3 back to school activities that work!

For those first few weeks of school, you want to have tried and true activities that work for you and your students. It’s important to lay the foundation for a fantastic year by getting to know your students and setting classroom expectations. There are a wide range of resources for back-to-school activities. These 3 activities are some of my favorites and have proven to work year after year. These are fun, engaging activities that feature math and writing but also allow you to get to know your new students. Helping students settle in and set up for a great year always ends in success! I hope you enjoy these back-to-school activities as much as I did!

The first week of school can be a little crazy. These three activities are perfect for getting to know students, learning rules and procedures and getting to see what your students know and can do.

First Week of School Writing Book

Let’s be honest, the first week of school can be chaotic at times and usually seems to fly right by. Save yourself time and energy by having all your writing activities prepped and ready to go for the entire first week!

This my first week of school book is a great writing activity during the first week of school. Get to know your students and their writing ability with this fun writing activity.

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Complete one or two pages a day each day during the first week. At the end of the week compile them all into a My First Week of School Book for each student. I would complete one page in the morning and one page in the afternoon. Each time we would review our classroom procedures for writer’s workshop, how to find and put away supplies, and what to do during independent writing time. It was a great way to lay the foundation for these procedures and also get a peek into my students’ writing skills.

You can also use this book as more of an early finisher activity or to fill those few minutes of space. If you complete one on one beginning of the year assessments, this is a great activity for students to work on while you are working with other students. This book can easily be stopped and started multiple times during the day or week.

Create a wonderful first week of school keepsake with this class writing activity.

When these books are finished they make a great keepsake to send home and share with their families. This book features an adorable cover and engaging activities that will allow students to introduce themselves. Some of the pages include all about me, my first day, our classroom rules, my new friends, and more! Students always have a blast when they get to be creative and talk about their own interests and hobbies. This back-to-school book is the perfect activity to kick off the new year!

Back to school writing activities

This guide all about me writing activity starts with brainstorming and then leads students to a final writing piece.

Keeping with the theme of writing, this Back to School writing pack is ready to print and go. This resource will help you get to know your student with 3 different writing activities each focused on a different type of writing.

First up is informational writing with the All About Me activity. Students will write about themselves, their hobbies, birthday, favorite foods, and more. The students will love getting to be the topic of their first writing activity! You will love getting to know a little more about each of your new students.

This resource includes 3 writing activities each in a different writing style (informative, opinion, personal narrative)

Next is an activity that focuses on opinion writing. Your students will write about what they like doing outside of school and explain why. Another great way to learn more about each student. You can really get a little glimpse into their personality with this activity. In years past I’ve been able to identify my adventurous students, those that love the arts, and those who love sports all from this one writing activity.

The third writing activity is a personal narrative section all about summertime fun! Let your students’ creativity shine as they write about their summer. By the end of this third writing activity you have a really good glimpse into each student as well as great beginning of the year writing samples.

Back to school with numbers

Switching gears a bit, but just as important, is some first week of school math! I have always loved to incorporate math into our real life as much as possible. The first week of school, with all its new information, is a great time for connecting math to the classroom. These activities help ease students into the work we will be doing throughout the year and helped me gauge their skills.

A great first week math activity is this how do we go home graphing activity.

This How We Go Home Data and Graphing activity is so much fun and perfect for the first day of school! Unlike the other activities, this is one that students can work together on as a class. You will start by creating a large “How We Go Home” picture graph. This activity covers data collection, picture graphs, bar graphs, tally tables, and interpreting data . . . how fun, right?! Three options are included so you can have just the right “going home” options for you class.

Back to school activities that work

All three of these first week activities have been used in my classroom for years. And every year they work! They provide quality lessons and activities for the students that not only teach, but also give opportunities for reinforcing classroom rules and procedures. They also are great for getting to know more about each student, an important first week goal.

Back to school is always one of the busiest times of the year, but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Activities that are fun and engaging but also teach and practice key concepts will kick off the year with a bang! And . . . these activities are all LOW PREP for you! That’s a win for the first week of school. You can find all of these activities in the Fun Time in First store on Teachers Pay Teachers.