Back to School Theme Ideas for Group Time

80 back to school ideas and activities

It's back to school time again and this year might be different once again. As summer comes to a close teachers are preparing for that big first day of school. This year, for many of us, it means going back to in-person instruction after over a year away. Or perhaps your instruction is a hybrid of in-person teaching and distance learning.

However, one thing we know is true, no matter where you or your students are learning from, those first few weeks of school are crucial for community and relationship building. Lucky for us, many of the beginning of the year activities we know and love can be done in any classroom!

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.

Planning and preparing your classroom

First week of school activities

Community building lessons

Social Emotional Learning

Connecting with families

Remote learning ideas and activities

Scroll down or click here to see our ideas for welcoming students back from break or starting a new semester.

Planning and preparing for Back to School

Embark on an anti-racism journey for educators

This learning path helps empower educators to be courageous and confident in their journey to work towards dismantling racism in their classroom and beyond. Educators will deeply question power, privilege, and fragility and will work to interrupt those teaching practices that marginalize, isolate, and exclude our BIPOC students.

Click here to enroll

Smart Start the year with EduProtocols.

Ready to start the BEST YEAR EVER??
Announcing the Smart Start online course by EduProtocols!

👥TWO 45 min LIVE sessions
📆FOUR days of EduProtocols
📝20+ ready to use lessons
🆓FREE Lifetime Tech Support & access to recordings

Looking for EduProtocols for littles? Check out all of the  resources from Jennifer Dean on her website! Click on the EduProtocols for Littles tab along with all of the other amazing FREE resources she shares.

Gamify your syllabus!

Create instant day one engagement. John Meehan's Class is Lava gamfied syllabus is great for physical school OR distance learning. Hit the ground running with student centered autonomy, agency and purpose.

Check out Class is Lava! by John Meehan for directions and the FREE template!

Get Started with Seesaw

Seesaw has created step-by-step grade-specific Get Started Guides that includes everything you need to introduce Seesaw to your students including the Seesaw Student Challenge, task cards, and badges and certificates!

Use our simple "drag and drop" back to school planning doc!

Sometimes too many ideas can be overwhelming, especially when you're reading through a post with over 80 activities to go through! A simple planning template can be helpful when sifting through resources. Just drag and drop the activities to a time slot on the planner. Make a copy of an activity you want to do more than once or if you want to give students multiple days to work on it.

This planning template was created using the Google Slides sticky note brainstorming template and has a link to 16 of the activities listed in this post. There are 8 more blank notes to add your own activities or add more of the activities you'll find in here. Of course once you make a copy of the presentation you can edit any of the activities to swap out or change the ones that don't work for you or your class.

Note: The links to the activities take you back to this blog post so that you can grab the resources you need to assign to your class.

First week of school activities

Try these brand NEW Back to School digital escape rooms!

Mission: School Blackout Jr.

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

ANSWERS: 5 clues are hidden around the room and each correctly solved puzzle or quiz uncovers a letter.

L= Secret message clue reads The letter after K.

E= Match each school supply picture with the word. Feedback reads; Your next letter is the fifth letter in the alphabet.

A= Correctly identify the next ball in the pattern to reveal the letter A.

R= Solve the 5 math questions. Congratulations text reads Your next letter comes before S.

N= The "What's behind" puzzle uncovers the letter N.

Finally click on the light switch to enter the secret word.

5 Letter Word Lock: LEARN

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. Created with Genially.

ANSWERS:
6 Letter Word Lock: SCHOOL
This word is written on the bottom of the introduction letter.

3 Digit Number Lock: 724
Correctly identify the next ball in the pattern to reveal three groups of balls.

8 Directional Lock: RURDRULU
Correctly place the books in the correct genre to uncover a picture of a library maze. Complete the maze noting which direction you go.

5 Letter Word Lock: WORLD
Answer the questions correctly. Final page reveals the word.

4 Digit Number Lock: 2612
Complete the crossword puzzle. Solution reads; two-six-one-two.

4 Color Lock: OPGP
Answer the questions correctly. Final page reveals color clues.

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

Get to know each other with these ice breakers from Canva

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

• Human BINGO
• Spot the Not
• Would you rather?
• Self Portrait

Design a poster all about you!

This ready-to-use 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 the "Design a Poster About You" lesson from Google Applied Digital Skills

Play back to school BINGO.

Give your students a challenge between your video calls with a BINGO style choice board. Encourage students to try as many activities as they can.

Back to School BINGO board created by Lisa Guardino

Connect Four Warm Up created by Rachel Marker

Create your own customized 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

Take your class on an 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.

PLAY!

Jed Dearybury has created a FREE online course to help you make your classroom more playful.

Learn all about activities like pareidolia, Pig/Porg/Person, sculpt and scoot and MORE. Jed gives you everything you need to create a playful classroom.

Create a 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.

• Blank digital quilt square
• Google Classroom banner template
• Custom Google Classroom Headers by Mandi Tolen
  

Introduce Google Slides with an "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

Introduce Google Drawings 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

100 MORE Jamboard templates? Yes, please!

Get that and more in the Do MORE with Google Jamboard online course!

Enroll today for access to:

- 100 Jamboard templates ebook
- 40 activity ideas to use tomorrow
- Tutorial videos, infographics, and slides
- Video playlists, posts, and extra resources

35+ beginning of the year activities from the #Ditchbook community

Below you will find 35 beginning of the year activities that you can use right away.  Also, be sure to visit our back to school Pinterest page filled with even more ideas from the #Ditchbook community.

Complete a G Suite tools refresher HyperDoc (click here for even more).

A2- I created a hyperdoc for my students as a refresher for @gsuite. It will allow me to be freed up to continue building relationships. #ditchbook https://t.co/Kqli3jx4hh

— Mr. Meyer (@54Mr_Meyer) August 9, 2019

Learn to be a Chromebook Lifeguard then have kids create their own meme!

A1: I cover the Chromebook rules with my students the first week of class, and they then make memes out of those rules. It's a really engaging way to begin and the Ss absolutely love it! #ditchbook

— Evan Mosier (@emosier3) August 9, 2019

Gauge tech skills with a 3-minute challenge.

Here's my slide that I use to gauge student familiarity with technology and also talk about that my class is more about learning HOW to learn than anything else –Nate #ditchbook #newteacherpodcast pic.twitter.com/d4v12ZhTd7

— Nate & Angie Ridgway (@TeachFromRidge) August 9, 2019

Become Digital Citizenship Superheros.

A2.b I love going through this Digital Citizenship Superhero Training HyperDoc with the kids at the beginning of the year. Sparks great discussions! https://t.co/4OkujCSqcN #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/0jlFjtAcvj

— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019

Teach students proper email etiquette.

A2: I watched this video recently on @TeachingChannel of lesson on email etiquette and the difference formal and informal emails. I love that it is with younger students. https://t.co/Bl7WPXZcgf#ditchbook

— Trina Serrano (@TrinaSerrano79) August 9, 2019

Go on a Google Docs Scavenger hunt!

A3: I modified a Doc Scavenger hunt based on a template from @catlin_tucker Here is my link. I really like how it covers so many of the basic features so quickly & Ss jump right in & get started. https://t.co/x4lPIPcxN3
#ditchbook

— Vicki (@33heupel) August 9, 2019

Review or teach Chromebook policies (and play a fun Kahoot!)

A2.a We show this Chromebook care presentation in every class before we get started with our devices. https://t.co/sFHF3J5hsX And we play and accompanying @GetKahoot! https://t.co/DsQHMbfR06 #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/4f2mZHS04A

— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019

Create an "All About Me" poster with Adobe Spark.

Have Ss create an All About Me using @AdobeSpark or another topic, safety, etc #ditchbook

https://t.co/lTEXxrCgAC

— Marcia Carrillo (@MarciaMentor) August 9, 2019

Complete the TLAP Play-Doh challenge HyperDoc.

Check this out #ditchbook https://t.co/gNxfd9cyTg

— Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) August 9, 2019

Create identity silhouettes.

A4: My students will be creating identity silhouettes in our journey of exploring mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors in ELA & SS. #Ditchbook https://t.co/Ga093ljCxY pic.twitter.com/EtqH9EAq4I

— Chanmi Chun (@mrschun) August 14, 2020

Try visual learning selfies.

A4. I love doing visual learning selfies I learned from @MindWise_CK https://t.co/lm6egSMBrq #ditchbook https://t.co/73nJVFzJTp

— Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) August 9, 2019

Create an icon board.

A fun, very visual way to start the school year …

Use this "icon board" template to let students share about themselves and their goals for the year …https://t.co/dLAzwZBff0

Post: https://t.co/T7Bba6FI2R#DitchBook #googleedu #gttribe pic.twitter.com/CO5G86LAvR

— Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) August 9, 2019

Have fun with a beginning of the year QR Break-In!

A1: I'm doing a QRBreakin @MeehanEDU and a hyperdoc about the students th first week. #ditchbook

— Heather Stringham (@hsengteach) August 9, 2019

Create Vision Boards(blog post by Kasey Bell).

A2: At the beginning of my Forensics class I Ss make Vision Boards in @googleslides Thanks @ShakeUpLearning for the idea! 2-3 personal goals & 2-3 in class goals. We spent lots of time brainstorming possible areas of interest in Forensics first. #ditchbook Here is 1 example. pic.twitter.com/B0kjZJu2M1

— Vicki (@33heupel) August 9, 2019

Practice following directions in Google Drawings.

Here is a 1st Google Drawing activity for I would do with my 4th grade students. It was a great lesson on following directions and being creative.
Many Ss liked to take what they created and use as chromebook wallpaper #Ditchbook https://t.co/OpERi18bfZ pic.twitter.com/NhB2FTw9vb

— Sean Fahey (@SEANJFAHEY) August 24, 2018

Get to know your students with a 360 spreadsheet.

I use #googleforms to create 360 spreadsheets that help me get to know about my Ss. I refer to them all year long when building relationships. #ditchbook

— Nicole Nowlin (@nicole_nowlin) August 9, 2019

Start the year off with One Word.

Some amazing "get to know you" ideas for back to school:

> Flipgrid meet-and-greets
> Shared slide presentation: 1 kid per slide, webcam pic with details about themselves
> THE @SEANJFAHEY One Word Hyperdoc (https://t.co/WAkWu1sRnH)#DitchBook

— Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) August 9, 2019

Play "Two Truths and a Lie" on Flipgrid.

A1: I love @FriendsinFourth's @Flipgrid idea of "Two Truths and a Lie." What a great way to start the year! #DitchBook https://t.co/LCJlMJr2IU

— Joe Merrill  (@MrMerrillsClass) August 9, 2019

Get to know your classmates with the "thin slides" Eduprotocol.

THIN SLIDES @eduprotocols @jcorippo
name
Word
Picture
(Fav food)&…….
All on the same slide deck.
Make 1 slide 3 min-6 sec to present #relationships

— Marcia Carrillo (@MarciaMentor) August 9, 2019

Frayer a friend(Google Drawings template).

#EDUProtocols Here is a Frayer A Friend Template I made in Google Drawings. Feel free to make a copy for yourself for your use! https://t.co/3FN7ge2EVt

— BRIAN ROSS (@brossreading) April 4, 2018

Try a "Who Am I?" activity on Google Slides.

A3. This is such a great question… Considering what I am calling a soft start and holding off on curriculum start for a while. One idea I got from @gcouros is something like this: https://t.co/wpL3Dfdnms #ditchbook https://t.co/1bhhZLOl0I

— Stephen Chapin (@stephenchapin) August 14, 2020

Get to know your students with a Google Form Survey

A4: I gather info via Form to use throughout the year in an end of class activity. I'll also either (or maybe both) do the Get To Know You Collaborative Slide or Locker Collab Slide.https://t.co/CqTSb3KtzA#ditchbook https://t.co/gNjQKmFrwP

— Mandi Tolen (@MandiTolenEDU) August 14, 2020

Have students create their own island.

Ss create a 2d/3d island that represents them and their interests, values etc.

Ss label physical features of the island creatively, choose colors, shapes and landforms etc that are all about them. #ditchbook
Autobiographical is a better descriptor

From pinterest pic.twitter.com/rViId0zBhl

— Eric (@eric_falls) August 9, 2019

Introduce the design process with a watercraft challenge.

A4 LOVE, LOVE, LOVE @PBSKIDS Design Squad watercraft challenge! Such a great way to jump into design thinking right at the beginning of the year! https://t.co/xK0iNlQNAV #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/hvl6NHDpIc

— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019

Get to know each other with a "mystery person" activity.

Q4. We do a 'mystery person" activity w a fun fact about themselves that others don't know — like " I can jump a rope 40times in a minute" on a blank card. Mix them up and find the mystery person who matches the fact the card. Intros to the class to follow. — Angie #ditchbook

— Nate & Angie Ridgway (@TeachFromRidge) August 9, 2019

Let students design their own virtual locker!

Start off the year with a fun game of "This or That".

 "Unbox" your class with the GRID method.

Introduce digital notebooks to your class.

Review digital class jobs.

Challenge your students to a GIF battle!

Begin each day with community circles.

Get back to school with G Suite from Shake Up Learning.

Start the year off with a back to school HyperDoc.

BONUS! Check out an entire FOLDER  and/orPADLET of back to school resources!

Community building lessons

Find out "What makes you unique?"

This lesson uses the book "Chrysanthemum" to encourage students to share about their unique qualities and what makes them special.

What make you unique? Flipgrid Disco Library topic

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

Create a collaborative Slides or PowerPoint "This is us" presentation.

Use this HyperDoc to build community in your classroom! It creates a space for each student to share about themselves asynchronously.

This is us HyperDoc created by Nicole Beardsley

Try a team building digital escape room.

Digital escape rooms are super fun and kids love a good challenge! This escape room's theme is teamwork and students can and should work together to figure out the clues. Utilize the "breakout rooms" feature in video calls to put kids into teams to work together and escape!

Exit: A teambuilding experiment digital escape room  created by Lisa Guardino

Make learning memorable!

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

Social Emotional Learning

Zone in on feelings after a year away.

After a year, or more, of remote learning students may be feeling lots of different emotions as they head back to in person instruction. These customizable check-in templates from Canva address these emotions and provides some ways to handle them. Check out the different SEL presentation templates and customize them for your class.

• Zoning In on Our Feelings
• Zones of Regulation
• Feelings Check-in

Try Good, OK, Bad with Jamboard.

Using this template will help you to know about where your students are at and allow you the opportunity to follow up with any issues. Now more than ever, it is important to be mindful of our students social emotional health! This template works best if you complete their activity as a class.

Check out this template plus 9 others in 10 Jamboard templates for distance learning by Kris Szajner

Do a daily check-in with forms.

A Google (or Microsoft) form makes it simple and easy to get started connecting with all of your students. Ask your students to fill out the form as they are logging in for the day. You can review their answers while they complete a digital warm-up or between video calls.

Check out Daily Check-in With Google Forms by Mari Venturino for a template and examples.

Do a quick check-in or check-out with Mentimeter.

Mentimeter allows you to create interactive presentations that can poll your audience in real time. Try using the ranking option to see how students feel at the beginning of the day or lesson. Or utilize the word cloud feature as an exit ticket to see how students feel at the end of a lesson.

25+ SEL activities shared by educators

Mr. Gupton posted this tweet in mid-August asking educators to share their first week SEL activities and the response was amazing. We have curated many of the responses into a Wakelet collection and have embedded it below. Be sure to check out the original tweet for recent additions and give Mr. Gupton a follow on Twitter!

Connecting with families

Send home a "welcome box" or "welcome bag" to your students and families.

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.

Ease the transition back to in-person learning with these helpful organizers.

Common Sense Media has put together some helpful templates focusing on transitioning educators, students and families back to in-person instruction.

Host 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.

Make a hub of resources for parents and students.

Keep a consistent place (website or even a published Google Slide) for students to access assignments for parent to find resources and announcements. You can add a welcome video and tutorials for help.

Examples:

• Kind Rockets
• Mr. Hughes' Distance Learning Site

Use the Talking Points app to communicate with ALL families.

Talking points allows you to communicate with your families. You write your message in your home language, families respond in theirs and it is translated automatically. Teachers can use the web-browser or mobile app, families can use text messages or a mobile app.

See the full list of languages that Talking Points supports

Create a Flipgrid topic to host "office hours" for families.

You can create a separate Flipgrid topic for each family (in elementary) or each class (in secondary) to offer asynchronous office hours. Families can use their topic to get in touch with you and ask any questions they need. Remember to keep the videos moderated if more than one family is accessing the same topic.

Check out Connecting School + Home for a guide to setting up your grid

Welcome students back from break or start a new semester

Be relevant and build relationships with an Among Us game in the classroom

Among us, an online sci-fi murder mystery game, is all the rage right now with students young and old. What better way to welcome students back to the classroom or to build community with a fun and relevant game.

But you don't need to play the online version in your classroom! Check out these "made for EDU" Among Us games.

• Among Us in the classroom by Carrie Baughcum
• How to Add Game Elements to Your Lesson: Among Us-Google Style!by Laura Steinbrink
• Trust No One the Among Us style game by GimKit

Remote learning ideas and activities

Although many of the resources listed above can be used in any classroom setting the resources below are specific to remote learning. These resources have been very useful to educators all over the globe when in distance learning because of the pandemic or elearning days.

Free Remote Learning Online Course

• 14 modules
• 2.5+ hours of video
• Downloadable planning guides
• Lifetime access
• Forum for sharing ideas

Create a Bitmoji or virtual classroom.

Bitmoji classrooms are all the rage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Creating your own virtual classroom can help you feel a little bit more "at home" with distance learning. The resources below  (including 200+ ready-to-use templates) will help you create your own.

Take students on a tour of their virtual classroom.

You spent all that time making your Bitmoji virtual classroom right? See idea and tutorial links in the section above. Take some time to give your students a tour. Show them where everything is and why the items you chose to include are important. You could even take it fun step further and create a virtual classroom scavenger hunt.

Let kids decorate their virtual classroom!

We want our students to be a part of our classrooms even when our classrooms are virtual. A fun first day of school project is to have students create a digital art project to "hang up" in your virtual Bitmoji classroom. It can be a decorative name tag or a digital picture.

Click here to get some pre-made art "frames" (Need these in PowerPoint? Just click "file" then "download" and choose Microsoft ppt.)

Have students create their own virtual background.

Why should teachers have all the fun creating their own classrooms? Take it a step further and let students create their own virtual learning space. Show them how to download and use their own virtual background in Zoom, Teams or Google Meet!

Check out Creating Educational and Fun Backgrounds for Microsoft Teams and Zoom by Holly Clark for a tutorial video, templates, and ideas.

Let Seesaw plan the first week of remote learning!

Seesaw has created a map of ready-to-go Seesaw activities for home learning organized by grade and subject.

This remote learning activities mapincludes directions to each activity along with a direct link to the FREE activity in the Seesaw library! Follow the activities as they are laid out or switch them with activities from a different grade level. Teaching grades 6+? You can easily edit the activities to fit your content area and grade level.

Looking for more remote learning resources?

Our distance learning page has TONS of resources for bringing learning directly to your students no matter where they are!

💻100 remote learning activities templates and tutorials

💻 Distance learning lesson planning guides and templates

💻FREE ebooks for getting started or taking your remote teaching farther

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

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

Back to School Theme Ideas for Group Time

Source: https://ditchthattextbook.com/back-to-school/

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