19. How to Survive End-of-Year Behavior in Kindergarten (Without Starting Over)

If your kindergarten classroom feels louder, messier, and harder to manage right now, you are not alone. End-of-year behavior in kindergarten is real, and May can start to feel like pure survival mode for teachers.

In this episode, we’re talking about the “May-cember” effect, why classroom behavior gets harder at the end of the school year, and realistic ways to make these last few weeks feel more manageable for both you and your students.

We’ll chat about why it’s easy to focus only on negative behaviors, how to shift back toward connection and positive reinforcement, and simple ways to help your class finish the year strong without overhauling your entire classroom management system.

Plus, I’m sharing easy end-of-year behavior supports, positive reinforcement ideas, and why simple incentive systems like Build-a-Reward charts can help reset the tone in your classroom.

If you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and counting down to summer break, this episode will help you feel more calm, more supported, and a little less alone.

🔗🍩 Try our donut reward chart FREE

🔗 Kindergarten Behavior Blueprint

Show Notes: https://kindergartentoolbox.com/end-of-year-behavior-kindergarten

Transcript

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If your classroom is feeling louder, messier, and more difficult to manage than it did even just a few weeks ago, and you're wondering how in the world you're going to make it to the end of the school year in kindergarten? You are not alone. This does not mean you fail. In today's episode, I'm sharing a few realistic ways to make these last few weeks feel more manageable for both you and your students. Let's dig in. Welcome to the Kindergarten Toolbox Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Murray, here to help you simplify kindergarten with tools and strategies that actually work with real live five and six year olds. Let's dive into your shortcut to calmer days and more confident writers. This time of year is hard because nothing feels normal anymore. Schedules are constantly changing. There are field days, assemblies, testing schedules, special events, countdown activities. Teachers are taking well-deserved personal days off, but there aren't enough substitutes, so your classes suddenly are getting split up, or you have more students than you usually do packed into your classroom. And even if you're trying your best to stay consistent, all of these changes impact your students too. Some kids are already slipping into full summer mode. They're excited, wiggly, loud, and they won't stop talking to each other. They're counting down the days until break. Other students, school is their safe place, and as summer gets closer, some of the students start to feel anxious, unsettled, dysregulated. And even if they can't fully explain why, so behaviors start to increase, and sometimes in new and different ways. And on top of all that, you're tired of trying to keep everything going. You've been making decisions, managing behavior, teaching when you're allowed, planning and carrying the emotional weight of your classroom all year long. Of course, your patience is running more thin than it did in September. So if your classroom is louder, messier, and harder to manage right now, I really want you to hear this. It doesn't mean you suddenly became a bad teacher. It's just May. It means you're teaching real five and six-year-olds during one of the busiest, most dysregulating times of the school year. And honestly, that changes the way we need to think and deal with behavior right now. Part of that shift means being really careful that we don't get stuck focusing only on the negative things that are happening this time of year. I know for me, whenever my classroom started to feel more chaotic, I would start harping on every negative thing I was seeing all day long. The calling out, the interruptions, the arguing with each other, the constant noise, the kids who suddenly forgot what our expectations were, even though we're on the 160th day of school. It's a slippery slope because when behavior starts to feel hard, we start scanning and thinking about what's going wrong all day long. We start tallying problems in our heads, we start feeling irritated before certain parts of the day even happen, anticipating the negative behavior. Sometimes we start dreading interactions with certain students because we're already anticipating the behavior before it starts. And when we get stuck in that cycle, it becomes really difficult to see anything else. But stay with me, it's not all bad. Your students are still funny and sweet and learning, and they're still five and six-year-olds. They're excited to tell you stories and show you tiny little things that they're proud of. They still want your approval and your connection, even when they're acting absolutely wild during transitions. Honestly, sometimes the best thing we can do at the end of the year is stop chasing perfection and start looking for those small moments of good again and building on that. I want to encourage you to look for small wins. Celebrate the student who lined up quickly as soon as you asked them to. And honestly, this is a great time of year to lean hard into positive feedback and connection. Send home a quick positive note. I loved using glow notes this time of year. I would send an extra couple home because students got so excited about them, they were so proud, and parents responded so well to them. Sometimes those little moments of encouragement can completely shift the tone for that student, especially for your challenging students. Try to intentionally catch those students doing something positive, even if it's as small as remembering to push in their chair. Because when students feel success and connected, their behavior often starts improving too. And truly, sometimes at the end of the school year, we just need to let some things go a little bit. Not important things, not safety, not major expectations, but maybe the line isn't perfectly silent every single time. Maybe transitions are a little noisier than they were in October. That's okay. These are still five and six-year-olds. They are little kids, and most of them desperately want your approval and attention. They're just distracted right now by all the excitement and schedule changes and warm weather and the energy shifts that happen during this time of year. So remember to give them and yourself some grace as you navigate this May Sember time period. And before you assume they're trying to make your life difficult, just remember who they are. They're kids, tired, excited, overstimulated little kids who have been holding it together all school year and they are ready for summer. Sometimes just that perspective shift alone can help us respond differently. Now, with all that said, this also might be the perfect time to pull out a few temporary supports without feeling guilty about it. Maybe you didn't need an incentive system most of the year because they were well behaved, and that is awesome. But it doesn't mean you're a bad teacher if you need to pull one out now just to survive till the end of the school year. And honestly, May's a great time to use one. Sometimes students just need a little extra motivation and structure to help everyone finish strong. And sometimes, as teachers, we just need that extra encouragement to keep looking for the positives to save our own sanity. And if you're stuck in survival mode right now and desperate to get some control back, have you tried passing out a sticker or something small to the kids who are following your directions? Sometimes that's all you need is just a little sticker to the three or four who are always doing what they're supposed to, and then that'll turn into five and six, seven and eight, and you get the idea suddenly most of the class is listening because they want their chance to earn that sticker too. Don't feel bad about it. Sometimes we are just surviving to the end of the year, and that's okay. And that's actually why I love a simple whole class reward system this time of year, especially our builder reward charts. I can pick one behavior to focus on, like transitions, walking to the carpet, working quietly, raising your hand, you get the idea. And then I spend my energy catching students meeting that expectation instead of constantly redirecting the negative behavior. And quickly, the other students tend to catch on because they want to work together to earn that goal. Because after all, you did spend the year cultivating this classroom community. They are still a community of learners and they do want to please you. And focusing on one behavior helps everybody to meet the expectation quickly. The best part is this tends to shift the entire tone in your classroom because now everyone is looking for success instead of focusing on what's going wrong. Suddenly the tattling tends to stop and you're focusing on earning rewards instead of correcting the negative. You don't need an entire classroom management overhaul, and who has time for that this time of year? You just need a simple reset to help everyone finish strong. And if you're looking for a simple way to bring a little more positivity and structure into your classroom right now without reinventing the wheel, I'd love to make that easier for you. We actually have a free build-a-reward donut chart that are perfect for this time of year. It'll help you focus on one expectation at a time and give students something positive to work toward together and make your life easier because the prep is pretty simple. It's a simple tool to help you reset the tone of your classroom and finish the year feeling a little more calm and a little more manageable. Nothing complicated, nothing you have to completely overhaul. And you can grab the build a reward chart using the link below in the show notes and get started with it today. If you're listening to this episode thinking, okay, I really need more support with my classroom management overall, though, not just a reward chart. I hear you. I would definitely encourage you to check out Kindergarten Behavior Blueprint, our course, because while May Sumber is real, classroom management should not feel like survival mode all year long. Inside KBB, I walk you through simple systems, routines, visuals, and expectations that help your classroom run more smoothly without constantly relying on you to hold everything together. But for now, I just want you to remember this. You do not need a perfect classroom to finish the year well. Your students do not need perfection from you right now. They just need a teacher who keeps showing up and keeps loving them and keeps moving forward one day or maybe hour at a time. And you're already doing that. Your students are so lucky to have a teacher who cares so much about them. You've got this. And I'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to the Kindergarten Toolbox. I'm Amy Murray and I'm so glad you're here. Be sure to check the show notes for all the links and resources from today's episode. For even more tips, tools, and support, head to teachingexceptionalkinders.com or connect with me on Instagram at Teaching Exceptional Kinders. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and subscribe to the show and take a minute to leave a review. It helps other kindergarten teachers to find us too. Teaching kindergarten is tough, but you're not alone. Here's to calmer days and more competent writers. You've got this.