40 Creative and Fun First-Day-of-School Activities for All Grades
Whether they're kindergarteners, elementary schoolers or middle schoolers, these back-to-school ideas will ease them into the 2024-2025 school year.
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The day has finally arrived: Their lunch bags are full. Their backpacks are packed. Their school supplies are organized. Their parents have snapped their photos — featuring those all-important first-day-of-school signs — they've cried their tears, and they've waved goodbye. The students have entered the building and are ready for the first day of school. Now, all that's left to do is celebrate back-to-school season with these the best first-day-of-school activities.
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Some of them are icebreakers, which will help the class get to know each other (and help teachers get to know their students). Others are quick learning activities that will activate their brains right away. Some are back-to-school crafts, so they'll have accomplished something that they can bring home and show off on the first day. Others help create expectations for how things will be run, like class rules or schedules, or look at the year ahead and set goals and objectives. Whether it's their first time in a school setting or they're old pros, there's bound to be an activity on this list that will get the year started off on the right foot. Then, before you know it, it'll already be time to think about celebrating the last day of school.
Apple Books
These little apple books could be used in so many different ways. In addition to photos of the students, they can be filled with affirmations, reminders of class rules or "about me" facts.
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.
Back-to-School Survey
The Daring English Teacher suggests having kids complete a first-day-of-school survey, so teachers can learn more about their students. The survey can include questions about their hobbies, goals and accomplishments to make the most of the school year.
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.
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).
STEM Name Tag Challenge
Get started on their STEM skills right away by challenging them to make a name tag that meets certain criteria. They'll be measuring, designing and engineering in no time!
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.
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.
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.
"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).
DIY Pencil Holders
If they make a pencil holder on the first day, they'll be able to use it all year. Kids can easily DIY their own with recycled cans and color cardstock.
Pennant Glyph
Scaffolded Math and Science shares a fun activity where kids make these math-themed pennants by following instructions. For example, they'll have to color the stars based on their favorite class or color the hearts based on their birth month.
Craft Stick School Bus
Kids will love making these fridge-worthy magnets that feature a photo from the first day of school (and/or their silliest faces). It's easy to DIY using craft sticks and craft foam.
Get the tutorial at Reading Confetti »
RELATED: The Best Tips for Creative First-Day-of-School Pictures
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.
Paper Clip Bookmarks
These adorable bookmarks are easy crafts to make with ribbon and colorful paper clips. Plus, kids may find them useful when reading their favorite books or referencing important sections in their textbooks.
Sticky-Note Expectations
Ask questions on a giant sheet of paper, and let students "fill in the blank" on Post-It notes that they can stick on the page. Beware: This teacher went through 600 notes on the first day!
All About Me Caterpillar
Let them choose their favorite selfie for the "caterpillar's" face, then have them answer questions about their favorites for each body part. Consider doing this craft every year to see how their responses may change.
Get-to-Know-You Jenga
Jenga is fun on its own, but with a few tweaks, it can also be a good icebreaker. This colorful set comes with different questions to answer based on what color block gets pulled.
Get the tutorial and printable at Teaching With Jennifer Findley »
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
Guide them through a few different patterns they can try with the beads, then have them proudly display their name necklace for the first week at school. Or, if they're really advanced, see if they can code their names in binary.
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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