40 Best First-Day-of-School Activities for Back-to-School 2024
Back-to-School Bingo
After a long day of learning about seating assignments, classroom jobs and school rules, they can relax with a fun game of school-themed bingo. These adorable pictures are more fun than the normal bingo numbers.
Get the tutorial at Artsy Fartsy Mama »
Back-to-School Survey
Visual Schedule
Some kids understand the shape of their day better when they can see it laid out for them with both words and pictures. For a first-day activity, a class can work together to make a visual schedule, deciding on and coloring in the icons for different activities. If there’s any wiggle room, maybe they can even vote on their order of their activities, too.
Get the tutorial at A Beautiful Mess »
First Day of School Book
How often does this happen: A kid comes home from their first day of school, and their parents are all excited to hear how it went, only to be met with a shrug and an “I don’t know” when asked what they did. With these cute books, kids can write down their favorite thing they did on the first day (and practice their letters while they’re at it).
Get the tutorial at Simple Everyday Mom »
STEM Name Tag Challenge
About Me Apple
Students can introduce themselves to their classmates (and, helpfully, their teacher) with these apple-shaped cards. They look great all hanging together on a bulletin board.
Get the tutorial at The Soccer Mom Blog »
Notebook Tag
If teachers want to start off the year by giving their students a little gift, they can try these little notebook tags, which say, “Just a quick NOTE to say hope your year goes just WRITE.” They can encourage their students to do a little free-writing about the first day.
SHOP NOTEBOOKS
Get the tutorial at Crazy Little Projects »
Get-to-Know-You Sculpture
In this activity, certain attributes are represented by specific features in a sculpture. Does a student love books? They can add a green zig-zag. Play sports? Give them a black arch. Every sculpture will be unique — just like every artist.
Get the tutorial at Charity Mika »
“Find Someone Who” Game
A quick way for classes to get to know each other is by doing a human scavenger hunt. Kids have to find classmates with different attributes, like who is wearing brown shoes, who loves to do jigsaw puzzles, etc. You can download this template or come up with your own categories (someone who’s left-handed, can hula-hoop, can roll their tongue and so on).
Get the tutorial at Days With Grey »
DIY Pencil Holders
Pennant Glyph
Craft Stick School Bus
Back-to-School Alphabet Game
This is something kids can work on when they first sit down as other students are still arriving, or if they have extra time after they’ve completed work. The challenge is to come up with a school-related word for each letter of the alphabet, so as they look around for inspiration, they’ll familiarize themselves with the classroom.
Get the tutorial at Happiness Is Homemade »
Paper Clip Bookmarks
Sticky-Note Expectations
All About Me Caterpillar
Get-to-Know-You Jenga
Guided Meditation
After the past couple of years, schools have shifted focus to include more social-emotional learning to help kids with stress and anxiety. Starting off the year with guided meditation might help them ease their first-day nerves.
Beaded Name Tags
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.
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