100 back to school ideas and activities

Back to School

Back to School | Saturday, July 27, 2024

100 back to school ideas and activities

Back to school is a special time of year. Sure, it means the end of summer break, but it's also a time for new beginnings. It's a time to get back into the regular cadence of the school schedule. 

This is a crucial time of year for setting expectations -- for students, for teachers, for everyone in the school setting. 

It's a time to set routine -- to get some repetitions with how the class will run day by day, week by week. 

And, of course, it's relationship-building time! We want to get to know our students. They want to know more about us. And they need to get to know each other to build the classroom community.

Below we have curated over 80 back to school activities for any classroom. Scroll down for tons of ready-to-use lessons along with tutorials, templates, and examples to make planning this year a little easier.

What are your back to school ideas? Please share them in a comment at the bottom of the post!

80 back to school activities for any classroom

Click on any picture below to jump directly to that section or use the drop down menu to browse the table of contents.

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Back to School Templates

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First Week of School Activities

Back to School Games

Icebreakers & Team Building Activities

Tech Tool Intro & Refreshers


Table of Contents
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Back to School Templates

Meet the teacher 

Introduce yourself to your students in style with this Meet the Teacher template from Kami. These templates from the Kami template library are ready to be customized by you. Why not leave a little about yourself, like your hobbies, favorite color, or even pronouns. Plus, add a picture or some contact details for parents.

Get more templates in our FREE ebook Kami in the classroom: 10 templates plus tips for using them. 

Digital planning templates

There are TONS of free templates you can use throughout the year to keep you and your students organized. Check out some of the options available.

Google Classroom header templates

Customize your Google Classroom header with these editable templates from Canva. Use a ready-made template or begin with a blank slate and totally make it your own! 

Interactive Resource Room Template

Use this fun digital resource room to make important resources for your class really easy to find! You can delete, change or add to this room and fill as many of the shelves, cubbies, tables, and boards as full of resources as you'd like. Or use the resources linked in here to create your own from scratch. Then, share a link to it with students -- or embed it in your class in your learning management system. 

Welcome to Class flipbook templates

At the beginning of the school year we want have all of our welcome to class resources handy and ready to give to our students and their families. 

We made it easy for you with our Welcome to Our Class Flipbook Template. Just fill in all of the pages with your information and have it ready to share with new students. 

Download our color flipbook template that you can edit and print the way you'd like or the black and white flipbook template for easy copying/printing.

Choice board template

Need a time filler for those early finishers? Make it easy and fun with choice boards or explore boards! You can make them as open ended or specific as you want. Review what is expected of the students before you need to use them and be sure to include offline activities.

Back to School Night Book Template

Back to School Night is an important event for school communities. Book Creators knows that not all parents can attend in person due to various constraints. That's why Book Creator has designed a template specifically for administrators to use to customize for your school for Back-to-School Night.

Make Back-to-School Night accessible for all with Book Creator

Get even Book Creator templates! Download our FREE ebook 10 Book Creator templates you can use in class tomorrow

Student Interest Survey

Student interest surveys help us know what makes our students tick, which helps us build relationships and learning that matters. Use this template to fit your class.

Once you have the results of your interest surveys use those results to create relevant teaching resources with MagicSchool AI. Download our ebook 10 ways to make learning relevant with MagicSchool.

Customized Newsletter Template

Make solid connections with families by creating custom email newsletters for every student. It's easy with Google Docs, Sheets and Forms templates.

Class profile and learning preferences 

Have students will create personalized profile cards and complete with their photos and interests with this FigJam template

Get more FigJam templates plus ideas to use them in class along with new features and shortcuts. Download our ebook 20 ways to use FigJam in class.

20 back to school templates 

Get even more templates in our post 20 back to school templates to save you time

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First week of school activities

Find Someone Who 

The "Find Someone Who" activity is a fun way to start the year. This Find Someone Who Bingo Card (part of the free Kami template library) is designed to help students learn about their classmates and make new friends. Students can play the game during recess or whenever they have free time in class. The 12 squares on the bingo card are each labeled with a different attribute. This is a great way for students to learn about each other and build social skills!

Looking for more All About Me ideas? Check out Beyond All About Me: Community building activities you can use tomorrow

Animate from audio challenge from Adobe Express 

In this back to school creative challenge, students share about themselves using the Animate from Audio feature in Adobe Express.

Interactive scavenger hunt

Using Flippity's  scavenger hunt template and easy to follow instructions you can create your own customized interactive scavenger hunt.

Try out this demo to see what your scavenger hunt could look like.

Back to school reflection

Encourage reflection right from the beginning of the school year with a look back at the past year and ahead to the next with MirrorTalkAI.

  • Objective Prompt:Reflect on the past school year and your hopes and dreams for the future school year.
  • Customize Reflection Focus: Motivation

Learn more in our new post Build meaningful reflection into class in minutes with Mirror Talk

Top 3 About Me!

Your students have probably seen those YouTube videos with a ranked top 10 list. YouTubers rank all sorts of things, from destinations to tech gear to food. It's a great cognitive exercise -- pick a topic, identify criteria, rank them, and justify your rankings. Using a simple graphic organizer in Book Creator -- or a page per item with images, text, videos, and more -- can be a great way for students to make their case for their rankings. A simple way to start is a little top 3 list, but a bigger top 10 list can help students dive more deeply into a topic.

Template: Top 3 Graphic Organizer

More info: How to create a YouTube-style top 10 videos

Google Classroom logo

Google Classroom banner quilt.

Give each student a square blank Google Drawing and have them decorate it. Download each square and put them together to make a "quilt" or collage Google Classroom banner. Alternatively you can have each student add their name to a collaborative Google Drawing Classroom banner by making the file "anyone with link can edit" and asking students to add their name using word art. Don't forget to revisit this activity when any new students join your class.

Hopes and Dreams

Share your Hopes and Dreams for the year.

Start the year off by having students share their hopes and dreams. This HyperDoc is a great one to share at the beginning of the year then go back at the end of the year and read what you wrote!

Hopes and Dreams HyperDoc created by Rachel Marker and Karly Moura

My  Back to School Book

A great Book Creator template book to use with your students. Give them the means to introduce themselves to you and their classmates while helping them learn how to use Book Creator in a fun way.

Google Drawing Logo

Design a poster all about you!

This ready-to-use "Design a Poster About You" lesson from Google Applied Digital Skills walks students step-by-step through introducing themselves to their classmates by creating a poster you can print (or "hang up" digitally) with Google Drawings.

Get your students brainstorming ideas for this project with this free All About Me template from Kami.

Looking for more All About Me ideas? Check out Beyond All About Me: Community building activities you can use tomorrow

shapegrams

Back to School with Shapegrams

Learn and practice Google Drawings skills with interactive tutorials from Tony Vincent. The first 4 shapegrams are FREE to download and use with your students. Thirty-five dollars gets you 365 days of membership privileges, which includes access to all Shapegrams and a license to distribute them to students. Two new Shapegrams are added per month (August through May).

Learn more about Shapegrams

Get Shapegrams

Google Slides "About Me" presentation.

In this applied digital skills lesson students pick a topic and share information about it by creating an interactive presentation. The example presentation walks them through sharing about themselves and things they care about. This is the perfect way to introduce creating their own Google Slides presentation. Later they can use the same lesson but present on a topic they have learned about in class.

About a Topic Google Applied Digital Skills lesson

Design your own locker

Students can design a locker to introduce themselves to classmates in this fun template. They simply copy items from the other slides in the template to add to their lockers. Then they can explain why those items are important to them and represent them.

Tell it with emojis

Let your students summarize what they did during their summer break using only emojis! If you have new students, you can also let them introduce themselves using emojis with this Tell it with Emojis activity from BookWidgets.

Animate a name in CS First

Code your name and animate it! 

Don't wait until December to introduce your students to coding. In this FREE interactive Google CS first lesson students add their name and bring the letters to life through animation, sound, and music through programming.

CS First Animate A Name project

First Days of School 

This First Days of School Book Creator book by Kelly Hilton is full of resources and ideas inspired by the book The First Days of School by Harry Wong.

Who am I?

In this "Who am I?" activity, students will explore their identities by reflecting on their personal traits, interests, and experiences. Each student will create a presentation slide that includes images, words, and phrases that represent who they are.

Looking for more ideas?

Check out this Wakelet collection of more than 35 beginning of the year activities shared by the Ditch That Textbook community.

Back to School Games

Back to School digital escape rooms

Mission: School Blackout Jr.

A fun and easy back to school escape room for grades 3+. 

A storm has knocked the power out at your school and the first day is tomorrow! You must solve a series of puzzles to get the combination you need to unlock the 5 letter word lock. The room contains 5 hidden clues. Click and drag the flashlight around to uncover the clues and solve the puzzles. Then follow the directions to complete your mission. Are you ready?

Mission: School Blackout

A more difficult back to school escape room for older students or adults. A series of rooms and puzzles that must be completed in order. 

A storm has knocked out the power at your school and the first day is tomorrow! You must find the clues and solve a series of puzzles to get to the power box and turn the lights back on. Each room you enter contains a hidden clue along with a flashlight and a key. Use the flashlight to uncover the clue and solve the puzzle. Then click on the key to enter the lock combination and get to the next room.

Get ready to start the year with a new, fun and FREE virtual escape room from Karly at VirtualEscapeRooms.org. In “Escape the Classroom” your students are locked in (virtually, of course), and the only way out is by solving challenges and cracking clues.

It’s a race against the clock to solve the puzzles and find that elusive 4-digit code to freedom! Get it now.

Want to use digital escape rooms to spark your students' imagination? 

Check out our mini course!

In this $19 course you'll get:

  🔐 Video tutorials to show you what you need to do

  🔐 PDF guides to help you plan

  🔐 LOTS of example escape rooms you can copy or use as inspiration

  🔐 10 brand NEW digital escape rooms with lock combinations and companion resources in a downloadable PDF

  🔐 A step-by-step companion website  with templates to help you create your own escape rooms 

Kahoot logo

Teacher quiz Kahoot!

Create a quiz about yourself and let students guess the answer with a fun Kahoot all about the teacher. You can create and share your own “All About Me!” video to introduce yourself and give students the answers before the quiz.

How to create a Kahoot! tutorial video

This “Back to school Kahoot Ice Breaker Kit” provides more creative ideas to use Kahoot! as an icebreaker at the start of the school year.

Class word search or scramble

With Flippity's "skip the spreadsheet" option you can input your class roster into their site and create some fun customized games for your class. Here's how:

1. Go to Flippity.net

2. Click on the tab that says "skip the spreadsheet"

3. Delete the list of countries

4. Paste your class roster (separate each name with a comma or line breaks)

5. Click on the activity you want to generate


Classmate BINGO

Classmate Bingo is a spin on your typical Bingo game. Prior to the activity have students share a few facts about themselves on an index card with their name on it. Create bingo cards with students’ names in each square. You can use Canva’s Bingo Card Generator to create a unique card for each student. Read a fact from the index card and have students guess who it is. 

The first few times you play be sure to tell them who the facts are about so they can mark off the name on their card. If you play more than once you can rely on students to remember the facts about their classmates as you play.

Printable Back to School Puzzles & Games Activity Pack

This free activity pack includes 11 back to school games and puzzles to use with your class. 

The pack includes secret messages, word searches, crossword puzzles, and more to kick off your school year.  

Get more back to school games

You'll find even more engaging and fun games in this post 20 Back to School Games Your Students Will Love.

Icebreakers, Team and Community Building

Canva icebreaker templates

Canva offers a ton of great FREE resources including presentation templates you can use right away with your class. Check out these four icebreaker activities and visit Canva.com for more templates along with alternate designs for these activities. 

Roll and tell icebreaker

Get to know each other with this roll and tell icebreaker. Present on a screen or print for students. 

FigJam icebreaker trading cards

Get to know the faces of everyone in your class. Use these icebreaker trading cards to have everyone share a little bit about themselves with one another and get on the same page. 

FigJam podcast cover design

Make podcast cover designs with zero experience. This cover design icebreaker is a great way to get to know others in your classroom or on your team. Have everyone talk about what their covers represent and what they are passionate about.

Virtual Snowball Toss Community Building

Snowball toss community building

This snowball toss activity comes from Esther Park. Teams will have 1 min to fill in as many snowballs with their team color. Team with the most snowball wins! 

EfficienTeach icebreaker cards 

Icebreakers CAN be fun! Really, they can. There are lots of easy, no prep icebreakers that you can use any time as an engaging way to build and cultivate classroom community. Have a snowball fight, play Would You Rather?, or challenge students to find each other using only animal sounds. Find icebreakers that work for you in our EfficienTEACH Icebreakers and Team Building Activities resource.

Book Creator class handbook

Wouldn't it be great if your class came with a pre-written handbook? And wouldn't it be even better if that handbook was written by real students in your class?

As you learn your procedures use Book Creator and have your class can each contribute to a part of your class handbook. Students can bring the handbook home to share with their families.

All are welcome

All Are Welcome HyperDoc

All Are Welcome, a book by Alexandra Penfold, follows a group of children through a day in their school. In this school everyone is welcomed and accepted with open arms. Use this All are welcome HyperDoc by Lisa Guardino and Carla Dunavan to create an opportunity for your students to read (or listen), respond, and reflect to the story within your online learning community.  Remember to choose "file" then "make a copy" to edit and replace the links for your own class.

All Are Welcome - Read Aloud Picture Book from Brightly Storytime

This is Us!

 "This is us" collaborative Slides or PowerPoint presentation.

Use this This is us HyperDoc created by Nicole Beardsley to build community in your classroom! It creates a space for each student to share about themselves asynchronously.

Building Classroom Community

Community building lesson collection

Marilyn McAlister has compiled a  Classroom Community collection of ideas from amazing educators Mari VenturinoSean GaillardMeredith Akers, Isabel AdameStephanie Rothstein and 

Emma Pass.

More team building activities

Karly Moura has compiled a list of 10 Team Building Activities for Back to School that are perfect for the first few weeks of school or a new semester. From rock, paper, scissors tournament to paper airplane challenges, these activities are designed to help your students get to know each other and work together.
Open box

Family "welcome box" or "welcome bag" 

If your school has some sort of registration day or walk through before school begins you can put together a welcome box or bag for the famlies to pick up.

Ideas for items to add:

  • A letter or postcard from you to the family.
  • A list of usernames and passwords students will need and where to go on the first day.
  • Offline learning games students can play at home (try to find games that use items students may already have like cards or dice).
  • A list of supplies they might need for the year. Or if you are fortunate enough to have those available for students you can send them home in the box too.
  • Materials for a project that gets the whole family involved.
  • Resources for parents to help their child be successful. A link to your class website, your contact information, list of helpful websites for parents. In this digital world families still appreciate something they can stick on the fridge.
video conferencing icon

One-on-one family video calls before school begins or during the first week

During the week before school or over the course of the first month try giving your students each 15-20 minute time slots to meet with you along with their family members. 

20 more ways to build community 

Tech Tool Introductions and Refreshers

Get to know Kami

Help your students get to know Kami with these exciting activities introducing the Kami tools. Familiarize yourself with the most popular tools in Kami - Text box, Drawing Tool and Text Comment.

Book Creator tutorial for students

Join Ruby as she guides you through the essentials of using Book Creator. In this YouTube tutorial, you'll learn how to sign in, copy a book, and create your very own book.

Google Docs tutorials for students

Learn how to use Google Docs including how to edit and format a document. You'll also learn about tools and settings.

Gmail tutorial for students

Learn the basic components of Gmail to help you send and receive emails.

Google Drive Icon

Google Drive tutorial for students

Learn to organize, manage, and share files in Drive.

Google Slides tutorials for students

Learn presentation themes, text, and transitions using Google Slides. You'll also learn how to add photos, images, videos, and shapes to a presentation and how to add tables, diagrams, and charts, and share your presentation.

Google Sheets tutorials for students

Learn how to use Google Sheets including how to edit and format a sheet, how to evaluate and interpret data, and advanced functions and conditional formatting.

Make learning memorable!

Take your teaching to the next level by transforming your lessons into a memorable learning experience.

What are your back to school ideas? Please share them in a comment below!

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  • Solar says:

    Love your blog. Always provides great insights.

  • Doc Tan says:

    Thanks for sharing BEST INFO for teachers to teach and students to learn.

  • Jan Faubion says:

    I love looking at new ideas at the start of the year.

  • Abhi says:

    Awesome content. I really appreciate your efforts. It needs a lot of hard work to make this type of content. thanks…

  • Cristina Lourenço says:

    Your are the best

  • Jack Milgram says:

    Okay, now I feel super awkward with my online lessons 😀
    But better late than never, I guess. That thing with making virtual classrooms and then conducting tours is now my favorite one, especially with new students.

  • KQD says:

    Thank you very much!

  • […] That Textbook: They have curated and created over 50 back to school activities for the distance […]

  • Josephine Rose says:

    This is amazing! Thank you so much.

  • […] 50 back to school activities for the remote learning classroom – Ditch That Textbook […]

  • Oscar Lopez says:

    I am astonished with so many information¡ I want use all at once¡ I know, I am crazy but thanks a lot for this gift.

  • Shanda says:

    I needed this in my life!!!

  • Myra Bernard-Cade says:

    Wow! This will be useful in building my virtual classroom. It’s funny, the first idea on your sight is to set-up a virtual classroom tour and I was thinking about going to my classroom and making a video of it for my students with that purpose in mind. Thank you for all the resources. I am sure we will all need them.

  • Maria says:

    THANK YOU SO KINDLY FOR CURATING THIS AMAZING LIST TO SHARE!

  • DitchThatTxtbk says:

    Thanks Terry 😀 So glad it’s useful!

  • Terry Phillips says:

    Thank you for sharing..This awesome and well needed!

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