The start of a new school year is a thrilling time for 2nd graders, filled with opportunities for growth, learning, and making new friends. As educators, setting a positive tone from the very first day is crucial for creating a welcoming and engaging classroom environment. To help ease the transition and spark enthusiasm, we’ve compiled a list of the best back-to-school activities tailored for 2nd graders. Dive in and discover fun, interactive 2nd grade back to school activities to kick off the school year on the right foot!
Classroom Community Building
- Puzzle About Me: This is one of my FAVORITE back-to-school activities for 2nd grade. Students write and draw about themselves on the puzzle paper. Then, they cut it out and swap with a partner to put it back together. When it’s reassembled, they tell their partner all about their puzzle. Grab this free printable here.
- Name + Hobby Game: This is an easy, interactive way to get to know a little more about your class and for them to learn about each other! Each person takes turns introducing themselves by saying “My name is _______ and I like to (hobby/activity).” They need to pair the thing they like to do with a movement. For example: “My name is Bobby and I like to play baseball.” *swings an imaginary baseball bat*. Everyone repeats “Bobby likes to play baseball” as they do the movement. Then it goes to the next person. They introduce themselves and what they like to do. The class repeats BUT first they have to say Bobby’s name, hobby & movement, then the new person. Keep repeating and adding on until you get through the whole class.
- Back to School Scoot: Are you looking for a fun way to get to know your students during the first days or weeks of school? Use this Back to School scoot to collect valuable information about your students and their interests in an active way!
Back to School Games
- Stand, Sit, Hands on Hips: I love this simple game for getting to know more about my students. The best part is that it requires NO prep! Just display the questions on your board. Students respond by standing up, sitting down, or standing with their hands on their hips.
- Classroom Memory: This game is a student favorite! And teachers love it, too, because it builds attention to detail, vocabulary, and focus. The concept is simple. Students view a scene for a few minutes and try to remember as much as they can. Then, the teacher switches to the next slide which includes 6 questions about the picture. Do you remember?! You can try it for free here.
Academic Warm-Up Activities
- Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden: Before diving into academics, setting some groundwork for how you expect your students to respond to challenges is important. Promoting a growth mindset and goal-setting are two effective tools to support students’ positive attitude toward hard work. One of the ways I do this is by reading “Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden” which has a beautiful message about each person growing in different ways. Then, we discuss the ways we want to grow this school year and complete a craftivity.
- SMART Spots: If you allow your students to read around the room, this is a MUST DO during back to school. For me, one of the most important parts of the first week of school is getting books into my students’ hands. We review our reading routines, book boxes, picking a spot around the room, and what reading looks like. I have students scope out reading spots and jot down where they want to sit. You can read more about this here.
- Trash Can Math: The game is simple. Tell students we are trying to make the BIGGEST number we can by rolling the dice 3 times (or 4 if you choose to include hundreds). The catch is, we can only use the digit once and we have to pick a spot for it before we roll again. We CANNOT move the number once we picked its spot or that will be cheating. Read in more detail about how to play here.
2nd Grade Back to School Read Alouds
Reading books is my favorite part of a new school year. There are so many to choose from! I love that there is a book for pretty much everything I want to teach about routines, expectations, and learning. In this post, I go into more detail about the 15 books below. Choosing books for 2nd graders as they head back to school can be an exciting adventure! At this age, kids are developing their reading skills and beginning to enjoy more complex stories. A few of my favorites are “This School Year Will be the Best!” and “What Should Danny Do?”.
Rules, Routines, and Expectations
- Behavior Stories: These are the perfect tool for facilitating conversations about appropriate behaviors in school. Each fictional story is about a character who makes a combination of positive and negative choices. Students LOVE sharing how the student could do better. It’s also a great opportunity to review how our behaviors affect other people.
- Routines and Expectations Checklist: Keeping track of which routines and expectations you have taught will help you ensure you have covered all the things! Start by writing down a list of everything you want to teach your students about the classroom/school. Then, plan it out so you spiral review over the first weeks of school. I like to try to teach each routine 3 times.
- Roll and Review: In this simple activity, students roll a dice and then write about the routine for that activity. For example, if they roll a 2, they write about the procedure for sharpening/getting a sharpened pencil. This is a great way to check for students’ understanding of your classroom procedures!Grab this free printable here.
Back to School Lesson Plans for 2nd Grade
Over the years of teaching 2nd grade, I have created and shared lesson plans for back to school. Each year is a new adventure but these tried-and-true activities have been the most fun and engaging time after time.
Grab these *FREE* plans where I have included links to all of the best 2nd grade back-to-school activities for the entire first week of school!
