5 Fun and Engaging June Activities for First Grade
If you’re a teacher in the primary classroom, I’m sure you’d agree that June is undoubtedly a super busy month. This month often marks the end of the school year for so many! To help smooth out this busy season in the classroom, I always found myself leaning into a few specific lessons and activities to make life a little easier. My June activities needed to be low-prep, make review simple, and also be fun for students. If you’re also looking to check all those boxes, take a peek at my favorite June activities to close out the school year!
1. No Prep June Activities
As we all know, June can be especially crazy in the primary classroom. We’ve got graduations, parties, end of year testing, final grades, and more! While I want to plan meaningful review and learning activities for the final month of school, I also don’t want to add a ton to my plate. What’s a teacher to do? No-Prep printables to the rescue!
I actually use no-prep printables every month of the year since they’re a great way to work in a spiral review of what we’re focusing on. During May and June, these no-prep printables come in super handy.
Students will work on math and ELA activities that align with the standards and get them the added practice they need during these final weeks. Some of the skills from these printables include:
- skip counting
- subtraction
- counting coins
- word problems
- ABC order
- parts of speech
- punctuation
- opinion writing
- and more!
May and June No-Prep Printables help review all of the topics and concepts first-grade classrooms touch on, without any added fluff! They’re particularly great for independent work, centers, fast-finishers, and homework. I also liked to make a summer review packet for my students with these pages. I bound them together and told my students that anyone who returns the completed packet to me on the first day of school next year will get a special prize. This is an especially great way to motivate your students to review over the summer!
2. Color By Code Pages
Are you a color-by-code fan? As a long-time first-grade teacher, I LOVED using color-by-code activities in my classroom.
My students loved them. They were low-prep, and they also covered a variety of skills and subjects. What’s not to love, right? I also love color-by-code activities because they can be used across a variety of themes. During June, it’s fun to focus on themes like camping, summer, and sports! Young students love these activities and they’re a great way to review a wide variety of concepts without a lot of fuss.
In first grade, we take a deep dive into phonics and the children learn all about CVC words, blends, digraphs, and CVCe words. I used color by code to review these concepts along with the sight words we had been working on too! Here are some fun options that are especially great to use for June activities:
There are also editable options included in each resource so that you can fill them in with whatever you’d like to target in your room! Use them for specific sight words, vocabulary words, or any concept you’d like to focus on in a fun way. Color-by-code is perfect for simple center activities, independent practice, morning work, fast finishers, or anytime you find yourself with some downtime in the classroom.
3. June Activities for Center Time
Center time is an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to learning in the primary classroom. First-graders need opportunities to move around the room, use tactile materials, and interact with peers. Center activities usually require a ton of prep work, and while I’m all for them, I also know that time is particularly limited during June.
That’s where these End of the Year Center activities come in! These are a great way to add some hands-on center time to your June activities, without spending a ton of time prepping.
Each of the activities in this resource covers an important math or ELA concept and uses a low-prep format so you can get these activities out to your students quickly. Some of the fun center games in this unit include:
- Addition and subtraction BUMP games
- 2D Shapes Board Game
- Telling Time Board Game
- ABC Order Task Cards
- Sandcastle Writing Center
- Summer Fun Word Search
And. . . these are just a few of the center activities included! These low-prep centers make planning your June activities quick and easy! There are 32 total activities included and they will come in handy during one of the busiest times of the year. You can count on high engagement from your students, while also helping students review key skills they’ve been working on throughout the year.
4. Phonics BINGO Games
Towards the end of the year, students (and teachers also) can grow a bit weary and restless. This is especially true in those final weeks! I don’t know about you, but I’ve often found it can be hard to keep my students engaged and focused during this time of year. Time and time again, I’ve found the remedy for this is a good game of BINGO. I loved pulling out BINGO when…
- students were having trouble concentrating
- we needed just one more center activity
- I needed a transition activity to grab their attention
- I needed an end-of-the-day activity to wind down from learning
- I needed a way to brighten the mood when kiddos were a bit grouchy (hey, it happens!)
BINGO is one of my favorite ways to turn around our day, fill a few minutes, or just add some fun! We used it all year long in my room. But, during June, I loved using Phonics BINGO to review a variety of skills in a fun, hands-on way. The games we used focused on CVC words, blends, digraphs, and CVCe words. They come in 2 versions as well so you can decide what works best for your group. The black and white cards are great to use with BINGO daubers. The full-color cards are perfect for laminating and using with mini erasers.
You can use these games in your small groups, as a whole group, or assign students to lead it as the BINGO caller during center time. No matter what you choose, it’s always a student hit and a great addition to your June activities!
5. Student Award Certificates
This final resource isn’t an activity, but it’s perfect for June! These student awards are perfect for recognizing your students’ hard work throughout the year. These editable award certificates come in print-ready options with pre-filled options that are perfect for first grade.
Inside this resource you’ll also find fun award options like:
- Amazing Artist
- Best Personality
- Best Smile
- Best Writer
- Class Comedian
- Future Scientist
and there are many more too!
This set includes both color and black-and-white awards that can auto-populate the date and teacher’s name onto all certificates, making these quick and easy to fill out. There are also boy and girl options, as well as editable options where you can add your own award headers.
You can snag these awards for FREE by joining the Fun Times in First Community! Once you join, you’ll be granted access to these awards as well as the Free Resource Library! It’s filled with tons of helpful lessons and activities that your students will love. Join now to be granted access!
If you don’t want to join the Fun Times in First Community to get these awards, you can also find them in my TPT Store.
Start Planning Your June Activities
I hope these ideas and resources help you plan your own June activities and lessons. I know the end of the year can feel like a whirlwind, so I was a big fan of doing what I can to make things easier for myself.
If you’d like to take a closer look at any of the June activities mentioned here, you can find them all in my TpT Shop, along with plenty of other fun activities for the whole year. Happy planning, and hang in there for those final weeks!
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