Bright Ideas for End of the Year 
1. Use a Progress Tracker
Students really benefit from visual expectations. Think about behavior charts or visual schedules; when students can see what's coming next they can better prepared. Use a visual progress tracker to show them how many sessions are left. It can be as simple as a piece of paper with stickers or as complex as a velcro system to add on different pieces to form a shape (ice cream cone, flower petals, etc). Try to design a progress tracker that goes with your group theme or a common interest of the group members. When students can see how many sessions they have left, they can anticipate when the last session will be so they aren't caught off guard.
Implementing this during distance learning: You can basically do the same thing. Simply show students as you add pieces to the progress tracker via Zoom.
.2. Words of Kindness Posters - virtual
Ask kids to come to the meeting with a piece of construction paper. Explain that you will be going around and asking them to say something nice about each other. This may be a little more challenging, but with prompts from you it won't be impossible. As each student recieves a complement ask them to write it out and place the initials of the classmate who said it by the compliment.
3. Journal Reflections
For students third grade and older, . Have them spend some time writing what they learned from the past year. How it made them feel and what they would like to change in the upcoming year. You can provide numerous writing prompts and let the students choose as well. i.e. how have they changed, what is a strength that they gained, what surprised them, what disappointed them, etc.
Some ideas to help reduce stress
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