Featured Articles:

Tips & Strategies:

• Starting School Welcome to Kindergarten: Tips for the Kindergarten-bound
• Tips and Strategies for the Elementary School Years
• Tips and Strategies for the Middle School Years
• Tips and Strategies for the High School Years
• A New School Year and a New School: Tips for the New Kid in Class
• A New School Year: Let’s Talk About It – Conquering Back-to-School Anxiety with Conversation
• Getting Ready for School: Line Up Homework Help in Advance

Getting Ready for School:

• Getting Ready for School in a Tight Economy
• HotChalk’s Back to School Tips Column

Back to School Lessons and Teacher Resources:

General:

• This mystery box activity gets kids excited about learning new things (P-6)
• This is a great kindergarten back to school puzzle idea (K)
• Here Kinders learn their way around school on the first day while hunting for the Gingerbread Man (K-1)
• Try this great activity for first-of-year introductions (K-1)
• This idea organizes first day of school activities around the rules “be kind, be safe, and be your best” (K-3)
• This “Meet the Teacher Day” scavenger hunt and self-portrait activity results in a class quilt (K-3)
• Use “Personality Crowns” to help children get to know you and each other (K-3)
• This idea connects you with your students before school even starts (K-3)
• Here is an idea for an open-house display (K-4)
• This kindness exercise promotes acceptance and cooperation throughout the year (K-4)
• Using a video to introduce the rules and the teacher wards off first day laryngitis here (K-5)
• Always a good back to school idea – Me Bags (an alternate version) (K-5)
• This idea involves taking “then and now” student pictures for a beginning of school name learning aid and end of year gift (K-6)

• Here is a first-day journal activity (1-2)
• This “All About ME” box idea comes with a secret note inside (1-4)
• “Me Bags” is the name of this first day of school getting acquainted idea (1-5)
• Here’s another version of the “Me Bags” idea (1-5)
• Start the year with a “Words of Wisdom” poster created by last year’s students (1-5)
• This is a brief “Welcome To School” activity idea (2-3)
• Here’s an idea for a first day of school “Class Puzzle” that shows each student’s importance (2-4)
• Boosting self-esteem is the object of this first day lesson (2-4)
• This All-About-Me homework project is due on Day 1 (2-4)
• Here is a scavenger hunt classroom mapping activity tailored for students with different abilities (3-5)
• “M&Ms and Me” is a yummy back-to-school ice breaking idea (3-5)
• This is another version of the “Summer in a Can” vacation show-and-tell activity (3-5)
• Here is another “Getting To Know You” activity idea (3-6)
• This “Welcome Sack” idea warmly presents back-to-school expectations to your students (3-6)
• Students create long-term “Goal Clocks” in this lesson (4)
• This “Personality Sack” idea presents the student to his classmates (4-5)
• This first day of school “quiz” is a fun “getting to know you” and your expectations activity (4-12)
• This All-About-Me Scrapbook contains pictures, symbols, journal entry, interests, and expectations (5-12)
• Here are “Ten Rules for Back-to-School Success” (5-12)
• This great beginning-of-school idea lets students introduce themselves with a “Box of Me” (6-8)
• Here is a fun true/false introduction activity for the first day of school (6-8)
• This behavior modification idea was inspired by the “Groundhog’s Day” movie (10)
• “What are we going to be studying this year?” is answered here with props and a game (P-12)
• Students become familiar with the special characteristics of their classmates using this idea (P-12)
• “Getting to Know You with Toilet Paper” is a really cute ice breaking idea (K-12)
• Here students introduce themselves via a 9-square ME quilt construction (K-12)
• This clever first day idea makes it easy to send birthday cards to students (2-12)
• “Three Truths and a Fib” is a funny get-acquainted activity (Multiple/Other)
• Here are 10 educational ownership discussion topics to insure a student’s new school year success (Multiple/Other)
• Here jujubes are the get-acquainted incentive (Multiple/Other)
• This “Getting to Know You” guessing game will leave you humming the song by the same name (Multiple/Other)

More Back to School Lessons and Teacher Resources:

The following lessons are grouped by subject, but most can be used in any class

Art:

• “My Favorite Things” is an excellent art lesson for the first day of school (K-3)
• This helpful “Note to Art Teaching Assistants” contains a great clean-up song (K-4)
• “Guess What I did on my Summer Vacation” is a nice first-day drawing icebreaker idea (K-6)
• In this fun get-acquainted lesson, students draw a classmate’s portrait with chalk (K-12)
• Start the first week of school off right with this fun art idea (2-3)
• This “All About Me” scrapbook idea yields a bulletin board, classroom book and teacher’s keepsake (3-4)
• Students create a self-portrait collage with their favorite things using this idea (3-12)
• Here students create a weaving using materials that describe them as a person (4-5)
• Self-describing words are used as a structure in this “Art about Me” drawing idea (4-7)
• Use this suncatcher idea to add sparkle to your classroom or as a crafty fundraising idea on Parent Teacher Night (4-12)
• These “Me” collages are great for getting to know classmates (5-7)
• This is an idea for a first day of middle school art class questionnaire (6-8)

Computers & Internet:

• A “Special Me” class book is created here with Kid Pix self-portraits and written personal summaries (P-K)
• Start collecting pictures now for this totally awesome end-of-year “PowerPoint Party for Parents” idea (5)
• This is the same idea with a twist — students make their own presentations (5)
• This is a self-introductory PowerPoint presentation idea (6-12)
• WordArt and ClipArt are used in this get-acquainted filler activity idea (7-12)

Language Arts:

• After each student creates a self-descriptive bubble map, the class graphs the popular adjectives in this first day of school idea (K-5)
• This idea starts as a beginning-of-the-year bulletin board and ends as a memory book compilation of student writing assignments (1-5)
• Here students share their special “gifts” after reading Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” (1-5)
• This beginning-of-the-year “ME Box” idea helps students focus their writing (1-8)
• Here students create a booklet about their vacation or summer event (2)
• This first day of school idea uses “Miss Nelson is Missing” to teach classroom rules (2-3)
• This is another beginning/end of the year activity called “Memory Book” (2-5)
• Students interview each other in this first day idea (3)
• “Talk Time” is a good first day activity to get students talking (3-5)
• In this idea, students write letters to themselves at the beginning of the year and read them at the end (3-6)
• This is an “All About Me” memories and goals book idea (3-6)
• Here is an “All About the Teacher” bilingual poster idea (4-5)
• This classmate interview template is an interactive language arts activity and an ice-breaker (4-6)
• Use this back-to-school art activity to review writing paragraphs (4-8)
• In this beginning/end of year lesson, kids read letters written to them by last year’s students (4-8)
• Here is a “Mighty Mike, Brilliant Brianna, Talented Tamika” name learning game with adjectives idea (4-8)
• Students interview classmates here while working on writing and oral presentation skills (4-8)
• This is a fun group “Things we have in Common” activity for learning about classmates (5-9)
• This is a good beginning-of-the-year lesson for introducing essay structure (6-10)
• Buddy Bags and Venn diagrams are used here as get-acquainted tools to compare and contrast students (7)
• In this get-acquainted game, students look up creative adjectives to describe themselves (7-8)
• This “Cubicle Reading and Writing” lesson is appropriate for back to school time (7-12)
• This back to school lesson involves the evaluation of poems (9-12)
• ESL students learn to form questions here while learning information about their teacher (Multiple/Other)

Math:

• Here students make a classroom graph showing how many letters are in each student’s name (K-3)
• This is a clever numerical way to introduce yourself on the first day of school (3-5)
• Here’s a good first day idea for gathering birth dates and teaching bar graphs too (4)

Multidisciplinary:

• This idea uses a time capsule to demonstrate student learning (K-5)
• These are good ideas for teaching a multidisciplinary apple unit (1)
• This multidisciplinary “Rainbow Fish” activity is perfect for the first day of school (1-3)
• Here is a good idea for a beginning of the school year review in any subject (4-8)

Music:

• This beginning of school musical name plate activity helps students learn each others’ names (P)
• Classmates learn each others’ names to music with this first day idea (P-K)
• This taking roll song idea also helps students learn their classmate’s names (P-K)
• Here are some songs appropriate for back to school time (P-2)
• This is a little musical introduction song game (K-3)
• Here is an instrument activity with a fall apple theme (K-4)
• “Name Game with a Beat” is another musical name learning activity (K-5)
• “Scribble Music” is a great early year, break time or substitute plan (K-5)
• This get-acquainted rhythm game illustrates the difference between rhythm and beat (3-5)
• This is a musical idea for introducing school staff to students (3-6)
• After this activity, students will be able to recite the names of their classmates in rhythm (3-6)
• These acrostic classroom M-U-S-I-C-I-A-N Rules, clap-pat-snap to a rap beat (3-6)
• This scavenger hunt can help you form cooperative groups based on learning styles and interests (3-6)
• “Rules Rap” is a new way to present first-day music class instructions (4-6)

PE:

• Students write their names with their feet in this name-learning activity (P-3)
• This PE lesson introduces the freeze-melt-go protocols and the students as well (K-2)

Science:

• Here are great high school chemistry writing prompts for the start of school and throughout the year (10-12)
• Making a birthday bar graph is an engaging beginning of the year math or science idea (Multiple/Other)

Social Studies:

• This ice breaker idea looks at classroom diversity (P-3)
• Stellaluna teaches school citizenship in this lesson (K-1)
• Dreamcatchers are the center of this Native American culture “all-about-me” activity (1)
• A classroom map hunt is an idea for acquainting students with the classroom and its procedures (1-3)
• This German “Schultuete” idea gives a cultural upgrade to the first day of school “Me Bag” (1-5)
• Here social studies is introduced on the first day by taking a census (2)
• This heart-warming first day of school idea builds classroom community (3-4)
• “Gremlins go to School” is the name of this school life lesson idea (5-6)
• Creating a family or personal crest is another good way to learn about classmates (5-7)
• Middle schoolers learn about community in this well-developed photography “about me” project (6-8)