Through carefully designed activities, you’ve helped your students grow both academically and personally. By encouraging collaboration and responsibility through these daily activities, you’ve inspired your students to become thoughtful, engaged, and compassionate members of their community.
As the academic year draws to a close, it’s a wonderful time to pause and share a moment of appreciation and gratitude. Gratitude is about recognising and valuing the positive aspects of life. In doing so, we often come to see that much of the goodness we experience comes from beyond ourselves. This realisation can deepen our sense of connection to something greater than our individual experiences.
Feeling grateful and appreciative leads to positive emotions, which play a vital role in enhancing overall well-being. Gratitude is one of several key factors that support both mental and emotional health. When we express gratitude, our brains release dopamine and serotonin, neurochemicals associated with happiness and contentment.
Celebrate the journey and nurture a positive mindset among your learners. Here are three fun and meaningful activities to help your students reflect on the year.
1. Gratitude Chains
For this activity, you’ll need colored paper and pencils. Cut the paper into strips that can be folded into circles and linked together to form a chain. Ask your learners to write on each strip something they are grateful for as they reflect on the past year. These could include their favourite moments, classmates or others who supported them, lessons they’ve learned, or anything else they’d like to acknowledge.
Once everyone has written their messages, students work in groups to link their strips into chains. These gratitude chains can then be displayed around the classroom as a colorful and meaningful ornament— a visual celebration of the year’s shared experiences and growth.
2. What stuck with you?
In pairs or small groups, students create a poster that captures their most memorable moments and key learning experiences from the year. This reflective activity encourages creativity and meaningful conversation.
To guide their poster design, students can respond to prompts such as:
- What was your favorite mistake, and what did you learn from it?
- What made you laugh the most this year?
- What moment really made you think?
- Who did you help this year?
- Who helped you learn something new?
Once completed, display the posters around the classroom to create a “Memory Gallery.” Students can walk around, view each other’s work, and engage in conversations by asking and answering questions about the memories shared.
For a digital activity twist, you can also use an online collaborative tool like Padlet Sandbox, where students can post their reflections using different media, such as AI image creator, gifs, posts, videos etc., and interact with each other’s contributions virtually.
3. End-of-Year Playlist
Music is a universal language that resonates with almost everyone—and most of us have that one song or playlist we’ve played on repeat. Why not bring that love for music into the classroom?
Invite each student to contribute their favorite song from the year to a shared classroom playlist. You can create a physical display on a classroom wall where students post their song choices or use a digital platform like Padlet wall to collect and share their selections online. Once everyone has contributed, compile the songs into a real playlist on a music streaming platform and share it with the class.
Depending on your goals, you might focus on songs in English to support language learning or celebrate cultural diversity by encouraging students to share music in different languages. This activity not only highlights individual tastes but also strengthens the sense of community and belonging within the classroom.
How have you been celebrating the end of the year? We’d love to hear—share in the comments!
Aysu Şimşek is a passionate advocate for continuing professional development in English Language Teaching. In her role at Oxford University Press, she supports educators across Türkiye, Central Asia, and North Africa. As both an Oxford Teachers Academy tutor and a certified workplace coach, she contributes to the growth of teachers and colleagues alike through structured training and career development support. She also enjoys sharing ELT tips and has co-authored articles for Modern English Teacher magazine, TEA Online Magazine, and has written articles for the OUP ELT Blog.
