Back to School Activities
The beginning of the year is arguably the busiest time as an educator. You’re forming new relationships with students, establishing routines and management, and trying to build classroom community. Not to mention that you’re balancing expectations from administration, lesson planning (on your own time) and anything else going on in your personal life. Your time and energy are valuable. I want to help make your life easier, so here are some of the best back to school activities!
Classroom Community Building Activities
Classroom community building is crucial for a successful school year. It helps ease any negative back to school feelings and creates a welcoming classroom environment.
Our Class is a Family
You NEED this book! Our Class is a Family is the perfect read aloud to build classroom community. I recommend reading this on the first day and revisiting it throughout the year. It really sets the tone for a welcoming classroom environment and has tons of fun crafts that go along with it!
One easy option is to create an Our Class is a Family anchor chart. There are many ways to add your own spin to this: you can talk about ways to spread kindness, reasons why your class is so special, or even create a class family promise (I always recommend including your students in this process because it holds them accountable to the rules and expectations). The author, Shannon Olsen, also explains how she incorporates the themes in this read aloud to build classroom community.
friendship activities for kids
How to be a good friend is a topic worth revisiting each year (and throughout the months). One of the reasons children have back to school jitters is because they’re worried about making friends. Having discussions on how to be a good friend is beneficial and gives guidelines on why certain actions are appropriate or not.
I love starting off with friendship read alouds. Stick and Stone, The Invisible Boy and How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends are some examples. Read alouds give your class a shared experience to then build upon. Discuss how to be a good friend: what makes someone a good friend? What do they say or do? I love recording this onto an anchor chart so they have a visual to keep referring to. After, review this information with a fun sorting activity and word search.
Finally, culminate all the activities by having your class send friendship grams! This let’s them practice and promote kindness in school. You can even reuse these grams as friendship day activities or anytime you want to build classroom community!
Activities for Social Emotional Learning
Back to School Feelings
Students come into their new class with a wide range of emotions, and providing them a safe space to identify and share is key to incorporating social emotional learning. One easy way to do this is to create a first day of school feelings chart. This lets them see that others are feeling the same emotions while touching upon math concepts! You can create one large graph as a class or have students create their own. After, complete a back to school feelings craft. This incorporates art and writing, and can serve as a back to school bulletin board idea (seeing their own work displayed on the walls can help foster a sense of belonging).
Confidence Building Activity
Back to school activities are important because they set the tone for your classroom culture. I love including a Confidence Building Activity into our social emotional learning block because it’s key to building self esteem and a positive classroom environment. Kids love making crowns and wear them proudly. How much more meaningful would it be if they decorated it with positive affirmations about themselves? Hearing your students say phrases like “I am a friend” will easily become one of your favorite memories. It gets even sweeter when they help their peers come up with their own positive affirmations too!
I would complete this Confidence Building Activity after introducing your affirmation mirror. This sequence lets you continue building confidence in your students and make a long lasting impact. Don’t know what an affirmation mirror is? Look here!
Want more back to school activities?
Growth mindset is another important topic to cover! Children with growth mindset are more likely to persevere and have high self esteem. Here are my top 3 favorite growth mindset activities.
Regardless of which back to school activities you choose, you’ll make lasting memories with your students. I hope this year is the best one yet!
