Top 40+ Back To School Activities To Warm Up The School Time Ahead

Back-to-school activities will help you get your kids ready for a new school year after months of lockdown. It is never easy for them to get settled again after such a long time, especially for younger kids. After the lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, it is obvious that going back to school after a vacation is never easy. 

You might wonder what you should do? We understand your issue; that's why we have compiled a list of 40+ cool ideas to help you make the transition smoother.

Interesting Back To School Activities For Students At Any Grade To Enjoy

Irrespective of your kid's ages, we have interesting back-to-school activities for your consideration.

1. Gift Exchange

Exchanging gifts is a surefire method to get your kids excited to go back to their school. Kids love to receive gifts, especially those that can tell they belong to your kids by carving their name. 

In this case, you can consider choosing:

• personalized mugs
  

• personalized T-shirts
  

• personalized fleece blankets
  

We are pretty sure all schoolers will love these kinds of presents. They will feel encouraged and gain a sense of belonging to be ready for the new school year.

2. Back to School Survival Kit

You can take a container like a zippered bag or a pencil box and put things you think your kids find comforting or helpful when they come back to class in it. 

Depending on your kids' age, this kit might have things like candy, gum, fun pencils, pens, stickers, or a short encouraging note from you.

If you have a teenager, you can try swapping out some kiddie goodies for gum, hand sanitizer, snacks, or gift cards to their favorite restaurants.

3. Bake Up Treats

Saying goodbye to the lazy zone in lockdown and hello to a new school year can be a difficult transition. However, luckily, there is nothing that back-to-school cookies cannot fix.

If the cookies greet your kids on the first day of school, there is a great chance they will forget all about the obsession of the first day of school

4. Make Delicious School Lunches

Break from the tradition for the first days of school. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (PB&J) in the bag are always a great idea. That said, to make your kids feel superb, you can pack several favorites for lunch like pizza wraps or peanut butter pitas.

Besides, you can prepare some dishes favored by kids like chocolate chip, blueberry pancake smoothie, or snack crackers. They’re sure to make your child eye-opening and smile from ear to ear.

5. Build A DIY Homework Station

To erase the obsession with homework when getting back to school, you can build a portable station to get your kids excited. You can fill the canning jars with school essentials like markets, stickers, rulers, and pencils. 

Also, you can even put energizing snacks in a cup to help them fuel up to be ready to do homework. Turn the study corner into something your kids can enjoy, not their burden.

Things to know about the new school time isn't over. Check out the Welcome Back to School Guide to get more useful tips.

Back to School Activities for Specific Grades

If you want to find back-to-school ideas for specific ages, this section is your answer.

The Coolest Back To School Activities For High School And College

1. Make A Craft

You can make back-to-school crafts for your kids' room and send them as a gift. High schoolers will love DIY pocket folders, while college students can prefer hanging paper organizers. Besides, you can also send the idea to let your children do one by themselves.

2. Sharing Messages Or Quotes

Another way to encourage kids to come back to school is by sending inspiring quotes or texts to your kids. You can send them directly on social media or through loving gifts with messages.

Here are some examples you can take into consideration.

• You must do the things you think you cannot do.

• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

• Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

• You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that's the one thing people can't take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.

• I've always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings.

• Intelligence plus character—that is the true goal of education.

Why not make it even more practical by sending a customized gift with inspiring messages? It can be a mug, a T-shirt, etc. Something your kids can use is always better than words.

3. Sign Up For Organizations And School Activities

If you still seek another method to get your kids back to school, you can consider having them sign up for sports, organizations, and activities! 

If your kids are just heading into high school and college, you can get them to do extra research before the first day so that they can know which clubs they would like to join. College students can dig on the website of their college for ideas.

4. Decorate School Essentials

You can personalize the school essentials like binders, planners, lockers, and notebooks. High schoolers will like creating photo and sticker collages onto the school essentials. 

You can try a more complicated look for college or high school kids using decorative felt pens and washi tape.

5. Register A Club Based On Their Interest

Based on your kids' interests, you can let them join a club. They can have a chance to talk with new friends with the same interest. They will feel happy and forget about the anxiety of getting back to school.

6. Ticket To A Favorite Show

High schoolers adore idols and love the festive vibe. This idea is like a spiritual gift for your children, encouraging them to return to school after Covidcation.

7. Join A Sport Activity

Joining a sports activity not only makes your child happy but also helps them healthier.

8. A Skill Course

Learning skills in life is as important as learning subjects. You can register for a short-term course for your kids to help them learn helpful things before getting back to school.

9. Going For A Picnic

How sweet it is when a whole family goes on a picnic. You can have time with your child and tell them about the upcoming school year.

10. Take A Short-Distance Trip

Let's create unforgettable memories with your kids before a new school year. This trip can make them have the motivation to study more.

Hilarious Back to School Activities for Middle School

Let's explore some fun back-to-school activities for middle school in this section.

1. Carving Out A Cave

Anyone who has ever picked up a kid from school knows they need downtime after a rule day to relax. The first days back to school can cause stress to your kids, so offering them a location simply for unwinding probably does the trick. 

This idea could be simple, including gathering several new favorite books, creating a warm fort, a juice box, and some cartoon stickers. And your kid’s territory is ready!

2. Write An Funny Note

Is it a sweet idea? You can write a note to encourage kids to go back to school with some funny notes or short stories about going to school.

3. Exciting Vocabulary Activity

Parents can hold an exciting vocabulary activity to motivate their kids to use vocabulary before going back to school. The unique point is you can ask them to find the words that have not been used commonly or pronounce them funny.

4. Hilarious Apple Gift

An apple-shaped gift with a fun note will be a perfect way to help your kids go back to school.

5. Smiley Face Candy Pencil As School Gift

Cute pencil gifts will be a great encouragement for your middle schoolers to come back to the classroom. To make it funny, you can decorate the pencils with smiley faces.

6. Favorite Cupcakes With Strange Flavor

It is worth making favorite cupcakes for your kids to convince them that going to school will give them many happy things. But you can creatively make them with new flavors that they have never tasted like sour milk, spicy-sweet orange, and more.

7. Fun Notebooks

Let's draw funny things in the notebook to make them realize schooling is not boring as they think.

8. Hashtag Signs

It is a creative way to motivate your kids. Instead of using hashtags on Facebook, is it nice to cut papers and write hashtags like #middle school #senior #fresh?

9. Printable Lunchbox Jokes

Another great back-to-school activity is making lunchbox jokes. We believe they will brighten your kids' day.

10. Playful Crayon Party

It seems that every middle schooler likes crayons. Why don't you hold a crayon party to get them excited about school?

Back to School Activity Ideas for Preschoolers

Here are some ideas of back to school activities for preschoolers.

1. Choose Picture Books

For preschoolers, you can read picture books about the first school day to squelch the anxiety and fear of your kids.

Some books you can consider are The Kissing Hand, Kindergarten, Here I come, The Night Before Preschool, First Day Jitters, or The Pout-Pout Fish Goes To School.

2. Make A Paper Caterpillar

It is a fun activity to help your young kids be happy for the year ahead. You can stick a photo of your kid in the head of the caterpillar to make them even more excited.

3. Palette With Bottle Caps

You can make this learning toy with colored bottle caps. Besides, you can also enjoy the kids dropping pom poms to the caps based on the colors.

4. Paper Clip Leaves And Flowers

Using paper clips to make flowers and leaves can encourage your preschoolers to get back to school.

5. Make Apple Counting Puzzle

Let your kids have fun with counting by cutting apple papers in half. Then write the pairs of numbers adding up to 10 on each puzzle's side.

6. 3D Apple Book

You can try to interview your kids and write some fun facts about them in this book. Ask the kids to draw a photo of themselves.

7. Make A Marker Box

Another great idea is to make a paper box with holes to let your kids put their markers into them.

8. Hold A Back To School Party

You can hold a small back-to-school party and other kids to join. This idea can encourage your kids to get excited about a school where they can have more new friends. Tell them that the next party will be even merrier with new classmates.

9. Sing About School

Let's find some fun songs about the schools and sing with your kids. They will feel it is fun to go to school.

10. Make Cute Cookies

Every preschooler likes to eat cookies. Let's try preparing some cute school-shaped cookies to make them happy when returning to school after summer.

Helpful Ideas About Back To School Activities For Teachers To Warm-up Students

We have also compiled the top 10 best back-to-school activities for teachers below.

1. Setting Up A Lineup Of Stations

The night before the day back to school is a time to collect info from parents. Teachers can let kids see the classroom, desks, and drop-off supplies. There can be much to get done in a short time, so clearly set up numbered stations to make kids easily see.

2. Providing A Checklist

It is a good idea to give kids or parents a checklist. They can do stations out of order and remember the ones they have not been to and which they have.

3. A Flipbook

There is so much info for kids and parents to get at the back-to-school night. Rather than handing out various papers probably lost, let's set up everything into a flipbook to keep everything in one place. 

It can take work upfront, yet you can utilize it for years.  

4. School Scavenger Hunt

It is always fun to explore the classroom. You can tell kids to make a classroom scavenger hunt, including important things like the lunchroom, bathrooms, and more.

5. Let Kids Choose The Seats

It might be a question on the mind of every kid. If you feel up to it, let the kids choose their seats on their own by putting name tags to use. You can change them if needed. They can drop off supplies at the chosen desk.

6. Figure Out What Students Love To Learn

You will be the greatest teacher when you let kids write on the desks. Utilize a marker to write names followed by the words "want to learn." Let kids write in the blank to get to know them better.

7. Make A Photo Booth

A photo booth is a large hit, yet it does not need to be complicated. Just a sign and some props indicating the year, school, and class, you can do it.

Teachers can get parents to text the photo they take of the kids, and you can build the list of parent contacts like a breeze on the phone.

8. Share Wish List

It is no secret that students can get stuck purchasing many of their own supplies on the first day of school. Should it seem right, one of the fun ways is using The Giving Tree to make the wish list. Let’s students share their wants, and you can help them somehow.

9. Give Tips To Parents To Help Kids Succeed

Teachers can spend time helping parents get what they can to support kids in the new school year.

10. Get Kids Excited For the Upcoming School Year

Before leaving, let parents and kids share what they look forward to in the new year. It is advisable to keep it up as a helpful reminder of all you are about to share.

Conclusion

So we have gone through all suggested back-to-school activities. In a nutshell, you can try some for all ages, like buying personalized mugs, T-shirts or sending an inspiring quote to your kids. 

If you are a teacher, you can prepare a lineup of stations or a flipbook to make your students happy when coming back to school.