5 Fun Activities for the First Week of School

The first week of school is an exciting time in the primary classroom! If you teach kindergarten or 1st grade, you probably know that it’s also a tad busy during the first week! Having a variety of fun, low-prep activities to use throughout the first week of school will save you as your new kiddos adjust to the routine.

When it comes to first week of school activities, I always like to over-plan in case we have time to spare! In my book, it’s always better to have an extra activity that you can roll over to next week than not having enough to keep your kiddos occupied. Come along as I share 5 of my favorite activities to include in my plans for the first week of school!

1. Read Aloud Books

Great books are an absolute MUST for the first week of school! Taking the time to read to your students will help them learn the procedures for group time, get comfortable with their new setting and help welcome them to school. I love to focus on books that my students can relate to, and promote classroom community and kindness. Personally, I LOVE back-to-school-themed books, so it’s not hard for me to compile a list of good ones. Here are my faves for the first week of school:

• Our Class is a Family by Shannon Olsen
• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
• Schools First Day of School by Adam Rex
• The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
• The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing

If you’re anything like me, you likely have SO many books that the only hard part is choosing which to use. But if you’re still building your collection, be sure to check the local library and YouTube for read-alouds. There are so many other great titles out there for the first week of school.

In addition to read-alouds, I also love to put out books with a back-to-school theme in our class library during this time. Don’t forget to have a little chat with your kiddos about proper care of books first though.

2. Chrysanthemum Activities

Reading Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is a must at the beginning of the year! This story is the perfect way to teach about kindness and being careful what you say. Young students typically have a lot of empathy but may not always understand how their own words could hurt a friend. This is the perfect book to introduce those topics. Since I love this book and its lessons so much, I have put together a variety of Chrysanthemum Activities that are perfect for the first week of school.

First, we read the story together, then I use a kindness lesson where we practice listening for times when Chrysanthemum’s classmates used hurtful words. This lesson is a simple but powerful way to bridge the gap and raise awareness to be careful with our words!

After the lesson on being kind, I like to have my students work on a glyph activity to decorate their own Chrysanthemum flower. This is an engaging activity that will help ease your students into school work and help you get to know them. These also make a fun bulletin board display when everyone has finished.

Finally, we wrap up with a name activity. I like to use differentiated options for this activity based on the age and skill level of your students. Younger children will work on writing their names and tracing with different writing tools. Older kids can count letters, syllables, consonants, and vowels in their names. These are also fun to display during the first week, or save these pages for your student memory books!

3. Make Memory Book Pages During The First Week Of School

Speaking of memory books, do you have a plan for yours this year? In all the hustle and bustle of the first week, it can be all too easy to forget about these! When it comes to memory books, I love using a system that is easy to implement and doesn’t take a lot of prep. Over the years I have found that unless memory books are planned out ahead of time, they are easy to forget until the final weeks of school. No one wants to scramble around at that time to make memory books!

I wrote a whole post all about the simple system I use in our classroom for creating memory books. This system allows the children to do a page a month that includes their name, favorite memory, and a drawing. Since you’re building the memory books all year long, there’s no scrambling to finish them when school is done! Hooray!

This system has been a huge lifesaver in my classroom, so I always include this activity in our first-week plans. Getting these done right away gets me started off on the right foot with gathering work samples for memory books. It doesn’t get easier than this and parents will LOVE seeing the progression of their children’s handwriting, drawing and other skills throughout the school year. Grab everything you need for your Memory Books and take the stress out of that end of the year keepsake.

4. Get To Know You Games For The First Week of School

It’s no secret that kids LOVE games! Intentionally planning some fun games during the first week of school will ease up on some of the pressure, lighten the mood and help your new students get to know you and each other.

My favorite ice-breaker game to play the first week of school involves sitting in a circle and rolling a ball to each child, one at a time. Whoever has the ball gets to say their name and tell something about themselves. Depending on the age of your kiddos, you might want to provide a parameter like sharing your favorite color, food, or sport. You could also ask students to share a goal for the year or something they hope to learn. You can even play everyday for the first week with a new sharing topic each day. This casual game will help students get to know more about their classmates and start building connections.

I also love playing games that are just for fun like “Would you Rather”. For this one, I simply ask my group of students fun questions like “Would you rather play in the snow or at the beach?” or “Would you rather eat pizza or tacos?”. Fun questions like this will make your kiddos smile and lighten the mood. To play, I ask the question and then send students to different sides of the room based on their answer. It’s a fun and easy way to add a little movement into the day.

5. All About Me Banners

Another fun activity I love to include during the first week of school is making “All About Me” Banners. As a bonus, these double as a great bulletin board display for back-to-school night! These mini posters have spaces for students to fill in all kinds of fun information about themselves including:

• Name & Age
• Favorite Subject
• Birthday Month
• Favorite Food
• Favorite Color
• Favorite Movie

Students will love filling in the information and decorating their personal banners. When kiddos are done, string them together and display them on a bulletin board or in the hallway. Your students will love showing these off to their parents on back-to-school night.

I also have a version of this activity available in Google Slides. You can use the digital version for distance learning or for an easy way to add in some technology practice.

Start Planning Your Activities For The First Week Of School

I hope you found something fun to try in your classroom during the first week of school. While this time of year can feel a little crazy, I’m a firm believer that having a ton of fun activities prepped and ready to go will make it SO much easier. If you’re interested in any of the activities I use in my classroom, be sure to check out the Krafty in Kinder Shop on Teachers Pay Teachers. Have fun planning and enjoy your first week of school!

Save This Post For Later

Don’t forget to save this post to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so that you’ll be all set when it comes time to plan your first week of school activities!