With the start of June, many students are eagerly anticipating their summer break, if it hasn’t already started! Most elementary, middle, and high schools generally have their last day of school sometime around the end of May or the beginning of June. For school districts in northern states, a school year might be extended or not, depending on whether any “snow days” were used in the course of the academic year. Some districts do not include any snow days in their calendar, so if they have to cancel any school days because of too much snow, they make up for it by extending the end of the school year by an equal number of days. Other districts include extra snow days in their calendar in advance, and any unused snow days convert to summer vacation.
Sometime during the final days of the school year, some schools might have a school / class picnic or other celebration before the students are dismissed for the summer. Before the final day of class, textbooks have to be returned, desks and lockers have to be cleaned out, and art projects have to be taken home. It used to be that on the very last day of the school year, students would attend school to pick up their report card and find out if they would be promoted to the next grade for the fall. They would also say goodbye to their classmates and teachers. Now, most schools mail out the report cards, so there is not much to do on the final day except take care of any loose ends – make sure that locker is cleaned out, or finally pay the fine on that overdue library book – and say goodbye. Both students and teachers look forward to several weeks of freedom from the normal grind of school, until classes start up again in late August or early September.
There are two short rhymes about the end of the school year:
School’s out, school’s out – teacher let the monkeys out!
and
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks!
(“dirty looks” is an expression that describes the disapproving way a parent or a teacher might look at a child who misbehaves.)