Put together memory books in which students record stories about favorite classes, books, field trips, friends, lunchroom times and other funny stories. Encourage students to add pictures to their memory books. Provide blank pages in memory books for students to gather signatures and notes from classmates. Invite students to bring in plain white T-shirts. Provide fabric paints for students to sign one another's shirts. Create large posters with each student's name and allow peers to write comments or draw pictures about their favorite memories with that person on the posters.
Organize a time for students to create a class craft to present to a teacher or other staff member they want to recognize. Have students paint wooden bird feeders, then stamp their thumbprints on the feeders. Invite students to turn their thumbprints into funny self-portraits by adding eyes, ears, noses and wacky hairstyles. Create quilts for the librarian or PE teacher. Provide fabric paints for students to decorate a quilt square with a favorite book or sports illustration.
Have fourth-graders create crafts that will remain at the school as part of a class legacy. Find small wooden stools, a rocking chair or bookshelves for students to paint with fun designs such as tiger stripes, zebra stripes, giraffe spots, jungle leaves or an underwater ocean scene. Paint wooden benches for the PE room with sports designs. Make cement steppingstones with bead designs for an outdoor walkway through a school garden or paint clay tiles for a mosaic in the art room. Have fourth-graders make large pillows for the library reading area out of fun and wild patterned fabrics.
Celebrate the year's end in style and let fourth-graders create their own party decorations. Invite students to bring in favorite bite-size candy pieces, gum, fun erasers or other small trinkets. Have students use the items to fill a large balloon. Papier-mâché the inflated balloon and decorate with tissue paper to make a piñata. Students may also create their own splatter paint party hats using white baseball caps, painter's hats or white fabric visors. Have students fill spray bottles with tie-dye ink and head outside for some splatter painting fun.