Back To School Activities for Preschool

The Back to School activities for teachers below will help you get to know your students at the beginning of the year.  

As a teacher, you know you have all those new students to get to know and the first days and weeks set an important tone in your classroom.  

As a parent, there are some ideas to help you prepare your children for the start of the school year.


Back To School Activities:  Teachers

Welcome students back to classroom with these activities:

  1. Play a name game to get to know each other
  2. Take a picture of each student to document growth through the year
  3. Create a time capsule (envelope or folder) where you can store information like photo, height, pictures of favorite things, handprints/footprints, etc. to compare to the end of year
  4. Have students help create invitations for Open House night
  5. Pair students up and have them draw a portrait of each other
  6. Start each Circle Time with a "Question of the Day" for each student to answer
  7. Play a getting to know you game
  8. Have a daily graphing question for students to answer by placing their names on the correct side (ex. "Have you ever been to the ocean?")
  9. Take pictures of students modeling your class rules and hang them around the room for visual reminders

Give each child a Welcome Bag - a paper lunch bag filled with:

  • Cotton Ball - to remind them to use soft, kind words
  • Penny - to remind them they are valuable
  • Tissue - to dry tears
  • Eraser - to remind them that everyone makes mistakes
  • LifeSaver - to remind them you will always listen to them
  • Hershey's Kiss - to comfort them when they are sad
  • Band-Aid - to heal hurt feelings 
  • Gold Star - to remind them to always try their best

Explain each item as they take it out and let them bring their bags home with them.



Back To School Lesson Plans

If you are a teacher, you will need lesson plans to carry you through those first few months of school. There are many Back to School Themes you might consider.  I have a over 150 of free themes on my sister site where you'll find activities for all of your interest learning centers.  You can choose from the traditional Back to School Themes such as All About Me, Back to School, My Family, My Pets or search the list for other themes!

Back to School Activities:  Parents

The following are suggestions for Back to School activities to get your kids in the school mode again:

  • Decorate a personalized backpack
  • Set up an area in the house where you can display their artwork
  • Start a countdown calendar
  • Go shopping for school supplies
  • Make a gift for the new teacher
  • Read some books about starting school
  • Try out some new lunch/snack recipes

Watch a Back to School movie (like Curious George: Back to School, Back to School with Franklin, LeapFrog's Let's Go To School, or Nick Jr.'s The First Day of School)

These are just a sampling of ideas. Hopefully you can take this list and use it to spark your imagination!


Go to the Back To School Page for more ideas!


Go to the main Preschool Activities Page


Go to Preschool Professor's HOME Page