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.

Have you read?

Printable Letter Books for Preschoolers

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

Have you read?

Leave a Reply