The start of a new school year can be very overwhelming for our young learners. Getting used to a new classroom, new friends and new teacher is exciting, but also a bit scary. One way to help break the ice and make learning more fun during those first few weeks of school is through incorporating back to school crafts. Crafts are wonderful for building fine motor control, scissor skills, visual-spatial relationships, listening skills, creativity and more. Plus, you can easily integrate ELA, math and/or social studies with these purposeful back to school crafts for kids!

Back to School Crafts for the First Week

All About Me Backpack

Building community is so important, especially during those first few weeks of school. What better way to get to know your students and build positive relationships than with this “All About Me” backpack craft?!

The pages included in this fun back to school craft allow students to share about their birthday, favorites, family and so much more.

Each of the 28 pages has just the right amount of writing for our little learners!

First Day Feelings Raccoon

We integrate math with this adorable raccoon craft, as we create a “First Day Feelings” graph… the perfect craft to go along with one of our favorite read alouds for the first week of school!

Plus, the students make text-t0-self connections, while they share how they felt on the first day of school with words and pictures, as well as with a class graph.

Pencil Craft

With this super simple pencil craft, the students get to write their name on the eraser and then draw a self-portrait on the shaft of the pencil.

It features just 3 easy-to-cut pieces, including straight and diagonal lines, making it perfect for the first week!

David Goes to School

During the first week of school, I’m all about establishing routines and setting expectations! One of my favorite stories to read is “David Goes to School” by David Shannon.

As we are reading, we turn those “No, David” choices into “Yes, David!” choices. Then, we create this super cute Yes, David! craft!

Stick to the Rules Glue Bottle

Teaching classroom rules during the first few weeks of school is essential, but getting those rules to stick can be a bit of a struggle. That’s why I created this super cute “Stick to the Rules” glue bottle craft and interactive digital slides, featuring 20 kid-friendly “I can” statements!

Each page features an interactive activity to help the students better remember that particular rule!

School Tools Toolbox

It’s also important to set clear expectations for how to use school supplies during the first week of school.

Once students have practiced how to correctly use a particular school supply, they will earn that school supply sticker for their school tools toolbox!

Back to School Crafts about Names

Dotted I

Grab your bingo daubers for this simple “Dotted I” craft for back to school. After dabbing the letter “I,” I model how to draw the head, face, belly, feet and hands… so their “I” becomes a person.

Next, we write the sentence at the bottom. I model how to write the words I and am, as well as how to make finger spaces between words. From there, the students complete the sentence by writing their name.

School Bus

Before completing this “Name on The Bus” craft, I like to practice singing the song using the pocket chart poem included in this Name Activities Bundle.

It takes a few days to get to all of our friends, but this interactive poem is a great way to reinforce letter and sound recognition, as well as to practice sequencing and counting the letters in our names.

Chrysanthemum

This Chrysanthemum craft is a hit every single year because it pairs with one of our favorite back to school books, “Chrysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes.

After reading the book and discussing what makes us special or unique, we make this cute name craft.

Coconut Tree

Building this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree helps strengthen students’ scissor cutting and gluing skills.

Plus, they get to practice sequencing and counting the letters in their name.

Ice Cream Cone

Students get to learn all about the first letter, the last letter, the number of letters, the number of consonants, the number of vowels and the number of syllables in their name, all while stacking their ice cream scoops on this ice cream cone craft.

So fun… and yummy!

Alphabet Name Soup

This “Alphabet Name Soup” craft allows students to sequence the letters in their name, as they practice their coloring and scissor cutting skills.

I like to pair this craft with my “Alphabet Name Soup” game which you can learn all about HERE! The kiddos beg to play this name game over and over again!

More Back to School Activities

Your students might also enjoy these other name activities for preschool and kindergarten!

Pair any of these name crafts with one of the name books on this list!

Don’t forget to take a peek at our favorite David Goes to School activities, to help establish positive behavior!

Help calm first day fears with these 40 books for back to school!

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