The start of a new school year offers numerous possibilities to inspire, engage, and empower our students. It’s a time when the seeds of curiosity and growth are planted, setting the tone for a successful academic year ahead. But where do we start?? Here are five tried-and-true back-to-school activities that have a BIG impact on student learning throughout the year. From fostering a growth mindset to building a sense of community, each idea is designed to create meaningful connections and ignite a passion for learning.

Tips for Tackling Tricky Tasks

Here’s a lesson that I teach every single year during the first week of school and proof that anchor charts don’t have to be fancy to be impactful.

If there’s one phrase that makes my eye twitch it’s, “I don’t get it” while we’re still digging into concepts. So, I set the expectation from day one that saying “I don’t get it” isn’t an option!

Is it okay to not understand something? 100000% YES! 

Can we equip students with strategies for this circumstance so it doesn’t become a roadblock? Also yeeeeeessss!!

I use the book Avocado Asks (Amazon affiliate link) to teach about questioning while we make our anchor chart. Then the chart hangs in our room ALL year. It gives students ownership over how they communicate when they have questions or misunderstandings, and it is phenomenal to see how the kids begin to utilize it.

We are implementing 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Classroom (Amazon affiliate link). The top section of this chart comes directly from it. I added the tricky problem sentences to help students have clear strategies and stems for tackling things they’re unsure of.

What Makes You Unique

The Day You Begin (Amazon affiliate link) is one of the best children’s books I’ve ever read, and I make it a point to read it each year. Then we complete a morning meeting activity based on the last page of the book.

After we read the story, the students write down (anonymously) things that make them unique. Then, we go through and read the sticky notes out loud. If there are students who have something in common, we place a heart next to the sticky note.

Each year, I see sweet little eyes light up when students realize they have more in common with others than they thought! 

Visit this post for more morning meeting read-alouds and related activities that provide opportunities to build relationships and discuss important topics with your students!

Growth Mindset Brain Unit

I teach a brain unit at the beginning of each year and tie it in with the science behind a growth mindset, which is an important life skill to develop!

Here’s a list of the books we use for our brain unit (Amazon affiliate links):

• The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination
• Bubble Gum Brain
• How To Train Your Pet Brain
• Your Fantastic Elastic Brain
• Lobe Your Brain
• Big Brain Book
• The Brain is Kind of a Big Deal
• Brains! Not Just a Zombie Snack

After learning about how the brain works and its structure, we focus on a growth mindset with this journal. This journal introduces students to the concept of a growth mindset, including brain research, how to cultivate a growth mindset, and what the differences are between a fixed and a growth mindset. It features four pages of growth mindset introduction and five sets of growth mindset paired passages!

Students read 10 inspiring stories in the form of paired passages (one fiction and one nonfiction for each story) about people who faced challenges and overcame obstacles with a growth mindset. Each set of paired passages includes opportunities for annotating the text with growth mindset questions, plus two written responses for students to reflect on the characters in the stories.

For even more growth mindset development, download this FREE activity! I selected several of my favorite growth mindset quotes, added some thoughtful reflection questions, and included a couple of biographies about famous people who have a growth mindset.

One Word for Kids

Any other Swifties here? Add this to your MUST-DO lessons from here on out!

We read One Word for Kids (Amazon affiliate link), and each of my students determined what their word for the year would be. We talked about how their words can apply to situations both at home and at school and how they will serve as a guide for each student throughout the year.

As a reminder of their word, each student made a bracelet (Amazon affiliate link) with their word. They LOVED this, and I’ve loved seeing them wearing their bracelets as a reminder of their goal for the year.

Practicing Transitions

Transitions are a big part of classroom management, so let’s talk about one of my favorite strategies for motivating students to get their transitions down!

When I first introduce the concept of transitions, we practice several key transitions over and over. This is one of those situations where you need to go slow now to go faster later, so don’t skip practice! 

After students know the expectations for transitioning, I have a student timekeeper time how long each transition takes… there is something SO motivating to them about trying to beat their time, and I love saving all those precious minutes of instruction!

More Back-to-School Activities and Tips

Back to school really is a magical time where you’re building your classroom community and establishing routines and expectations that will serve you all year long. You can visit these posts for even more back-to-school activities and tips about organization, management, curriculum, and more.

You’re also invited to join us in our FREE upper elementary Facebook where we share real classrooms and classroom ideas, ask and answer questions about teaching, and support one another! Come share your favorite back-to-school activities with us!