Back to school can be an exciting time but also very overwhelming, especially for graduate teachers. Even after 13 years of teaching I still feel nervous leading up to the first day of school! I would always have a dream where all the students run away from me! This post is to help with back to school activities kindergarten as I always get questions over on Instagram about the best back to school activities kindergarten and grade 1 and how to prepare and be organised for the first week of school. I hope you find some useful tips and the freebies useful!
Classroom Decor and Organisation
I want to start by saying that you do not need to have a beautiful and perfect classroom. The most important thing in your classroom is the relationships you have with your students. Your students don’t need an amazing colour coordinated classroom to be able to learn. Each year I have built upon my classroom design and decor to get to a place where I am really happy with it. But chances are, you are a teacher and we love decorating and coordinating for that matter and you have an idea of how you would like your classroom to look and feel.
I like to make my classroom feel homely and welcoming, I love the feeling of walking in to the room and feeling happy – it can help on those crazy busy days (and after all your classroom is your second home you spend so much time there!) But do remember less is more – too much can be distracting to the students learning. It’s no good just sticking posters all over every wall if you are not going to use them or reference them when teaching. Create displays as you go with the students and then display their work.
Here’s a list of some things you may want to prep and have ready to display for the first week back at school:
– birthday chart
– weather chart
– calendar
– book box labels
– daily timetable
– helpers
– name desk tags
– WALT/ WILF or learning intention/ success criteria
– alphabet posters
– number posters (here’s a rainbow number freebie)
– sound wall
– months of the year
– days of the week
– welcome door display (here’s my free unicorn one)
– how many days at school
You can download a free printable check list here:
back to school checklist for teachers pdf
Remember you don’t NEED all these things, pick and choose which things you think may be helpful for you and the students.
Behaviour and expectations
The most important focus in the first week should be building relationships so that students feel they have a safe place to learn. One of the first things I like to do together is to create a classroom agreement together. Brainstorm with students what they expect the classroom to look, feel and sound like. I like the students to draw pictures of how they would like their classroom to feel and look. I then add the pictures to a poster and display it where students can see it and it can be easily referred to.
In the first week I like to take photos of students showing the correct behaviours and routines so they can be displayed at eye level and pointed to if needed. For example I like to have a photo of students sitting on the mat with legs and hands to themselves and eyes looking to the speaker, then I can just point to the photo during mat sessions if a student needs reminding of how to sit on the mat safely.
Have high expectations from the start and explicitly teach everything, don’t assume students know what to do or how to behave.
Use an attention grabber (bell, chimes, horn, squeaky toy), I have a rubber chicken from Kmart I squeeze as soon as they hear it students put their hands on their head. You can also use a chant or clap and copy. Some of my favourites are:
T: Ready to rock? S: Ready to roll!
T: Hands on top! S: That means stop!
T: Hocus Pocus! S: Everybody focus
And also singing “everybody do this, do this, everybody do this just like me!” (Students copy actions eg patting head, shoulders, clapping etc)
Morning meeting
I like to start the day with a morning meeting, where we all sit in a circle, say good morning, go through the daily timetable, review class expectations and school values and then play a quick game. I find this really sets the tone for the day, the students look forward to it and it helps build relationships and a class community. This is also a great time where you could include things like calendar, weather chart and sharing news.
Game ideas for prep and year 1:
-Detective game (someone is in charge of the chant/clapping and the detective needs to work out who it is.)
-Heads and Tails
-Follow the leader
-Heads Down, Thumbs Up
– Dog and bone
– Guess the magic number
Favourite back to school read alouds
Here are some of my favourite back to school books to read during the first few weeks. If you don’t have copies of the book you can always watch and listen to the story on YouTube!
Our class is a family – by Shannon Olsen
Starting school – Jane Godwin
David goes to school – David Shannon
Oh David – David Shannon
Old friends, New friends – by Andrew Daddo
First day – Andrew Daddo
The wild guide to starting school – Laura and Phillip Bunting
The pigeon has to go to School – Mo Willems
Spot Goes to School – Eric Hill
Wombat goes to School – Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
The things I love about school – Trace Moroney
First week back to school activities kindergarten
Here’s some back to school activities kindergarten ideas that I have used with kindy, prep (foundation) and year 1 in the first week back to school.
I always go through a few ‘Meet the teacher’ slides with the students to share some interesting facts and fun things about me, introduce my family and pets and favourite hobbies and interests.
All about me activity – a great way to get to know your students. I have this free about me bunting activity (download here) I love use with my students. I then take a photo of them holding a book so that I can cut around them and glue it to the top of the bunting to make it look like they are holding it. Such a great display for the classroom!
Self portrait art activity – using a variety of materials. The portrait pictures that I love to do; I have the students draw themselves with pencil and then use chalk pastels to creare a colourful background and then using black paint go over the pencil lines to make it stand out.
Whole body outlines – trace around the students and they paint themselves , a photo looks great of their face to stick on too! They look fabulous displayed around the windows if you have space.
Collect first week work samples like writing their name, drawing of themselves a writing piece. It is great to collect for a portfolio sample or just to compare to the end of the year.
Name craft activity like painting over masking tape craft or free train craft
A Drawing/ writing activity to go along with a back to school picture book. I always love using ‘No David’ and doing a guided drawing of David, and the students can draw a picture about how they’d like to feel in the classroom.
Here’s a copy of my phonics and literacy block planner if you’d like some inspiration :
Literacy and phonics planner example
And see a copy of my prep/1 planner for an example of a week in the first few weeks back at school in a kindergarten and grade 1 split.
Have a great first week back!
No matter how prepared you are for the first week back of school, I’m sure there will still be nerves. As it is the unknown, but just know the students will be so excited and they will guide how the first day and week will go.
Freebies!
Just incase you missed them – Dont forget to download your back to school check list, name craft, planner and about me bunting.
