Back to School Activities for a Smooth Start

Back to school season is equal parts chaos, excitement and busyness! Between the meet the teacher night and prepping your classroom for students, teachers are busier than ever those first few days of preplanning. Figuring out what activities to have students do the first week shouldn’t be complicated! Here is a list of tried and true back to school activities for a smooth start to the school year.

Back to School Activities

Icebreaker Games and Activities

Think of simple, easy interactive activities that students can use to get to know you and each other in their new class family. I love using games like “Find Someone Who” and “Two Truths and a Lie”. The best part is they require no prep!

All About Me Activities

Kids LOVE to talk about themselves! Incorporating some activities that allow them to share about themselves, their interests, hobbies etc. is always a good idea. Using all about me activities is also a way for students to make new friends with similar interests within their new class family. I always love displaying some “All About Me” things in our classroom those first few weeks for open house as well!

Team/Class Family Building

Fostering that new class family bond, peer cooperation and mutual caring is a huge goal of those first days of any new year no matter what grade you teach! Having some problem-solving projects such as STEM challenges or games is a fun way to promote peer bonding. Using ice breakers and partner/ team activities is another way students can form connections.

Read Aloud Lessons

Meaningful and fun read alouds are one of my VERY favorite things to use in my classroom. So much can be taught from one picture book! I love using some of my tried-and-true stories to teach life lessons associated with back to school.

If you missed my blog post about my favorite back to school read alouds, you can check it out HERE.

Content Review/Student Inventory

Back to school activities aren’t just for fun and games! Use those first days to inventory what your students know and retained from previous years. This will help guide immediate curriculum decisions. Having some back to school themed worksheets to review academics and gauge student learning not only give you time to get some things done, but also gauge how your students are performing on certain skills.

If you are feeling a little overwhelmed at the time it would take to gather together back to school activities like the ones mentioned above, don’t you worry! I have created a few low prep, easy to use back to school resources for you…each with a different theme! Each packet includes the following: