Easy Back to School Activities for the First Day of School

August 12, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

While this feels like it has been the longest summer ever (thanks to weeks of 100-degree-plus temperatures), it always kind of takes me by surprise when it’s back to school time. The good news is a lot of smart people have come up with good getting to know you and first day of school activities that you can use in the classroom if you haven’t had time to plan something.

This collaborative poster idea from Top Teaching Tasks is a fun way for kids to share a little something about themselves in words or pictures and make a visual representation of how the classroom comes together to make a whole unit.

For younger kids you can download name coloring pages from Stevie Doodles, which has free printable coloring pages of thousands of names. (You could make your own in a similar style for anyone with a more unusual name.)

Inspired Elementary has a fun 3D all about me activity where kids can draw their face and include information on their favorites, goals and other information on a flip page. (This is a paid resource but you can read about it on their website.)

The Imagination Box has a bunch of cool paid all about me templates that older kids will like, with themes like cell phones, sneakers and hoodies.

Digging Deeper Teaching Resources has a fun about me writing prompt activity that involves Skittles and writing down particular things based on the colors of the candies they receive (you can use fun packs or make your own to ensure that everyone gets at least one of each color). Example: write about a hobby for each green Skittle. I’m sharing this one even though it doesn’t look like the printable writing planner is still there because you can probably come up with ideas for kids to write about on your own.

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Summer Activity Printables for Kids

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Reflecting on the Past Year with Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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