5 Differentiated End-of-Year Activities to Keep Special Education Students Engaged

Adaptable for Multiple Developmental Levels & Learning Styles

As the school year comes to a close, maintaining engagement in special education classrooms requires thoughtful planning. Students may be at varying developmental stages, with different learning profiles and support needs. These five end-of-year activities are designed to be easily adapted across skill levels, while reinforcing core concepts like including communication, functional academics, social-emotional learning, and daily living skills.  A free downloadable, scripted lesson plan from the Academic Readiness Intervention System (ARIS) is tied to each activity making them easy to implement in your classroom today!

1. Interactive Memory Wall: Visual Reflection for All Levels

Purpose:
Support students in recognizing and celebrating their growth through visual storytelling, tailored to diverse communication and developmental needs.

How to Implement:

• Create a classroom display using photo cards, symbols, or object visuals that represent key activities from the school year.
• For early learners or nonverbal students, focus on simple visual matching or identifying familiar objects.
• For students with emerging expressive skills, provide structured choice-based reflection (e.g., “Point to your favorite activity”).
• For students with higher communication abilities, prompt with simple sentence starters or guided peer sharing.

This activity aligns with developing expressive and receptive communication skills, visual matching, and fostering personal connections. 

For example, if you have students who are working on responding to questions with yes/no answers (like ARIS: Lesson 42: Yes/No Answers), you could extend that learning through this reflection activity that uses visual support and structured choice-making. 

Sample Prompts:

• “Did you enjoy this activity?”
• “Is this your art project?”
• “Do you see your friend in this picture?”

Students using AAC devices, picture cards, or pointing responses can actively participate, supporting functional communication and comprehension in a meaningful context.

Download Lesson 42: Yes/No Answers (Free PDF)

Access ARIS Lesson 42 Here Use this structured lesson to build consistency between curriculum instruction and classroom reflection activities.

2. Classroom Helper Jobs: Building Independence & Responsibility

Purpose:

Leverage end-of-year classroom organization as an opportunity to build functional life skills, promote independence, and reinforce executive functioning in a structured, meaningful way.

How to Implement:

• Develop clear visual task guides for jobs such as sorting materials, cleaning surfaces, or organizing classroom supplies.
• Match tasks to each student’s current ability level, providing scaffolding such as visual prompts, modeling, or physical assistance where needed.
• Incorporate positive reinforcement strategies aligned with your classroom’s behavior supports to motivate participation and celebrate success.

• Daily living skills
• Task initiation and completion
• Following multi-step directions
  

For students working on task engagement and reinforcement systems, this aligns well with ARIS Lesson 87: Token Board. By pairing helper jobs with a visual token system, teachers can increase on-task behavior, provide clear expectations, and build students’ sense of accomplishment through positive reinforcement.

Download Lesson 87: Token Board (Free PDF)

Access ARIS Lesson 87 Here  Use this resource to implement structured reinforcement strategies that support task persistence and independence during classroom helper activities.

3. Social Skills Role-Play: Practicing Real-World Interactions

Purpose:

Support students in developing functional communication and appropriate social behaviors by using structured role-play scenarios that mirror real-life situations they may encounter outside of school.

How to Implement:

Create simple, familiar scenarios such as ordering at a restaurant, greeting someone new, or asking for help.

• Use visual supports, scripted prompts, or choice boards to guide students through the interaction.
• For students with emerging skills, model expected responses and provide ample practice opportunities with repetition and positive reinforcement.
• Incorporate AAC devices or other communication supports to ensure all students can participate in a meaningful way.
• Include peers, staff, or props (like puppets) to make the activity engaging and approachable for a variety of learners.

This activity supports key instructional goals that your students might be working on including:

• Functional communication
• Social-emotional understanding
• Generalizing skills to community and real-world settings

For students working on understanding and navigating social situations, this practice aligns well with ARIS Lesson 68: Social Narratives. Social narratives provide structured, visual explanations of expected behaviors in specific scenarios, supporting comprehension and reducing anxiety. Using these narratives alongside role-play ensures students have clear, consistent supports as they learn and apply social skills.

Download Lesson 68: Social Narratives (Free PDF)
Access ARIS Lesson 68 Here  Use this resource to create individualized social stories that reinforce the skills practiced during role-play activities.

4. Letter Matching Stations: Building Print Awareness & Letter Recognition

Purpose:

Reinforce foundational literacy skills by engaging students in hands-on letter matching tasks that promote print awareness and support early academic development.

How to Implement:

• Set up multiple stations focused on matching uppercase letters using materials such as printed cards, foam or magnetic letters, and real-world alphabet visuals.
• Introduce a small selection of letters at each station, gradually increasing the number and variety as students show readiness.
• Use visual models and task cues to support independence, and provide modeling or hand-over-hand support as needed.
• Incorporate tactile or sensory materials to engage different learning styles and support attention.
• Allow students to rotate between stations, encouraging repetition and providing opportunities for success at different levels.

This activity supports key instructional goals that your students might be working on including:

• Print awareness
• Letter recognition
• Visual discrimination
• Independent task engagement

For students developing early literacy skills, this activity aligns well with ARIS Lesson 135: Print Awareness & Letter Knowledge: Matching—Upper Case Letters. The lesson provides a clear, structured approach for teaching students to visually match uppercase letters, laying the groundwork for alphabetic understanding. Embedding this into academic game stations allows students to revisit this critical skill in a fun and accessible format.

Download Lesson 135:  Matching—Upper Case Letters (Free PDF)
Access ARIS Lesson 135 Here  

5. End-of-Year Vocabulary Walk: Reflecting on Our Year with Expressive Labeling

Purpose:

Support students in reviewing and expressing the vocabulary they have built over the school year by participating in an interactive “Vocabulary Walk.” This activity promotes expressive language development while giving students a meaningful opportunity to reflect on their classroom experiences as the year comes to a close.

How to Implement:

• Create a classroom or hallway display featuring photo noun cards that represent common classroom objects, activities, and memorable events from the school year.
• Guide students through the “Vocabulary Walk,” encouraging them to label each item expressively using speech, AAC devices, or other communication supports.
• For students with emerging skills, provide visual prompts, choice boards, or sentence starters (e.g., “This is a ___”).
• For more advanced students, expand the activity by encouraging short descriptive phrases (e.g., “We used this in art class”).
• Use this walk as a way to recap classroom routines, special projects, and favorite activities, reinforcing vocabulary in a meaningful, contextualized way.

This activity supports key instructional goals that your students might be working on including:

• Expressive labeling of nouns
• Vocabulary generalization across settings
• Functional communication
• Social interaction and reflection skills

For students working on expressive vocabulary, this activity aligns well with ARIS Lesson 27: Expressive Labeling – Single Nouns. The lesson focuses on helping students identify and label objects across categories. Incorporating this skill into an end-of-year classroom reflection provides a functional, engaging way for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned while supporting transitions.

Download Lesson 27: Expressive Labeling – Single Nouns (Free PDF)
Access ARIS Lesson 27 Here. Use this resource to structure expressive labeling activities that reinforce vocabulary development and celebrate year-long learning progress.

Why Differentiated End-of-Year Activities Matter

Ending the year with activities that are developmentally appropriate, adaptable, and meaningful helps special education students retain skills, experience success, and transition smoothly into summer routines. These strategies ensure every student, regardless of learning profile, can participate and celebrate their progress.

To explore the full ARIS Curriculum, which includes over 200 structured lessons designed to support individualized instruction in language, social skills, functional academics, and daily living, visit: 🔗 Stages Learning ARIS Curriculum Overview