Help your students get ready for a great school year. The following activities offer ways to get kids settled in and ready to learn. Use them to set up successful classroom routines while introducing and practicing key skills and curricular areas that you'll explore as the year goes on.

Icebreaker Activities Ease student anxieties about entering a new classroom with these creative icebreakers. Each one encourages students to learn about classmates and creates opportunities to practice observation and description skills. Name That Child (Grades PreK-K) What Makes Me Special? (PDF) (Grades K-2) Fabulous First-Day Ideas (Grades K-5) Welcome to the First Day of School! (Grades 2-3) Using the Venn Diagram to Get to Know Each Other (Grades 1-4) Time Line for Student Milestones (Grades 1-4) KWL Chart for Sharing Classmate Information (Grades 1-4)

Quick First Day Ideas: Introduce students to different skills and methods of understanding information while helping them adjust to the school year with these post-summer-vacation suggestions. 3-D Village (Grades PreK) Community Patchwork (Grades PreK-1) Back-to-School Tips (PDF) (Grades PreK-2) Taking The Class Census (Grades 1-2) School Bells Ring (PDF) (Grades 1-2) Welcome Back Poem (Grades 1-2)

Back-to-School Unit Plans: Focus on teaching students about their classmates through these plans that incorporate interviews, role-playing, and personal history. Unit Plan: All About Me & the School Experience (Grades PreK-K) Unit Plan: A Beary Good Beginning (Grades PreK-K) Unit Plan: I'm Special (Grades PreK- K) Unit Plan: Famous First Graders! (Grades 1-2) Unit Plan: Immigrants: Our Ancestors (Grades 1-2) Unit Plan: Working Together As a Team (Grades 1-2) Unit Plan: Who Am I? (Grades 1-2) Unit Plan: We Are History: Family Stories (Grades 3-5) Unit Plan: The New and Improved "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" (Grades 3-5) Unit Plan: Welcome to Success (Grades 3-5) Unit Plan: Journal Writing from a Graphic Timeline (Grades 6-8) Unit Plan: The Road to Success (Grades 6-8) Unit Plan: Writing an Autobiography (Grades 9-12) Unit Plan: Getting Down to Business (Grades 9-12)

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