Tips for Managing End of the Year Behavior (Without Candy or Yelling)

It’s a tale as old as time: As the school year winds down, challenging behaviors tend to ramp up. As a last resort, some teachers will turn to high-interest rewards like candy while others will find themselves yelling to keep things under control. There’s a better way to keep behavior on track! In this post, I’m going to share my favorite strategies managing end of the year behavior so your classroom can run smoothly until summer break.

End of the Year Behavior Challenges

One of the keys to behavior management at the end of the school year is to anticipate the challenges your students will face. That way, you can be prepared with the right tools to address them. Here are some of the common behavior challenges we see in the late spring:

• Defiance: The daily routine changes often at the end of the year, which can make some students feel like things are out of control. In an attempt to take back some of this control, some students may demonstrate increasingly defiant behavior.
• Peer Conflict: You know that feeling at the end of a family vacation when everyone starts to get a little bit snippy with each other? The same thing often happens in the classroom at the end of the school year. Students are ready to have a break from each other, and this is often evident in their behavior and interactions with peers.
• Classroom Noise Level: The end of the school year is a very exciting time for students; you can almost feel it in the air, but you can definitely hear it! The overall noise level in the classroom can rise significantly as the last day of school approaches. Some students will be more chatty during independent work time. Other students will call out way more often during circle time. It’s hard for them to contain their excitement!

By considering these behaviors ahead of time, you can start to think about what strategies and tools you have on hand to address them before they become a huge issue. 

End of the Year Behavior Management Strategies

These are some of my favorite behavior management tools to keep behavior on track as summer break approaches. They are low-prep and easy to use, which is essential at this point in the school year!

1. Build a Sand Castle Reward

A whole-class incentive is my favorite place to start when it comes to behavior management. Students can work together towards a reward by demonstrating a target behavior. This type of reward system is beneficial all year long, but adding a summer twist is a great way to grab students’ attention!

For this reward, the class will work towards building a sand castle one piece at a time. You will target a specific goal that will help you address some of those common end of year behaviors. For example, you might have the target behavior to raise hands instead of calling out. As you notice students demonstrating this behavior, you can recognize them and have them add a piece to the reward chart. 

Once the sand castle is complete, the class will earn a reward. This doesn’t have to be complicated or involved! In fact, the best rewards for a whole-class incentive are simple and easy to provide soon after the class earns them. This can go a long way in maintaining student buy-in for the reward!

2. Individual Rewards

Some students might need an additional layer of support for their behavior at the end of the year. This is when individual reward systems can come in handy! Again, you can easily incorporate a touch of summer to help increase buy-in and motivation for the reward system.

A sticker chart is a great option to use for students who could use additional support for their behavior. Just like the whole-class incentive, the student will have a target behavior that they will be working to demonstrate. As they do, they can add a sticker to their summer-themed sticker card or color in a box of their reward chart. 

Summer-themed token boards can also be a great option for individual students. You can put the token board and pieces in a folder so it can travel with the student, making it easy for other staff to support the behavior goal.

3. Substitute Teacher Behavior Management

In addition to preparing for specific behaviors that pop up at the end of the year, it’s also important to prepare for unexpected absences. I always like to have a simple reward system on hand that a substitute teacher can use. It can be challenging for a guest teacher to step into a classroom with a reward system in progress.

Instead, you can provide a summer-themed puzzle that it easy for the substitute teacher to start in the morning. As the day progresses, students can earn pieces of the puzzle as they demonstrate appropriate behavior for the sub. A simple reward chart like this can go a long way in keeping behavior on track if you have to be away from the classroom near the end of the school year.

Printable Behavior Toolkit for the End of the Year

All of the behavior management tools that I’ve shared in this post are included in one low-prep resource of summer classroom management tools. You’ll find everything you need to set up these summer-themed reward systems in your classroom. You’ll be able to keep behavior on track as summer break approaches so you can finish the year strong. These behavior management tools are also a great option for summer school!

If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this resource, you can find it in the Teaching Exceptional Kinders shop or in my TPT store.

Save these End of Year Behavior Management Tips

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board of classroom management tips. You’ll be able to quickly find these strategies and resources when you’re looking for ways to keep behavior on track through the end of the year.