This Slime Craft Will Make Your Kid's First Day Back to School More Fun
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Once the fun-filled days of summer come to an end, it's time for kids to settle back into a routine. While you might have organized their school supplies, purchased an everyday backpack and settled on a new lunch box to set them up for success, there's room for a little entertainment, too. Enter our roundup of the best back-to-school activities to start the school year off right. It's the perfect way to relieve any first-day jitters they have about meeting their new teacher and classmates.
The activities below are creative and fun projects for various age groups, including kindergarteners, elementary schoolers and middle schoolers. Some of our suggestions even make great at-home learning activities for toddlers! Among our wide range of crafts for kids are sponge boats, craft stick buses, photo magnets and construction pencil holders. We've even added a collection of social-emotional learning (SEL) options, such as health check-ins, guided meditations and personal letter writing. What's more, many of these activities will teach kids the basics of critical thinking, mathematics, science and English.
Keep scrolling to help the kids in your life say goodbye to their nervousness and focus on learning and making new friends for the school year!
DIY Pencil Holders
A pencil holder always comes in handy in the classroom. Kids can easily DIY their own with recycled cans and Astrobrights color cardstock.
Get the tutorial at Crafts by Amanda »
Sponge Boat Craft and Race
Gather kids for a day of crafts and friendly competition! They'll build boats out of sponges and craft sticks before letting them sail across a water-filled bucket to determine which one is the fastest.
Get the tutorial at The Craft Train »
Fireworks in a Vase Experiment
This is a cool experiment that'll have them staring in awe at their creations. Make underwater fireworks with food coloring and watch the burst of colors when oil is added to the mix.
Get the tutorial at One Little Project »
Preschool Counting Activity
Here's a learning activity that will teach them the basics of counting and recognizing numbers. Start by drawing and cutting out mini kites. Attach them to pipe cleaners before adding beads for the kids to count.
Get the tutorial at Emma Owl »
DIY Oobleck
Mix water, corn starch and food coloring to make this slimy oobleck (named after a fictional substance in a Dr. Suess book!). We can only imagine how long they'll play in the goo once it's finished.
Get the tutorial at Crafts by Amanda »
Craft Stick School Bus
Kids will love making these fridge-worthy magnets that feature their school photos (and silliest faces, too!). It's easy to DIY using craft sticks and craft foam.
Get the tutorial at Reading Confetti »
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.
Get the survey at Teachers Pay Teachers »
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.
Get the instructions at The Partiologist »
All About Me Caterpillar
Let them choose their favorite selfie for the "caterpillar's" face, then have them answer questions about their hobbies for each body part. Consider doing this craft every year to see how their responses may change.
Get the printable at Happy Tot Shelf »
RELATED: Fun Learning Activities for Preschoolers
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.
Get the instructions and pennants at Teachers Pay Teachers »
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.
See more 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.
Kindness Clips
Get kids in the habit of lifting each other's spirits. With this activity, kids can put positive messages on clothespins, then clip them to their friends' backpacks for a mood boost.
Get the tutorial at Happiness Is Homemade »
STEM 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!
Get the tutorial at For the Love of Teachers »
Set Goals
Keep their eyes on the prize with a goal-setting activity, which involves writing down something they'd like to accomplish this year. Teacher Linda Kamp has her kids write them in self-portraits to decorate the classroom and, in Olympic years, she gives them gold medals to glue on, too.
Get the template at Teachers Pay Teachers »
Sorting Project
Every student learns differently. This sorting activity from Mrs. E Teaches Math gets kids thinking about their own learning styles, and lets the teacher take a classroom temperature, too.
Get the activity at Teachers Pay Teachers »
Apple Tag
Students are known to bring an apple to the teacher on the first day of school, but this activity lets them make their own, either for their desks or a bulletin board. Some tissue paper and watered-down glue make for a fruitful activity.
Get the tutorial at Stay Small Art Club »
Photo Magnets
Not only are photo magnets a cute memento of the first day of school, but they'll also help everyone in the class learn each other's names.
Get the tutorial at Mrs. Strawberry »
Beach Ball Questions
Get brains and bodies working in tandem with this activity. Whoever catches the ball has to answer the question that their thumbs land on!
Get the tutorial at Teaching in Paradise »
Self-Portrait Paper Dolls
Another way for the class to get to know one another is to create a group "portrait" of paper dolls on a bulletin board. Everyone gets to showcase their style through their dolls' outfit.
Get the tutorial at Buggy and Buddy »
Emoji Code
Being welcomed to class with a note from a teacher is nice and all, but deciphering your own from a secret code is even more fun!
Get the tutorial at Jewel's School Gems »
RELATED: Fun Science Experiments for Kids
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.
Get the tutorial at Charity Mika »
Write a Letter to Themselves
Tell them to write a letter to a very special pen pal — themselves. They can include private thoughts on their hopes, fears and anxieties for the next year. Deliver the letter on the last day of school, and they can see how much has changed over the course of the year.
Class Rules
Kids will be more likely to follow the rules if they have a hand in shaping them. On the first day, it might be helpful to establish the class rules and brainstorm examples of following them. This teacher recommends reading Do Unto Otters first to get the ball rolling.
Get the tutorial at Teachers Without Tears »
Bingo Scavenger Hunt
Hide written numbers around the room, then have the kids place their blocks on their cards once they find the numbers. Or, have a first-day-of-school party where you can play a modified version of "Find the Guest" Bingo. Kids will be searching for classmates who can hula hoop, write with their left hand, bike to school and more! You can come up with your own attributes that will best fit your class.
Summer Memories
Read some of the funny poems in What I Did on My Summer Vacation, then go around the room and have kids take turns either talking about or drawing their own summer adventures.
Summer Memories
amazon.com
$8.99
First Day Photo Booth
Take photos of your students with these silly props, then print them out and pin 'em to your classroom bulletin board. They'll have fun looking at the pics all year.
First Day Photo Booth
amazon.com
$17.99
DIY Backdrop
A crayon frame makes for a colorful accessory that every student will want a turn photographing. Bring it back out for the last day of school, too!
Get the tutorial from Surviving a Teacher's Salary »
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!
Get the tutorial from Miss Klohn's Classroom »
"D-ice" Breakers
Break your students up into small groups, then ask them to roll dice and answer creative questions like the ones on the printout this teacher made.
Mental Heath Check-In
Back-to-school season can bring up a lot of anxiety and negative feelings. Erin Castillo of #okayteacher came up with a great way to start talking about mental health in her classroom. She invites each of her students to write their names on the back of a sticky note and put it on a poster board in accordance with their feelings. It's a discreet and non-verbal way of figuring out who needs some extra help.
Guided Drawing
Set up an easel in the front of the room and guide your students, step-by-step, to make a drawing. It'll serve as a first-day-of-school souvenir to bring home to Mom and Dad.
Get the tutorial from Proud to Be Primary »
Color-Coded Q&As
It can be difficult to get shy students to speak up — with this candy-coordinated system, they'll get to pick the prompt they feel most comfortable sharing.
Time Capsule
Use a clean mason jar or Pringles container for the capsule, and print easy questionnaires for students to fill out and stick inside. Save them to read again on the last day of school.
Get the tutorial from I Heart Crafty Things »
Get-to-Know-You Cootie Catcher
Who doesn't love this classic game? You can read the questions aloud, or if your students are of reading age, they can pass the quizzer around from kid to kid.
School "Survival Kits"
Throw in some candy and supplies, then personalize a tag for each student to feel welcome on day one (and maybe some tissues for the parents as well!). Save time on the first day for them to decorate their bags, too!
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.
Get the tutorial from Mrs. Jones' Creation Station »
Brown Paper Bag Challenge
Instruct students to bring a brown paper bag home and fill it with four items that represent who they are. Everyone gets to share on the second day of school.
Class Name Search
Throw everyone’s first names into a word search maker to help them get to know their fellow students! Kids will love seeing their own names in there, too.
Candy Basket Get-to-Know-You
Jen Bradshaw from Teacher Karma loves passing around a basket of candy and giving kids the freedom to take as much as they want. Once they're done, she tells them they have to share one fact about themselves for each piece of candy they took!
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