Fun Beginning of the School Year Activities -- Team Mascots

My daughter goes back to school in a week and I know that whether school is in person, online or a mix for your kiddos it’s likely to look and feel different this year. But there are still a lot of fun beginning of the school year activities kids can do to get to know each other and build classroom spirit, no matter what the classroom looks like.

Teach Student Savvy has a great collection of beginning of the year activities, but one that caught my eye was the group name and mascot activity, which she has as a freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers.

This activity works for a range of ages and has groups of kids (could be the table or small learning group if your class is using the pod/cohort model) come up with a “team” name and mascot based on things the group members have in common or like. In a small classroom the whole group can work on the project together.

You could do this activity with a virtual class as well by dividing up into smaller groups.

Check out her post for a lot more great ideas for celebrating the start of the weirdest school year ever.

[Photo: Teach Student Savvy.]

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]

Fun Beginning of the School Year Activities — Team Mascots

Printable Letter Books for Preschoolers

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