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The kindergarten classroom is an exciting place to be at the beginning of the year! There are so many things that young kindergarten students are experiencing for the very first time. To help students make special kindergarten memories while learning important skills, you might consider adding crafts to your lesson plans. Keep reading for some of my favorite back to school crafts for kindergarten!
With everything going on at the beginning of the school year, it might feel like crafts could be something to skip. In reality, it’s a great idea to incorporate crafts into your back-to-school lesson plans! Here are just a few reasons why:
Channel Big Feelings – Starting kindergarten can be a very emotional milestone for your new students! Creating something is a great way for them to channel some of those big feelings.
Practice Using School Supplies – Many students start kindergarten having never used scissors or school glue before! The best way for students to learn these skills is by using them. Crafts can help your students practice using school supplies with a fun activity.
Build Community – Crafts are such a great way to break the ice in your classroom! Students often need to share supplies as they work, which can help them practice social skills. Plus, students are always eager to talk about their completed projects. This can help to find common ground among your students at the beginning of the year.
Crafts can enhance your lesson plans for the entire first month of kindergarten! Here are some of my favorite back to school crafts that will take you from the first day of school to your first thematic unit at the beginning of the school year.
“The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn is a go-to book for the beginning of kindergarten. After reading this book with your class, students can complete this fun raccoon craft to help them remember this story and their first day of kindergarten.
If you’re interested in using this craft in your classroom, just head over to my blog post with free lesson plans and activities for the first day of kindergarten. You’ll be able to grab the free templates and instructions for this raccoon craft!
Creating a first day of kindergarten hat is a great way for students to practice following directions and using school supplies.
The hats can serve multiple purposes; they are a fun memento from the first day of school but they can also help school staff easily locate and support the new kindergarten students during recess, dismissal, and other transition times.
This pencil craft is a great way for students to continue to build their fine motor skills during the first week of school. This pencil craft comes with different template options, so you can decide which would work best for your students.
Either way, this makes a perfect back-to-school bulletin board! Students are always so excited to look for their pencil on the wall.
This school bus craft can double as a cover page for a first week of school memory book!
Students can practice spelling their names as they put together this school bus craft. This is also a great way to review basic shapes with students as they follow the directions for assembling the craft.
The school bus, pencil, and hat crafts are all included in one resource that’s full of back-to-school activities for kindergarten. Just click below to find these crafts in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or in my TPT store.
As you transition into your daily learning routine after the first week of school, your students will be introduced to many different letters of the alphabet. Since it takes many exposures to a new concept in order for it to stick, it’s helpful to use a variety of alphabet activities when introducing letters to kindergarten students.
These alphabet crafts are perfect for practicing uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and letter sounds. They are a great way to supplement your literacy instruction during the first month of school.
If you are practicing shape identification with your students during the first few weeks of school, you can use fun shape crafts to give your students more opportunities to practice shape names and attributes.
Students can review shapes as they build different pictures by putting together a variety of shapes. Once each picture has been assembled, students can count the individual shapes used to create the picture. These shape crafts are great for small group instruction, math centers, morning work, or even homework!
Once your learning routine is up and running, a thematic unit is the perfect addition to the first month of school. One of my favorite themes for September is an apple unit! This set of apple activities includes multiple apple crafts.
For example, this 3D apple craft is always a hit with students! Each side of this craft includes a different part of the apple life cycle. Students are able to learn new vocabulary words as they practice following directions and fine motor skills.
Students can also identify the parts of an apple as they assemble this apple craft. The completed apple crafts make a fun fall bulletin board or classroom display.
Be sure to check out my post that’s full of apple activities for kindergarten to find even more apple crafts that you can use at the beginning of the school year!
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite kindergarten board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these craft ideas when you’re putting together your lesson plans for the beginning of the year.
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!
