The year is drawing to a close. It’s been a good experience for you and for the children. How can you wrap up the year with a feeling of accomplishment and pride and impart those same feelings to the children? We believe that children need the opportunity to experience “closure” to their year of learning. The experience and activities of closure can provide children with:

• A sense of accomplishment
  
  
• An affirmation of strong community involvement and bonding – a sense of belonging to a group
  
  
• An affirmation of their significance within their group
  
  
• An opportunity to reflect upon and affirm their own learning process – “knowing” themselves as learners
  
  
• A sense of progress from the beginning of the year
  
  
• A recognition of what was easy and what was difficult; what was enjoyable and what was not enjoyable
  
  
• A satisfaction and an appreciation for the experience of working hard at learning something. Hard work can be a positive experience
  
  
• An overall sense of pride in oneself, one’s class and one’s school
  
  
• A recognition of the fun and excitement in learning
  
  
• An opportunity to feel ownership of their individual and group learning – empowerment
  
  
• An opportunity to use this year’s reflection as a guide to thinking about next year’s work – goal setting by a reflective learner

1. Teachers begin the closure process by brainstorming with the class all the year’s accomplishments, events, and memories. These lists are written on chart paper.
   
   
2. The charts are displayed beautifully on a bulletin board. The children will decide how to do the display and how to make it beautiful. They might enjoy creating artwork to illustrate their accomplishments and memories.
   
   
3. Other charts of accomplishments can also be brainstormed and displayed such as “Words We Can Spell,” “Books We Have Read,” “Ways That We Have Helped Each Other,” or “Ways That We Have Worked Together.”
   
   
4. Children take charge of another display area and each child decides on one piece of work from the year that s/he would like to display. The class can decide on criteria and categories of work to be displayed. The goal of this display must be that everyone has a piece of work displayed of which they can feel proud.
   
   
5. Each child completes a “Reflection/Memory Book” of his/her own. This can be the focus of academic work during the last three weeks of school, giving the children the opportunity to be reflective about their learning. Give children a chance to think of questions they would like to answer. This should be a fun activity!
   
   
6. Children share their “Reflection/Memory Books” with the class in Author’s Circle or in a “Sharing/Representing” time.