Stress-Free Start: 8 Engaging Activities for the First Week of School

Stress free start back to school activities

Stress-Free Start: Engaging Activities for the First Week of School

Summer is marching on but we might be thinking about the first week of school already, am I right? It’s kind of a mix of excitement and maybe a tiny bit of overwhelm, right? Getting everything ready for a new class can feel overwhelming!

But what if this year, you could actually feel more calm and prepared? The goal of this article is to help you achieve a truly stress-free first week of school. The focus is no stress, but engaging activities. Let’s check out those strategies and ideas.

Scavenger Hunt

I love doing this with elementary school students during the first week of school to help them get comfortable with their new environment. Pair your students up to find key areas or items in the classroom or school. This is a low-pressure, engaging way to learn routines and explore. I wrote names of things to find on index cards, such as the water fountain and pencil sharpener. Now I have them typed and printed with clip art to look cute (see them at the end of this blog post)!

Informal Assessmemts (not scary, I promise)

You don’t have to do high-stakes testing to get a handle on what your students know in math, writing, or even handwriting during the first week of school.

A simple math sheet of 10 addition problems at the level you expect will work (plus it’s easy to correct). If you have young students, give them grid paper and have them write the numbers 1-25 (good for incoming first graders where I teach in Massachusetts) or 1-100 (for second graders), just as two examples. You could also have kids write some of the capital letters and lower case letters to check for letter formation and reversals.

Introduce Flexible Seating Expectations (if applicable)

If you use flexible seating, introduce the choices during the first week of school (or even on day one) and set out clear expectations early. Spend time practicing how to clean up flexible seating options at the end of day (I posted a photo of what each area should look like at the end of the day).

Review and model how to use each option responsibly. For example, show how to be unsafe on a stability ball and then have a student model sitting safely. Bring proactive will reduce future issues and makes seating a positive experience. In fact, I have a free Flexible Seating Mini Poster on TPT. If it helps, grab it.

Help Students Make Connections with an Easy Activity

Find a page that lists common likes and characteristics such as “my favorite pizza is ____ ” or “My birthday is in ____”. Have students fill it in and go around the room to find someone else who has that in common and write down their classmate’s name next to each item. I did make an official version of this called “Just Like Me” and it’s in my Back to School Resources (scroll down for details and links)

Community Building Read-Aloud

Choose a book about kindness, friendship, or belonging. Here are some of my favorites:

Collaborative Classroom Rules/Agreements

Involve your students in creating classroom rules or agreements during the first week of school. Here’s what I did with second graders: we brainstormed a whole sheet of easel paper’s worth of class rules. Then I consolidated all their suggestions into a list to share and go over the next day. For example, student comments like “no kicking”, “no punching” and “don’t take my pencil out of my hand” became the class rule “Keep your hands to yourself”.

I also posted them all year and would refer to them often, such as saying “Are you following rule 5 that you all came up with?” When students have a voice in setting expectations, they are more likely to take ownership and follow them.

Keep reading for more strategies!

“Meet Your Teacher” Q&A (Student-Led)

This is another great activity for the first week of school. Dedicate a short block (like 15 minutes) or students to ask you questions. This helps them feel more connected and comfortable with you as their new teacher. I can’t put my hands on it but I also had a version of this that was a written template. Kids would write their questions down and I would write back with my answers and give it back on the next day of school.

Low Pressure “Get to Know You” Activity

Instead of a formal presentation during the first week of school, write common questions on strips of paper or folded index cards (make enough so there is one for each of your students). Examples are “what is your favorite pizza?” “Do you have any brothers and sisters? What are their names?” “Who was your teacher last year?” and “What is your favorite sport?”

Then have your class sit in a circle and pass the basket around and have students each take one out, read and answer. I called it the “Question Basket” and it was a fairly simple way for kids to connect and share (they could also say “pass” if they need time to think or if they are really shy). I already have a pre-made version of this in my Back to School Kits (keep reading for details on them).

Ready-to-Go Activities from Teachers Pay Teachers!

Wouldn’t it be easy if you could have something already created to use the first week of school?

You’re in luck! My comprehensive Back to School Activities are designed precisely to make your start stress-free. They’re packed with engaging math worksheets, writing prompts, quick assessments and ready-to-go morning work that will save you hours of precious planning time.

Plus, you can us the quick assessment pages to gauge student levels, and they even include engaging classroom scavenger hunt activities to help your students get comfortable in their new space.

Want details about what’s included? For just the 2nd Grade Back to School Resources, you get all these activities to use during the first week of school (and the second week):

Write the Numbers 1-50 in color and b&w (Write the numbers 1-100 is a separate file in this zip file)
Capital and Lower Case Letter Assessment
Short addition assessment
Short subtraction assessment
Back to School Question Circle
A Friend Like Me Scavenger Hunt
What I Want to Learn About in Second Grade (with and without sentence starters; in both Handwriting without Tears lines and regular lines sentence starters included for first and third grade, too)
Classroom Scavenger Hunt
Chrysanthemum – inspired Name Graph and Questions
Fall Antonym Fun Game
Spelling Assessment
6 days of Back to School Morning Work

These no-prep sets are available for 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and 3rd Grade, making your first days back smoother and more organized than ever. Get ready to simply print and go, leaving you more time to connect with your new class!

If you’re like me, you also read reviews before making any purchases so here are some of the 5 star reviews that these activities have gotten.

1st Grade: “Big help for the first days of school. I like how you added extra cards if we have more than 20 students!!”

2nd Grade: “Great back to school starter kit! Really helps to support those beginning of year skills.”

3rd Grade: “Great resource for a new teacher!!”

Let’s also take a peek at some of the activities in action.

The top row are samples from the 1st Grade Back to School Kit. Row 2 and the first pic in row 3 are from the 2nd Grade Back to School Kit and the last 2 photos in row 3 are from the 3rd Grade version (technically that middle photo in row 3 is an activity that also is in the 2nd grade version). Clicking on any photo will bring you to get more information about the resource at Teachers Pay Teachers.