It’s no secret that as the school year starts to draw to a close, students tend to get a little distracted and antsy. What’s a teacher to do to keep them on-task and motivated during the last few weeks before summer? We asked the Teacher2Teacher community for their best tips; check out these 10 teacher-tested ideas to use in your own classroom!

1. 1. “Now is the time for outdoor learning activities and remember to keep it FUN! One of the favs is our community garden. Students love planting fruits & veggies. They also get to check up on their seedlings.”—@PopIntoFourth
   2. “Get them moving! I save Shakespeare for the end so we can do some acting based on deep character analysis.”—@jpbritton1
   3. “I save my largest research project for the last month! Your topic, your choice in presentation with some criteria. All topics need to be related in some way to the Chesapeake Bay. I have gotten some fun projects.”—@OrlyMondell
   4. “Balloon countdown (they get to pop & confetti flies out) with fun rewards/learning activities for the end of the day.”—@lmg5589
   5. “Embrace the weather. Read outside. Write outside. Engage in activities using their bottled-up winter energy.”—@BrianCurtinSHS
   6. “ABC countdown! Plan something fun the last 26 days of school. ex. E=experiment day. Reward was at the end of each day.”—@MsDeren
   7. “We play ‘arena math’ and I am the ‘math sports announcer’ for each problem they work on the board. Engaging!”—@WandatheFaye
   8. “Do the most interesting labs towards the end of each week and give cliffhanger interesting facts at the end of class.”—@TexasTeacher
   9. “Put on a musical. Bad Wolf Press shows are 10-45 mins aligned to CCSS. Classroom casual or on a stage. Students & parents love it!”—@Musicbearedu
   10. “Spend class time on summer planning (researching/completing apps for volunteering, camps, internships, jobs).”—@kfernan5

How do you keep your students engaged and on-task as the school year draws to a close? Share your tips in the comments!