Wrapping up the school year is always bittersweet. You want to provide meaningful opportunities to review skills learned throughout the year and have fun while doing so. End of the year theme days are the easiest way to keep the learning and excitement going until the last bell rings. Keep reading for tips and ideas on incorporating end of the year theme days.

Check out these related posts:

• End of Year Celebration Ideas for Kinder
• How to Have a Glow Party in Kindergarten
• End of Year Hallway Poem and Keychain

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Theme Day Tips

Preparing for theme days is exciting and easy! Check out 3 main things to consider when planning for theme days.

1. Theme Day Ideas – the first thing you will need to decide is what themes you want to include for your theme days. Consider the interests and needs of your students when choosing themes. Check out some theme day ideas below.

• Beach Day
• Pirate Day
• Dinosaur Day
• Sweet Day
• Camping Day
• Watermelon and Picnic Day
• Space Day
• Popcorn and Movie Day
• Bubblegum Day
• Circus Day

2. Theme Day Schedule and Calendar – Schedule your theme days in advance and be sure to work around end of the year dates and activities that take place at your school (field day, awards day, etc.). Create a calendar after finalizing your theme day ideas and schedule. Be sure to include any items that students will need to bring from home. Share the calendar with parents so they can mark their calendars.

3. Theme Day Sign Up – You may want to include some fun snacks or activities with each theme day. Brainstorm a list of items you will need for each theme day. Create a sign up so parents can help contribute to the end of the year fun.

Theme Day Activities

Still unsure of what theme days you want to include? Simply Kinder has created NEW no prep theme day bundles HERE that make adding in theme days a breeze. Here are some fun ideas and activities to pair with your theme days.

Check out the video in action:

🏖️Beach Day

Summer is on the brain, and you don’t think about summer without thinking about the beach.

• Students can bring a beach towel, sunglasses, and hat to read on the “beach” with their favorite book.
• Enjoy Sand Bucket snacks – individual vanilla pudding cups, crushed vanilla wafers, and festive mini drink umbrellas.
• Lei Necklace Relay Race – Place Leis in the middle of 2 Hula Hoops. Divide students into teams. Each team will race to grab a Lei until all the Leis are taken.

🏖️Check out Simply Kinder Beach Day Bundle Activities:

• Begin the day by creating Beach Day hats.
• Create shape sandcastle crafts.
• Make beach pictures and words out of playdough.
• Incorporate beach themed math and literacy stations. Students will practice decoding, reading, number order, addition, and so much more.
• Tons of no prep math and literacy printables.

🏖️Grab your Beach Day Theme Day Bundle from Simply Kinder HERE!

🏴‍☠️Pirate Day

Ahoy Mateys! Gear up for fun with a pirate theme day.

• Provide pirate eye patches for students to wear. We like to add these to our parent donation sign up.
• Have a treasure hunt in the classroom. Hide chocolate or plastic gold coins for students to hunt.
• Enjoy a bag of Pirate’s Booty as a snack.
• Students can create a treasure map using construction paper shapes.

🏴‍☠️Simply Kinder Pirate Day Bundle Activities:

• Make pirate hats to compliment your students’ pirate eye patches.
• Build a pirate craft using the provided template pieces.
• Complete a directed drawing and write a story.
• Literacy Centers – sort CVC and CVCe words and feed the treasure chest decodable words.
• Math Centers – Partner Pirate Addition game, Tens Blocks Flip and Cover
• Complete a graphic organizer about pirates and write about them on themed paper.

🏴‍☠️Grab your Pirate Day Theme Day Bundle from Simply Kinder HERE!

🦕Dinosaur Day

Have a DINOmite day with a dinosaur theme day.

• Make dinosaur pasta fossils. Provide students with various types of pasta to build a dinosaur skeleton. These can be assembled on playdough to create a fossil or glued to construction paper.
• Make cardboard dinosaur feet. Cut out dinosaur feet templates from poster board. Include an opening for students to slip over shoes. Students can decorate their dinosaur feet using markers or paint.
• Use Bugles for raptor claws and a dino themed snack.

🦕Simply Kinder Dinosaur Day Activities:

• Make prehistoric dinosaur day hats.
• Build a dino story and craft.
• Literacy Centers: Feed the dino CVCe words or make dino CVC puzzles.
• Math Centers: Play a subtraction partner game or practice addition facts with clip wheels.

🦕Grab your Simply Kinder Dinosaur Theme Day Bundle HERE!

⛺Camping Day

Grab your sleeping bags and flashlights for a camping theme day.

• Create “tents” using plastic tablecloths and student desks or tables. Students can bring in flashlights from home to read in their tent.
• Make S’mores in a microwave or by using marshmallow fluff.
• Students can compete in a tent building challenge using various materials (aluminum foil, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, construction paper, etc.).
• Use large marshmallows to paint campfire masterpieces.

⛺Simply Kinder Camping Day Activities:

• Write a campfire story.
• Literacy Centers: Sort digraphs and Feed the Bear CVC words.
• Math Centers: S’more counting on task cards and camping subtraction game.
• Make a themed camping hat.
• Choose from countless literacy and math printables.

⛺Grab your Simply Kinder Camping Theme Day Bundle HERE!

🍦Ice Cream Theme Day

We have a feeling that a theme day centered around sweet treats will be a student favorite.

• Set up and enjoy an ice cream sundae bar.
• Practice encoding in multisensory sprinkle trays.
• Play fill the cup using sweet treat themed mini erasers. Students will roll a die and add mini erasers to a small dish. The first one to fill their cup is the winner.
• Play ice cream cone addition toss. Students will toss ping pong balls into numbered ice cream cones. They will make an addition sentence using the numbers from the cones where their ball lands.

🍦Simply Kinder Ice Cream Day Activities:

• Show favorite ice cream flavors by making an ice cream scoop craft.
• Build ice cream cones using playdough and an ice cream spinner.
• Literacy Centers: Sort CVC & CVCe words, practice blends with ice cream clip cards, or feed the ice cream with CVC words.
• Math Centers: Practice addition to 10 or 20 by building ice cream sundaes or practice counting on with task cards.

🍦Grab your Ice Cream Day Theme Day Bundle HERE.

🎪Circus Day

The end of the school year can feel a bit like a circus so why not lean into the chaos?

• Enjoy animal crackers as a special Circus Day snack.
• Practice letter formation or phonics skills in a multisensory popcorn kernel tray.
• Make cotton candy artwork with cotton balls and markers.

🎪Simply Kinder Circus Day Activities:

• Make circus themed pictures using dough mats.
• Create a big top picture and write about it for a bulletin display.
• Make a circus themed hat to start the day.
• Literacy Centers: Sort real & nonsense words or feed the clown CVC words.
• Math Centers: Order numbers from least to greatest or match addition facts using clip cards.

🎪Grab your Simply Kinder Circus Day Theme Day Bundle HERE!

🍉Watermelon Day

Send students off to the sweetness of summertime with a Watermelon Theme Day!

• Make watermelon slice finger paintings.
• Enjoy watermelon slices and describe them using the 5 senses.
• Build fine motor skills with red Jello and black beans. Students use tongs to retrieve the “seeds” from the “watermelon” Jello.

🍉Simply Kinder Watermelon Theme Day Activities:

• Create an editable watermelon slice craft to practice CVC words or addition facts.
• Math Centers: Practice addition facts with clip wheels or clip cards.
• Literacy Centers: Review CVC words with puzzles or sort real & nonsense words.
• Make a friendly watermelon craft using a pre-made template.

🍉Grab your Simply Kinder Watermelon Theme Day Bundle HERE!

What are your favorite end of the year theme days and activities? Let us know! Please make sure to tag us on Instagram here or share inside the Simply Kinder Teacher Facebook Group here.