Motivation During the Last Weeks of School

I find the last weeks of school to be daunting. Grades are in, state testing is done, and all the kids know it.  Last year proved to be one of the worst years on record for me as far as enjoyable final days of school go.  I am sure it was my fault in some ways.  Maybe I didn't have enough fun stuff for the last few weeks, or maybe I was tired myself.  In any case, by the end there were fights and foul language and things flying!  I almost put in for Ms. Viola Swamp to come sub my class! Mrs. Collingwood was going to be missing!

This year I vowed it would be different.  I have a project I am running called the Mars Rover Project.  I am actually writing it as I go.  It will probably end up on teachers pay teachers eventually.  My students are building a model of a Mars rover.  They have to have a mission for their rover and then build it to fit the mission.  The must stick to a certain budget.  They have certain items they can "buy" from me but must use recyclable items for the majority of their rover.  I had two students tell me that they should become engineers during this project.  The rest are having a great time and I haven't seen anything "flying" this year.