Here are some simple and engaging activities you can use for the first week of preschool or kindergarten. Each activity is paired with a back to school book to make your planning even easier!
1. David Goes to School by David Shannon
I LOVE reading the No, David series by David Shannon during the first week of school because the kids are so engaged with it! They love seeing all the crazy things David does which serves as a great conversation starter for appropriate behavior at school. I ask students what rule David is breaking on each page: Be Safe, Be Kind, or Work Hard (see my posters below). Another great thing about these books is that students love to "read" these books independently during their reading or library center! You can hear them saying "No, David!" and laughing about each page even if they've read it 50 times before! This series is absolutely worth its weight in gold.
For this activity, we read David Goes to School and discuss all the things David should and shouldn't do. Students then create a David craft by counting out the right number of each facial features and gluing them onto David. They then tell me something David should do, and I write it on a speech bubble for their David. Grab this activity for FREE on my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
2. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
This is one of my favorite books to read on the first day of school. It acknowledges the anxiety that students might have while measuring them that their family's love goes along with them to school each day! After reading this book, I give each student a heart sticker to wear to remind them that their family loves them!
Students then make these cute first day of school hats by coloring it and attaching little gem stickers! I use sentence strips for the back of the hat. These are cute for first day of school pictures and also give students something they can show their parents as soon as they go home!
3. How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? By Jane Yolen
These How Do Dinosaurs books are always a favorite in preschool! They show dinosaurs doing all sorts of bad things then show the appropriate way to act in different situations. I like to read How Do Dinosaurs Go to School before introducing cutting. We talk about the right and wrong things to do with scissors before we make Rainbow Confetti! I found the idea for Rainbow Confetti at Play to Learn Preschool. They have a great video explaining the lesson here. Kids love this activity and repeat it during art center for weeks! You can grab my rainbow confetti labels free in my Free Resource Library or you can grab Play to Learn Preschool's labels on their website here!
4. Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin
Pete the Cat is always a hit each year! We teach a week of Pete themed fun later in the year, but I love to bring in Rocking in My School Shoes during the first week of school because it introduces students to different areas in the school for a fun guessing game. After reading this book, we make a class book where students see a photo of shoes on the front and have to guess who's shoes they are! The student's photo will be on the back.
Students can trace or write their name on the back and can decorate their page. I love using class books because students read them over and over in the classroom library throughout the year. This is also great for helping students learn each other's name and how to read and recognize their names.
What Else?
Besides these activities, I spend a lot of time during the first week teaching procedures and expectations. I like to have a visual anchor chart for each procedure I teach in the first weeks. This helps them to remember the steps for each procedure as we practice and practice, and practice again! These carpet time activities focus on teaching procedures and learning each others' names!
I also practice turn taking and carpet expectations with carpet songs. I use Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee (grab it free on my TPT store) on the first days to introduce and practice students' names and also sing 5 Little Speckled Frogs at the end of the week. Students love these songs all year!
What are your favorite back to school activities?
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