Kicking off the school year with a bang tops the list of just about every classroom teacher. This post shares over 30 fresh ideas for back to school activities that can be used in upper elementary classrooms! Grab a pen and your planning book, teacher friend. You’re going to enjoy this!
**This post contains affiliate links that pay a small commission to this site. Please see full disclosure here.**
Back to School Ideas
The first few days and weeks of school are crucial! I call them the “foundation-setting days.” No pressure, right?!
We are all searching for back to school activities that cover most, if not all, of these goals:
- Build classroom community
- Establish classroom procedures
- Review academic content
- Gather information on skills students retained or lost over the summer
- Set positive teacher-student relationships
- Have Fun and Not Go Crazy!
So I’m sharing a few of the back to school activities that I have used with my upper elementary students.
Back to School Classmate Scavenger Hunt
Since I want students to have fun while building community and forging relationships, I LOVE using classmate scavenger hunts!
Students move around the class with this printable that resembles a bingo board. They get signatures from classmates on things that help them get to know each other.
The items on my classmate scavenger hunt include things that will allow students to talk about their summer (which they DEFINITELY want to do!) while also getting the wiggles out!
PLUS, I use this back to school activity as a chance to practice and model my classroom procedures and expectations for HOW I want students to move around my classroom.
“Can You Guess Who?” Writing
Although the first days of school can be used for having fun and teaching procedures, I also want students to begin practicing important learning skills the first day of school!
One of the ways to combine fun while learning is through fun writing assignments like “Can You Guess Who?”
Here’s how it works:
- Students write 5 sentences about themselves without revealing their names.
- I take pictures of them that will be attached under a secret flap.
- We hang the sentences & secret pictures up around the classroom or on a bulletin board .
- Students read each other’s sentences to try and “guess who” from the clues written.
My students LOVE having their pictures under the secret flap! They also really enjoy making guesses about the clues they read for classmates’ writing.
This back to school idea gives students a chance to get to know each other through writing, which gives me a chance to see their writing skills!
The writing isn’t intimidating or difficult to complete, so it’s a super easy idea to implement.
I love being able to sneak in some fun writing activities as soon as school starts!
First Day Jitters Back to School Read-Aloud Activity
What are your plans for the first day of school? π€
You obviously want to make the best impression as soon as your kiddos come back to school, so I highly recommend this first day activity.
I’ve used First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg for years! It’s my favorite read-aloud to use during the beginning of the school year.
Not only is it a good book to describe how teachers feel for the first day, but it also helps you connect better with your students’ “jitter-y” feelings!
The book-aligned activities that I’ve designed to go with this also include other fun graphic organizers that make excellent back to school activities in general.
This fun addition to your plans will build community while also supporting school readiness with reading.
FREE Back to School Lesson Plans for Upper Elementary
Speaking of plans, if you want a head start on the school year, feel free to grab these free lesson plans.
I’ve designed them to work best for students in 2nd through 5th grade, but you can modify them as needed.
They include all of the back to school activities in this post + even more ideas for the first month of school.
Here’s the “Scoop” About Me: All About Me Craft
The first weeks of school work perfectly for getting to know each other activities.
This usually includes any “all about me” crafts and worksheets. That’s why I like to also kick off the school year with this hands-on craft.
Not only is it easy to assemble, but it’s also fun to watch kids put it all together.
Even though I created this craft for the first day of school, I’ve had teacher friends use it during open house and meet the teacher night. Here’s what they did:
- Had all the ice cream pieces cut out and spread on a table. π¦
- Since it’s editable, they changed some of the ice cream scoop topics for parents to also fill them out. This helped them get to know even more about their students.
- Once the students assembled their craft, the teachers put them up for a back to school bulletin board.
I can only imagine how exciting it must have been for students to return back for their first day and see their all-about-me cone on display.
If your back to school night happens before the first day AND you know that all your students will attend, then definitely try it this way.
Or you can enjoy it during the first week of school like I do. π€ You can grab the full set HERE.
Fun Learning Centers For Back to School
Another back to school idea for upper elementary classrooms is to have learning centers / stations around the class with fun activities.
Wait! Don’t hyper-ventilate on me! Teachers tend to get very anxious about setting up centers! But this back to school activity isn’t meant to be complicated at all!
I put my students in fixed groups and try to keep them equal as much as possible. For instance, I will have 5 groups with 4 students each.
Before students arrive, I will set up fun learning stations around my classroom. These are stations that don’t require any pre-teaching from me.
I use learning games like:
- Match-It Math games
- Spin & Write Part of Speech activity
- Simple Editing Task Cards with fun back to school themes
Each game covers content that students already know. I do not recommend having any learning stations with games that introduce new content.
The goal is for these stations to be simple, yet engaging to keep students interested. But I also really want to see how students work together in groups since I use so many literacy centers and math partner games throughout the school year.
Plus, these games are easy to organize and store. Back-to-school is already hectic enough on teachers, so I want simple stations to set-up and clean up.
This back to school idea allows students to have fun collaborating, but it also gives you a chance to begin teaching your group-work procedures.
Classroom Procedures Games
What are the goals of every back to school activity for my upper elementary students?
- Build community
- Begin reviewing academic skills
- Establish classroom procedures
I want to start establishing classroom procedures and connecting relationships with every single activity!
So it’s no wonder that my next back-to-school idea for upper elementary classrooms is to play classroom procedures games!
Here are some fun ideas for teaching procedures during those first days and weeks of school:
- Use Kahoot to play team games reviewing procedures.
- Play Charades to practice what NOT to do in class.
- Turn popular gameboards like this one into procedures games by incorporating your classroom rules into the game.
Using fun games to teach classroom procedures is a win-win back to school activity! It allows you to establish an organized classroom environment AND it gives your kiddos a chance to have fun learning.
Back to School Read Aloud Activities
One of my favorite back to school activities to do with my kiddos involves read-alouds!
I have a full list of my favorite back to school read alouds HERE. The list also has free printables you can use in your classroom too.
To jazz up my read alouds for back to school, I include simple snacks or activities that allow movement. Here are some examples:
- For my First Day Jitters (Julie Danneberg) book, I bring in Capri Suns covered with labels that say “Jitter Juice.” We read the book outside and talk about it while enjoying our drink.
You can mix your own juice, but I really enjoy how quick it is to put a label on juice packs. They also make clean up easier!
Photo Courtesy of Second Grade Fun
PLUS–I add our jitter juice to small ice cream cones to enjoy on the first day. Since I like using the “scoop” about me craft mentioned above, having real ice cream with our juice just works. π¦
- I read books like The Recess Queen (Alexis O’neill) where a character breaks school rules. Then students act out sections of the book to model correctly following school rules as if they were that character.
- We even complete fun crafts with books like My Mouth is a Volcano (Julia Cook).
Don’t underestimate how engaging and effective read-alouds can be for your back to school activities. Reading out loud to students in 3rd through 5th grade works like a charm when you choose high-interest books with interesting characters.
What About the Reading Levels?
Since the goal of back-to-school read alouds is to build community, cover procedures, and have fun reviewing during those first days of school, I don’t stress about making sure I read books on certain levels.
Students need to be free to focus on the main idea of the back to school book you choose. They will have plenty of chances in your class to read on-level books like these chapter books.
Engaging No-Prep Back to School Activities
Preparing for the first weeks of school can be so time-consuming. π³
As you probably already know, there’s no tired like back to school or end of the year teacher tired!
So, there’s NO judgment if you want fun printables that work well as your back to school activities.
I’m right there with you because there are plenty of times when you need some great worksheets that students can work on. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge it. ππΎ
This new Back to School Activities pack was specially designed to kickstart the school year with excitement and engagement! With 15 fun and interactive activities (printable + digital), this resource is perfect to use during the first week back to school.
No need to spend hours planning and prepping – simply print and go! β
Here’s what you get with this set:
- Lesson Plan Notes for each activity
- Back to School Activity Book Covers: male, female, & non-binary
- Welcome Back Student Questionnaire
- Inside Out–Self Portrait –Get to Know Me Activity
- Whereβs My Pencil? Word Search
- Summer Snapshots Drawing
- My Summer in a Nutshell Writing Activity
- New School Symmetry Math Drawing
- First Week Counts–Goal Setting for the New Year
- Dear Teacher Letter Writing
- Recess Hunt Word Search
- I Spy School Supply
- My Number Story–Math-Themed Getting to Know Each Other
- Best School Day Ever Creative Writing
- Text Message Talk Activity–Team Building
- Back to School Color by Code–2 Versions
- My Future is So Bright Writing
Back to Search Word Searches and Puzzles
All of the back to school activities that I mentioned above can work in a variety of situations, but I like to step it up even more.
I add a set of fun word searches and puzzles with those printables to create a back to school activity book. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge it. ππΎ
Binding all the pages together makes it super easy for the kids and me! It creates an instant early finisher pack.
Now, throughout the first month of school, students have a full set with over 30 back to school worksheets covering a variety of topics. π
Beach Ball Ice Breaker
Another fun back to school activity for upper elementary students is what I call the “Beach Ball Ice Breaker.”
Get a beach ball like this or some other ball you can write on. You can write questions that you want students to answer OR you can write a “talking prompt” to encourage conversation.
I love the questions used here by a teacher named Lana: 4 the Love of Teaching.
Click the link to see how she uses this back to school activity.
Students will stand in a circle and toss the ball (gently) to one another. They will choose a question or prompt to answer. I give them a 1-2 minute time limit to talk, then pass the ball to someone who hasn’t spoken yet.
This activity really helps if you happen to have a chatty class! They get to talk about themselves and get to know each other.
I use this back-to-school idea mostly at the end of the day when we have packed up and have a little bit of time left before dismissal.
What Are Your Favorite Back to School Activities?
Hopefully you found some fresh ideas here to help you and your students have fun for back to school! π€©
Share in the comments below some of your favorite activities for back to school. Then feel free to pin this post for later use. π
