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The first days of kindergarten are important for helping students become comfortable in the classroom setting. Many of the children are stepping into a classroom for the very first time! There are many ways to introduce students to the classroom setting, but one of my favorite ways is to use fun back to school activities for kindergarten. Hands-on and engaging activities can help students learn many important kindergarten skills as they learn the rules and routines of the classroom. In this post, I’m going to share some of my favorite activities to use at the beginning of the year in kindergarten.
Back to school activities for kindergarten are a great way to ease students into the learning routine. All of the activities below will help students practice important skills that they will use all year. Plus, the fun back-to-school theme of these activities will get your students excited for kindergarten!
Students experience a wide range of emotions on the first day of kindergarten! It’s helpful to provide time in the schedule to discuss these emotions.
This first day of school emotions graph activity is a great way to introduce the idea that everyone has different feelings at school each day. This activity can help to build classroom community from the very first day of school!
Another important part of building classroom community is to learn each others’ names. One fun way for students to see and hear the different names in the classroom is through a class name graphing activity. Each student is given a strip of paper with their name written on it. (An editable PDF makes quick work of this!)
After counting the letters in their names, students can take turns placing their strips of paper on the graph of names. This activity also comes with a name graph worksheet that you can work together to complete.
Another fun name activity is to create a class book! Since learning to identify, spell, and write their name is an important task for students in kindergarten, this is a great activity to help students practice their own names while learning the names of their classmates.
Students can decorate a page containing the first letter of their name, then practice writing their name at the bottom. This printable class book also has an option to put each child’s picture on the page. After putting the book together with a binding or book rings, it can be left in the classroom library for students to browse during the first few weeks of school.
Another way to build classroom community is to have students work together on a back to school activity. This classroom number hunt is perfect for the first week of school!
Students can work together to find the ten numbered circles around the room, then color or circle the school supply shown on that circle. Students can use clipboards to make it easier to document their number hunt!
Since some students are entering a classroom for the very first time, it’s helpful to practice using school supplies during the first week of school. One of my favorite ways to teach students how to use liquid glue is with the “One Dot Club.”
Students can practice adding just one dot of glue at a time, then they can receive glitter on their glue dots to show that they made it into the club! This skill will be important as they complete a variety of kindergarten crafts throughout the year.
It’s also helpful for students to practice coloring with crayons. As students complete the pages of this back-to-school mini reader, you can remind them about using a “just right” amount of pressure on the crayons so they don’t break.
This is a fun book to help students get excited about learning to read, especially when they can take their books home to show their families!
When your class is ready, you can also have students practice using scissors as they create these fun back-to-school hats! Included in this hat craft are different “highlights” of the first day/week of school that students can color and glue to the hat.
Depending on when you want to use this resource, there are options for the first day of school and the first week of school. There are also options for grade levels besides kindergarten!
Another fun way to help students practice cutting and pasting is with these back to school mystery puzzles! Students can practice counting and number identification as they match the numbers on the puzzle pieces to the correct place on the puzzle. If you’d like to grab six mystery puzzles for free, just fill in the form below and they’ll be delivered straight to your inbox!
Once students are more familiar with how to use the school supplies, a back-to-school pencil craft can be a fun activity for the first week of school!
This adorable pencil craft can be created with or without eyes. Either way, this fun craft will look great on a back-to-school bulletin board!
Finally, a memory book for the first week of school is a great activity for students to work on over the course of several days. There are many different activities that students can complete, including a school bus craft for the cover! Students can document memories like their new teacher, friends, and even their feelings and goals.
This memory book will be a great keepsake to send home after the first week of school. Plus, it will be fun to compare the first week of school memory book with an end-of-the-year memory book!
Would you like to try these back to school activities for kindergarten? All of the activities shown above are included in a money-saving bundle! You’ll find a variety of activities to help your students process their first-day emotions, practice using school supplies, and more! You’ll even find a fun decoration that you can use to welcome students to your classroom. You can find this resource in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Be sure to add this pin to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest so that you can quickly find these back to school activities for later. You can come back to download and print whenever you’re ready.
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
