Back to School Activities and Lesson Ideas for All Classrooms
There’s always an excitement that surrounds the back to school season! It’s an energy that can even rival some holidays. We begin to see school supplies on sale throughout the stores. Commercials begin to feature kids with new clothes, wearing their backpacks, and preparing for the upcoming academic season.
There’s even the specific sensory highlights associated with back to school such as crisp new notebooks, colorful pens, clean folders, and even smells of newness. My archaic school building even has that weird back to school smell which can only be captured for about two full days! Probably the only thing missing from a typical holiday is the food and music associated with other holiday seasons. Maybe I should write a back to school song and name it something like It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
As a teacher, the back to school holiday season quickly fades into crazy normalcy. Meetings, cleaning, scheduling, in-services, room preparation, curriculum mapping, and so much more. Soon enough, there’s so much demanding your attention that you quickly forget the students will be arriving and you need some major help! This is the moment when you reach out to other teacher friends like Mister Harms to see what fun and engaging no-prep activities you could possibly use this year!
To help in your back to school planning, I’ve put together a short list of student friendly activities for you to try out! These lesson ideas are perfect for most classrooms and you can use them year after year. I use them in my own classroom and continue to get excellent feedback from my own students as well as rave reviews from other teachers who have downloaded them too. Explore the lessons below and hopefully you can find a few to help as you get ready for the back to school holiday craziness!
Back To School Emoji Activity: A FUn Competitive Game or Individual Activity
The first day of school can be exciting or even nervous for many students. Having a fun, icebreaker activity is the perfect way to set the vibe for kids as they come back to school! Give your students some focused-fun with this popular back-to-school emoji game activity from Mister Harms!
Think of it as Pictionary style riddles that need to be solved, but only using emojis. This fun activity is perfect for a classroom celebration, staff inservice, or use it at a family gathering! Whether you make it an individual race or a group competition, your crew will love having fun with this thrilling back to school activity! Printable and ready to use, this is a PDF of 25 different emoji guessing questions.
Growth Mindset Bell Ringers: Cultivating A Social Emotional Learning Environment
If you want to have students focused, zoned in, and get their minds thinking, these bellringers are the perfect resource! Contained in a series of three volumes, students are given visual prompts to get them thinking, discussing, and writing about quality topics that can benefit their life. With stunning visuals and quality questions, students love to share their thoughts while challenging themselves to a better life! Many teachers appreciate how these bell ringers help foster and encourage social emotional learning as well!
I love using these prompts! They are simple to use and can be assigned in a variety of ways. Some teachers like to project them on the screen at the beginning of class to get the wheels turning as a group discussion, while some like to assign them individually as a writing assignment through Google Classroom. Whichever the format, your students will appreciate the variety of slides to think about.
Each volume has 40 prompts that include ten slides of each category: 10 quotes to dissect, 10 life questions to ponder, 10 videos to contemplate, and 10 opinions to stand for. The hard work of coming up with prompts has been completed for you, yet they are completely editable if you prefer to change some of the wording at all.
These Mister Harms growth mindset bell ringers come as a set of 40 questions each in 3 separate Google Slides volumes. If you get the entire Bell Ringer Bundle, you’ll receive all 3 volumes totaling 120 growth mindset prompts to write about or discuss! Explore the various volumes and bundles below and download the sample previews to get a more in-depth view of these fantastic resources!
“A complete game changer in establishing positive class climate and culture! I’m so thankful I have these at my disposal.
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Why STudy History? - The Importance of History Activity
If you teach any form of history or social studies, this lesson is an absolute must have! Start the first day of school with “WHY” because students always want to know why! Why am I learning about history? Why do we have to study this stuff anyway? When am I ever going to use this in life? Isn’t history about a "bunch of old dead people" and things that have already happened?
You’ve heard these questions before. These are great questions that should not be dismissed but rather explored. I always begin my first day of any history class going through this classroom discussion to convince my students that history is truly important for them. I have found that the “WHY” must be answered before the “WHAT.” When students know why, then learning can begin.
I typically use this for the first day of school or the first day of any history lesson! There is so much critical thinking and group discussion that takes place in this lesson that it doubles as a well needed icebreaker to calm those back to school jitters! Students come away amazed and convinced that history is truly important and they will refer to this lesson throughout the school year convincing others why we need to study such topics!
Explore the specifics of the lesson using the link below, and if you want to learn more details, read my Why Study History blog post that goes into even more depth on the importance of learning about history!
“Loved this activity! I always get the question of WHY? in regards to studying history. It was a hit! I have been frequently referring back to the reasons we study history from this assignment as we dive into new topics.”
Student Goals - Academic and personal Goal Setting templates
One thing about the beginning of the school year is that students are generally at their best when it comes to being motivated to do well. Though this moment can certainly be brief, capturing this positive desire is critical! That’s where this Student Goals resource comes in handy.
The most successful people in life have proven that setting personal goals and having a growth-mindset is an absolute must for success! If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you even get there? If you don’t know where the target is, how do you know where to aim? After thousands of studies, Dr. John Hattie of Melbourne, Australia found that the #1 greatest impact on student learning and achievement is self-reported student expectations. As teachers, we are always looking to help our students maximize their potential, and this STUDENT GOALS resource will bring the proven goal setting process into the classroom.
Students will take initiative in their own goal setting by completing the given goals worksheet. Students themselves will document their goals, achievements, and desired letter grades in the form of a contract to be reviewed as often as the teacher wants too. Once completed, you the teacher will now have a platform to discuss with the student their goals for the class and the appropriate target to aim for.
I have been using this simple guide for years and it is truly a game changer for helping students maximize their own potential by keeping them accountable to their own goals set on that first day of school! Check out the freebie below!
Time Capsule Creative WRting Activity
Summarizing can be tough for students. Whether it be summarizing highlights of their summer adventures or trying to capture the main idea of a specific reading, it can be a challenge for students to execute and comprehend. Being creative in this process can ease the tension for many students.
Students absolutely love this creative Time Capsule Activity that allows them to highlight the main ideas of any topic, reading, or subject being studied. Teachers appreciate the engaging format that keeps students focused and allows for their creative skills to be drawn out in the variety of learning styles.
This lesson is very simple yet effective, and there are a variety of ways to use it. You could use it as a “get to know you” activity where students reveal items from their summer. You could also pair it with a fun article or reading for students to actively summarize content that you want to them to study at the beginning of the school year.
However you choose, students will receive a graphic organizer template in the shape of a time capsule bottle. This provides them a guided format to summarize any text or content being studied. With creative images to show along with a short written summary of each encapsulated item, this universal format makes it easy for students to complete and clear for teachers to grade as well.
Once students have completed their time capsules, have them share what is in their time capsule. Turn them in as an assignment or post the finished products around the room as room decorations for all to enjoy. You’ll be amazed at the artistic abilities and writing talents that many of your students have lying deep within.
Beginning The School Year
Hopefully a few of these lessons and activities can spark some inspiration and help you survive the back to school craziness! The energy is always exciting when the students arrive, so capitalizing on this energy with some creative and fun activities is always helpful!
The beginning of the school year can also be tough, but these lessons have been battle tested and teacher approved by myself and so many other teachers who have enjoyed them. What back to school lessons have worked for you? Contact me and introduce yourself. I’d love to hear from you and get some new ideas for my classroom as well!
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can incorporate a few of these resource ideas! For more ideas throughout the year, explore the Mister Harms Store and be sure to join my classroom for future email updates. Enjoy the first few weeks of school, and keep being the awesome teacher that you are!
