Looking for an engaging writing activity for the end of the school year? You’re going to love this kindergarten summer bucket list! Students will get to write about their favorite activities, create a checklist, draw a picture, and finish with the cutest craft cover! Keep reading for all the info!

Check out these related articles:

• Fun End-of-the-Year Activities
• Teacher Summer Bucket List
• How to Prevent the Summer Slide
• 21 Awesome End of Year Activities

This Article Goes Well With This Simply Kinder Resource:

What are Bucket Lists?

The end of the school year has everyone (teachers included, right? HA!) dreaming about summer! There are so many fun things to do that your students wait all year for like:

• beach trips
• swimming in the pool
• camping
• relaxing
• vacations
• and more!

Embrace their excitement with this fun kindergarten summer bucket list project! It’s perfect to send home, use for an open house night, or decorate bulletin boards.

You’ll first have to explain to students what a bucket list is, though! Talk about making a checklist of things to do, the most important things they REALLY want, and work towards checking off those things as they complete them! Tell them what your own personal bucket list is for this summer.

Need some ideas for yourself? Check out this TEACHER bucket list that’s perfect for this summer: click here to read all the examples!

How to Make Kindergarten Summer Bucket Lists:

These are adorable and SO simple to make! Check out this reel on Instagram to see some that Mrs. Phillips’ class made:

Now that your students know what it is, it’s time for them to make their OWN summer bucket lists. You can get it HERE on Simply Kinder, HERE on TpT, or it’s included HERE for members of Simply Kinder +! With just a few steps, they’ll have their cute craft ready to show off!

1. Brainstorm Ideas: Have students think about what they want to do this summer. Use a graphic organizer, have them tell a table partner, write them on the board, or whatever works best for your class.
2. Write the List: Now your students are ready to create their own lists on one of the chosen writing pages included.
3. Draw Pictures: Let them illustrate and color pictures of their fun summer plans!
4. Cut out the pages: Cut out the sand bucket, shovel, and writing pages along the lines.
5. Glue Together: Loop the shovel onto the handle of the bucket, glue it to the bucket, and use that as the craft cover page. Either staple or glue the pages together to create a whole booklet!
6. SHARE: Now, the fun part! Let your students share their creative masterpieces! They’ll be so excited to talk about their plans for summer and to bring their bucket lists home to show their families.

Differentiation

We know not every student or classroom is the same, which is why we always provide lots of options for you! Check out all the different writing pages:

• Checklist Boxes for students to check off as they complete their summer bucket list agenda
• Dotted lines for the younger writers
• Solid lines for older writers
• No checklist boxes for making it into a different writing activity

Your Turn

We hope you love doing this kindergarten summer bucket list writing activity with your class! Please be sure to share photos of your finished products! Tag #simplykinder on Instagram or post on our Simply Kinder Teacher Group page on Facebook! Be sure to let us know what YOUR summer plans are too! Happy teaching!

This post was written by Johanna, an experienced early elementary teacher who loves learning about new teaching ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade!