25 Fun First Day of School Activities for Kindergarten & Elementary Students

Back to School Guide
25 First Day of School Activities for Kindergarten & Elementary Students
Fun, easy, and research-backed ideas to help every child feel excited, welcomed, and ready to learn from day one.

🎒 25 Activities Ideas 📚 Grades K–5 ⏱ 10 min read 🖨 Printable PDFs

Looking for fun first day of school activities for kindergarten and elementary students? Discover 25 engaging back-to-school activities that make the first day memorable, stress-free, and exciting for kids.

The first day of school is one of the most exciting days of the year — for students and teachers alike. New faces, new classroom rules, first-day jitters, and the excitement of fresh school supplies all mix together into one big, beautiful whirlwind. As an educator or parent, your number-one job on that first day isn’t to dive straight into curriculum. It’s to make every child feel safe, seen, and excited to be there.

That’s exactly why we’ve rounded up 25 of the best first day of school activities for kindergarten and elementary students. These back-to-school activities are designed to break the ice, build community, spark creativity, and gently set the tone for a wonderful school year. Whether you’re a kindergarten teacher looking for simple icebreakers, an elementary school educator wanting to create a warm classroom culture, or a parent preparing your little one for their big day — you’ll find something here that works perfectly.

Getting To Know You

These first day of school icebreaker activities help children introduce themselves, learn each other’s names, and begin building the kind of classroom community that lasts all year long.

1 All About Me Worksheet

Kick off the school year with the classic All About Me printable — and for good reason. This single-page activity does an incredible amount of heavy lifting on the first day. Students fill in their name, age, birthday, hobbies, fun facts, their life motto, and their favorites — from color and food to their favorite book, movie, game, and song. There’s even a section for “When I Grow Up I Want To Be…”
This printable is perfect for kindergarten through 5th grade because it can be as simple or as elaborate as you make it. Younger students can draw their answers; older students can write in full sentences. It gives teachers a beautiful snapshot of every child in the class and helps students feel like their identity matters from day one.

Pro tip: Laminate the completed sheets and create a classroom display called “Our Class Stars” — kids absolutely love seeing their pages on the wall!

✏️ Writing 👤 Self-Expression 🖨 Printable K–5

2 Personalized Name Coloring Pages for Back to School Fun

Looking for a fun and engaging back to school activity that helps students feel welcomed and excited about the new school year? These personalized name coloring pages are a simple way to combine creativity, name recognition, and classroom decor in one easy activity. Just customize the student’s name in Canva, print, and let kids color their own unique page. They’re perfect for first day of school activities, early finishers, morning work, or creating a colorful classroom display.

Teachers love using custom name coloring pages as part of their back to school bulletin board setup because every student gets a personalized piece of artwork to showcase. The editable Canva template allows you to change the name and font to fit your classroom needs, making it an easy and reusable resource for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary classrooms. Whether you’re creating a student name display, classroom bulletin board, or a fun name practice activity, these printable coloring pages add a personal touch to your back to school plans.

Teacher Tip: Put on some upbeat, family-friendly music while kids color. It creates a warm, welcoming atmosphere right from the start and helps ease first-day anxiety for even the shyest students.

🎨 Art 😌 Calming 🖨 Printable K–3

3 “This Is Me on the First Day!” Self-Portrait Frame

This one is pure gold for early elementary and kindergarten classrooms. Students draw their self-portrait inside a sparkly illustrated frame, then complete the sentence: “I want to be _ because…” with several lines to fill in their reasoning.
The activity beautifully blends art with writing and goal-setting. It sparks meaningful conversations between classmates (“You want to be a vet too?!”) and gives teachers powerful insight into each child’s dreams and aspirations early in the year. Save these and pull them out at the end of the school year for a heartwarming compare-and-contrast moment — kids love seeing how they’ve grown and whether their dreams have changed.
🎨 Art 💭 Goal-Setting 🖨 Printable K–4

Icebreakers & Social Games

These interactive first day of school icebreaker activities get students moving, talking, and laughing — the perfect recipe for building instant classroom connections.

4 Find Someone Who… Bingo

If you only do one icebreaker activity on the first day of school, make it Find Someone Who. This classic people-bingo game gets every child out of their seat and talking to classmates they may never have spoken to before. The printable lists 13 prompts students must check off by finding a classmate who matches each one.
Prompts include wonderfully specific conversation starters like “Has the same favorite color as you,” “Can do a cartwheel,” “Has traveled to another country,” “Can speak more than one language,” and “Loves pizza.” Each item requires a real conversation — students must ask, listen, and write the matching classmate’s name on the line provided.
This activity works brilliantly because it’s naturally differentiated: competitive students race to complete the whole sheet, while shyer students can take their time and connect with just a few people. Either way, everyone walks away with new names and faces they recognize.

🗣️ Social Skills 🏃 Active 🖨 Printable K–5

5 Would You Rather? Back-to-School Edition

Would You Rather is one of those magical first day of school activities that works with literally every age group. This printable features 14 hilarious school-themed dilemmas students must choose between — and circle or check their answer. Scenarios include gems like: “Have no homework forever OR recess twice a day?”, “Have a talking pencil OR a dancing notebook?”, and “Have a desk full of candy OR a locker full of toys?”
This is a fantastic whole-class discussion activity. Read each question aloud and have students stand on one side of the room for each choice — it’s an instant visual poll that generates tons of laughter and reveals students’ personalities in the most delightful way. It also subtly teaches kids that it’s okay to have different opinions than their friends, an important social lesson for the start of any school year.
😂 Fun 🗣️ Discussion 🖨 Printable 1–5

6 What’s in Your Backpack? Point Challenge

Turn the classic “show me your school supplies” into a competitive point-scoring game that every student loves. This printable divides items into four tiers: 1-point Easy Peasy items (backpack, notebook, pencil, eraser), 2-point Getting Warmer items (glue stick, colored pencils, water bottle), 3-point Tricky Find items (library book, tissues, headphones), and 4-point Rare Treasure items (sticky notes, flash drive, a lucky charm or small toy).
Students check off everything they have in their backpack and tally their total score at the bottom. It’s a low-key, no-pressure activity that gets kids excited about their own supplies while naturally sparking conversations with neighbors (“Wait, you have a flash drive? That’s 4 points!”). It also gives teachers a gentle, playful way to check in on what resources students have access to.
🎮 Gamified 🎒 Supply Check 🖨 Printable K–5

The first day of school sets the emotional tone for the entire year.

When children feel welcomed, curious, and connected — learning follows naturally.

Writing & Reflection

These back-to-school writing activities encourage students to reflect on their summer, express their feelings, and start thinking about their goals for the new school year.

7 Finish the Phrase Sentence Starters

Sentence starters are one of the most powerful first day of school writing activities for elementary students because they remove the intimidation of a blank page. This printable features 12 open-ended prompts that invite students to share what they genuinely think and feel about school.
Prompts range from reflective (“On my first day of school, I was feeling…”) to aspirational (“A goal I have for this school year is…”) to wonderfully silly (“My desk is usually…”). Students can write their responses OR discuss them with a partner, making this activity naturally differentiated for different writing levels.
These sentence starters also make a wonderful writing assessment baseline — save them and compare to responses at the end of the year. The growth in handwriting, vocabulary, and emotional awareness alone will leave you speechless.

Extension Idea: Turn “Finish the Phrase” into a whole-class read-aloud. Have volunteers share their most interesting or funny response to each prompt. It builds community and makes everyone feel heard.

✏️ Writing 💭 Reflection 🖨 Printable 2–5

8 My Favorite Summer Memory Writing Page

Bridging the gap between summer and school is one of the most important things you can do on the first day. This simple but powerful printable gives students wide-lined writing space to describe their favorite summer memory, followed by a large blank area at the bottom where they can draw it.
The combination of writing and illustration makes this activity perfect for the full range of elementary learners. Kindergarteners who aren’t writing yet can draw and dictate; 4th and 5th graders can write detailed descriptive paragraphs. Meanwhile, the act of recalling a happy memory puts students in a positive emotional state — and curious teachers get to learn so much about their students’ lives outside of school in the process.

✏️ Writing 🎨 Drawing 🖨 Printable K–5

9 Wishing Tree — Write a Wish in Each Leaf

One of the most visually beautiful first day of school activities in this entire collection, the Wishing Tree printable features a gorgeous illustrated tree with five large, open leaves. Students write one wish inside each leaf, guided by prompts like “This year I hope to…”, “I wish I could learn…”, “My dream is…”, “I hope we will…”, and “I want to try…”
This activity is particularly powerful for social-emotional learning on the first day of school. It helps children name their hopes and dreams in a tangible way, and it opens up rich conversations between students about what they’re looking forward to this year. Display the completed trees around the classroom for a stunning, student-created gallery that doubles as a daily reminder of why learning matters.

💚 SEL 💭 Goal-Setting 🖨 Printable 1–5

Word Games & Brain Teasers

These first day of school word activities are perfect for the moments between transitions — or for keeping early finishers engaged while you get the class settled.

10 Back to School Word Scramble

The Word Scramble is a reliable go-to for elementary classrooms because it works at multiple difficulty levels simultaneously. This printable features 14 scrambled school-related words that students must unscramble and write on the answer line. Words range from easy (“rat” → art, “lueg” → glue) to genuinely challenging (“moorclsasa” → classroom, “lmbeasy” → assembly).
Word scrambles are wonderful for the first day because they’re immediately engaging, require no instruction, and give students a quick sense of accomplishment when they crack a tricky one. They also subtly reinforce spelling and vocabulary — a bonus academic touch on a day that can sometimes feel like all play and no learning.

🔤 Spelling 🧩 Puzzle 🖨 Printable 2–5

11 Missing Letters — School Supply Edition

Fill in the missing letters to complete the name of a school supply — sounds simple, right? This printable turns it into a surprisingly fun brain teaser with 26 school supply words, each missing several key letters. Items include familiar words like P_n__l (Pencil), N_t__ook (Notebook), and F_ld_r (Folder), as well as trickier ones like Sh__p_n_er (Sharpener) and H_gh_igh__er (Highlighter).
This is an excellent vocabulary-building activity that familiarizes students with the names of their classroom tools — particularly helpful for English language learners who may know the objects but not the written words. It works well as a silent independent activity during the first morning while you take attendance and sort through parent paperwork.
🔤 Vocabulary 🧩 Puzzle 🖨 Printable 2–5

12 Riddle Me This — Classroom Riddles

Riddles are absolutely perfect for the first day of school because they ignite that natural sense of curiosity and wonder that you want students to carry with them all year. This printable features 10 school-themed riddles, each with a blank answer line. Riddles include clues like “I’m full of lead but I’m not dangerous. I help you write and I’m quite famous. What am I?” (Pencil!) and “You throw things in me, that’s my job. Papers, wrappers, I take the blob.” (Trash can!)
Read these riddles aloud as a whole class for instant engagement, or hand the sheet out and let students work through them independently or in pairs. Either way, the “aha!” moments are contagious — and there’s nothing better than hearing a whole classroom burst into laughter when they finally crack a tricky riddle together.
😂 Fun 🧠 Critical Thinking 🖨 Printable 1–5

Classroom Games & Races

13 Categories Word Race — R.E.A.D.

This timed categories game is one of the most energetic first day of school activities in the collection. The printable is organized into four columns, each headed by a letter: R, E, A, D — spelling out the word READ, a perfect message for the first day of school. Students must fill in each column with words starting with that letter, across 15 different categories listed at the bottom of the page.
Categories include: a school subject, a classroom item, a type of food, a color, a place, a person’s name, an animal, a verb, a clothing item, a sport, a book, a toy, something yellow, a fruit, and a feeling. Students have 1 minute per round — and the timer adds an electric energy to the classroom that instantly wakes everyone up. Great for building competitive spirit in a healthy, pressure-free way.

⚡ High Energy 🔤 Vocabulary 🖨 Printable 2–5

14 Classroom A–Z Race

Simple in concept, endlessly replayable in practice: for each letter of the alphabet, write something related to school. The printable lays out all 26 letters in two clean columns, giving students plenty of space to write one school-related word per letter. Easy letters like A (art), B (backpack), and C (crayon) fill up quickly. But letters like Q, X, and Z? Those require real creative thinking — and that’s exactly where the fun begins.
This makes a great whole-class race (first to fill all 26 letters wins!) or a small-group collaborative challenge where students pool their knowledge. It’s also a fantastic sponge activity — have it ready for those first few minutes of class when some students arrive before others, or use it to fill the inevitable gap between activities on a busy first day.

⚡ High Energy 🔤 Vocabulary 🖨 Printable K–5

15 Class Maze — Help the Bus Get to School

The Class Maze printable features a large, well-designed maze with a cheerful school bus in the top-left corner and a school building in the bottom-right. The objective: guide the bus through the maze to reach the school. It sounds simple, but this maze is genuinely challenging enough to keep 3rd, 4th, and even 5th graders engaged for a solid chunk of time.
Mazes are wonderful for the first day because they require focus and persistence — two skills you want to start building right away — while also being completely non-threatening and universally loved. For younger students, the maze can be done collaboratively. For older students, it becomes a personal challenge. Either way, completing it feels like a small win — the perfect way to start the school year.

🧩 Puzzle 🎯 Focus 🖨 Printable K–5

Classroom Exploration

16 Find Something in the Classroom… Scavenger Hunt

One of the most practically useful back-to-school activities you can do on the first day is help students get comfortable navigating their new classroom. This Find Something in the Classroom printable gives students 12 observation challenges to complete by walking around and looking carefully at their environment.
Challenges include: find something with your teacher’s name on it, something shaped like a circle, something that helps you learn, something soft, something that makes a sound, something made of wood, and something you can sit on. For each item they find, students write what they discovered on the blank line. This activity builds spatial awareness, observation skills, and — perhaps most importantly — familiarity with their new environment, which dramatically reduces first-day anxiety.

🏃 Active 👁️ Observation 🖨 Printable K–3

17 Visual Scavenger Hunt Around School

Take the scavenger hunt concept school-wide with this illustrated Visual Scavenger Hunt. The printable features 16 picture cards arranged in a 4×4 grid, each showing a school item students must find somewhere in the building: scissors, paper clips, a pencil, notebook, crayons, ruler, chalk, blackboard, marker, glue stick, desk, school bag, eraser, tape, bookshelf, and clock. Students check off each item as they find it in the real world.
This activity is exceptional for orienting new students to the school building on the first day. Walking the halls looking for specific items transforms a potentially overwhelming tour into an exciting treasure hunt. It also builds visual literacy and real-world vocabulary — students learn to associate the picture with the actual object they’ll use all year long.

🏃 Active 🔍 Exploration 🖨 Printable K–2

More First Day of School Activity Ideas

Here are 8 more tried-and-true activities to round out your first day of school plan:
18 Name Acrostic Poem — Students write their name vertically and use each letter to describe themselves (“B is for brave, R is for reads a lot…”). A timeless first-day activity that produces beautiful classroom displays.
Grades 1–5 ✏️ Writing

19 Dream Jar Craft — Students decorate a paper “jar” template and fill it with slips of paper listing their dreams for the year. Pairs beautifully with the Wishing Tree activity.
Grades K–4 🎨 Art + 💚 SEL

20 Compliment Circle — Students sit in a circle. Each person says one nice thing about the person to their left. A 10-minute activity that immediately builds psychological safety.
Grades K–5 💚 SEL + Oral

21 Our Class Rules Brainstorm — Instead of presenting rules, let students help create them. Groups brainstorm 3 rules and share with the class. Democratic, empowering, and remarkably effective.
Grades 2–5 Community Building

22 Two Truths and a Lie — Each student shares 3 statements about themselves; the class guesses which one is false. Endlessly entertaining and surprisingly revealing for teachers.
Grades 3–5 Icebreaker

23 Class Playlist Vote — Students each write down one song they love. Compile a first-day playlist from the votes. Kids feel incredibly seen when their song plays.
Grades K–5 Community Building

24 Goal-Setting Bookmark — Students decorate a bookmark strip and write one goal for the year on it. They keep the bookmark in their reading book all year as a daily reminder.
Grades 1–5 💭 Goal-Setting Writing

25 Design Our Class Handshake — In small groups, students invent a unique handshake sequence. Groups teach each other. The class ends up with a collection of fun secret handshakes.
Grades K–3 🏃 Active + Social

Tips for a Successful First Day of School

🕐 Plan for More Than You Need
First days rarely go according to schedule. Announcements run long, students need extra transition time, and unexpected moments happen. Always have two or three extra activities ready — the scavenger hunts, coloring pages, and word games in this collection are perfect backup activities that can be dropped in at any moment without preparation.
🎯 Balance Structured and Unstructured Time
The best first days mix guided activities (like the Find Someone Who icebreaker) with more independent, choice-based activities (like the coloring page or word scramble). Give students some agency over their time — it helps them feel trusted and respected from day one, which builds a stronger classroom culture faster than any structured lesson can.
📸 Document Everything
Take photos throughout the first day. Snap pictures of students working on their All About Me sheets, completing the scavenger hunt, and showing off their coloring pages. These photos become priceless year-end memories — and they’re a goldmine for parent newsletters, classroom displays, and end-of-year slideshows.
💛 Prioritize Feelings Over Facts
On the first day of school, what children remember most isn’t what they learned — it’s how they felt. Did they feel welcomed? Did someone learn their name? Did they laugh? Every activity in this list is designed to create positive emotional experiences first. The academic skills naturally follow when children feel safe and happy in their classroom.

Final Thoughts: Make the First Day Unforgettable

The first day of school is a once-a-year opportunity to set a tone of joy, curiosity, belonging, and possibility. With these 25 first day of school activities for kindergarten and elementary students, you have everything you need to create a first day that every child — and every teacher — will remember fondly.
From the coloring page that calms first-day nerves to the Would You Rather questions that spark classroom laughter, from the Wishing Tree that gives children a voice to the Find Someone Who bingo that turns strangers into friends — each activity here serves a purpose beyond just filling time. They build community. They honor individuality. They make school feel like a place worth showing up to every single day.
Print out the ones that speak to you, mix and match to suit your grade level and classroom vibe, and most importantly — have fun. Because when teachers enjoy the first day, students feel it. And that good energy? It has a way of lasting all year long.

Here’s to a wonderful school year.

Ready to Make the First Day Amazing?
Print out your favorite activities from this list and watch the magic happen. Share this post with a fellow teacher or parent who needs it!