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- 🍎 Quick & easy back-to-school activities for K-2 teachers
🍎 Quick & easy back-to-school activities for K-2 teachers
Plus some WILD read aloud resources and a clever student gift idea
Karly Moura & Christina Sciarrotto
August 05, 2025
Welcome to What’s New in K-2!
Your go-to newsletter for playful, purposeful teaching.
This newsletter was created just for you—our amazing K-2 teachers! Each week, you’ll get a fresh batch of tips, tools, and templates designed to make your teaching life easier, more effective, and a little more joyful. Expect practical advice you can use right away, a spotlight on a must-try resource, and ready-to-go materials from Teachflix Junior to bring your lessons to life.
You'll also love our Teacher Finds section, where we highlight classroom tools and products that are actually worth your time (and budget).
🚌 This Week: Gearing Up for Back to School in K-2
The back-to-school season is here—and we’re here to help! Whether you're setting up your classroom, planning morning meetings, or prepping first-week activities, this edition is filled with cheerful, low-prep resources made just for K-2.
Need more support? We've got you. Next week, we’ll send even more time-saving templates to help you kick off the year with confidence.
Inside:
💡 Tips, Tools and Templates: Ready-to-go resources for K-2
📺 Teaching with Teachflix Junior: My WILD First Day
🛍️Teacher Finds for the Classroom: A student gift that won’t break the bank
😄 Giggle of the Week: The moment we’re all waiting for…
❤️ Share your ideas with us!
💡 Tips, Tools and Templates
🚌 Ready-to-go back to school resources
Get ready for a fantastic school year with our collection of engaging and easy-to-use resources! We know how busy the start of the school year can be, so we've put together a variety of activities designed to help you welcome your students, establish routines, and make learning fun from day one.
From interactive icebreakers to skill-building games, these ready-to-print PDFs are perfect for setting a positive tone and getting your classroom off to a great start.
🔎 Classroom Scavenger Hunt
 | This interactive scavenger hunt encourages students to explore their new classroom. It’s a great way to build classroom community, reinforce vocabulary, and engage young learners in a purposeful movement activity. Perfect for the first week of school or as a brain break! |
🕵 Back to School Secret Codes
 | Got some word detectives in training? In this fun decoding activity each symbol corresponds to a letter, and students use the chart to spell out the mystery words in each puzzle. An engaging and fun way to practice letter recognition, decoding, and logical thinking at the start of the school year. |
👦🏾 All About Me Poster
 | A staple activity at the beginning of the year, this "All About Me" worksheet allows young students to share personal details like their birthday, family, and favorite things. It's a great icebreaker for the beginning of the school year, and helps teachers learn more about their new students. |
🔵 Back to School Bingo
 | Need a fun filler or brain break? This Back to School BINGO game is a playful way to introduce and review various school-related objects and activities. It includes multiple variations of the game cards for students. |
🔍 Find Someone Who…
 | This "Find Someone Who" activity is an interactive icebreaker designed to help students get to know their classmates. It promotes movement and conversation as children discover common interests and characteristics among their new friends. |
Need a quick activity but don’t have any time to make copies? Try this outdoor version of Find Somebody Who.
🔠 Back to School Word Search
 | This word hunt activity is a fun way to reinforce early literacy skills and familiar classroom words. |
📕 Back to School Activity Pack #1
During those first few weeks of school it’s difficult to time activities just right. These two activity packets are full of a mix of fun and review activities that can serve as an “I’m through! Now what do I do?” go-to for early finishers or as a class activity if you find you need a time filler.
 | This pack offers back-to-school activities focusing on self-introduction, number tracing from 1-10, object counting, missing number sequences, shape tracing, alphabet tracing (uppercase and lowercase), identifying same and different objects, and color recognition with apples and acorns. |
📗 Back to School Activity Pack #2
 | This activity pack provides a variety of worksheets for K-2 students, including missing numbers, color-by-number activities with sea animals, a school supplies matching game, a color-by-sight-word activity, vowel practice, tracing days of the week, letter and word activities, and fine motor skill cutting practice. |
📺 Teaching with Teachflix Junior
🦁 My Wild First Day
🎥 Video Link: Watch My WILD First Day of School on Teachflix Jr.
My Wild First Day of School is a fun and relatable read-aloud that captures the whirlwind of emotions a child experiences on their first day of school.
Discussion opportunities:
First-day feelings (nervousness, excitement, uncertainty)
Growth mindset and flexibility in the face of challenges
Building connections and classroom belonging
Encouraging resilience through humor and storytelling
Ready-made video resources:
This book is fun and engaging on its own, but if you're looking to take the learning further, explore these companion resources designed to extend the excitement of My WILD First Day of School.
✏️ My Wild First Day Stem Activity Cards
These STEM cards are designed to extend the read-aloud My Wild First Day of School by Dennis Mathew with hands-on, creative activities perfect for K–2 learners. Each activity card connects to themes in the book—like curiosity, problem-solving, and emotional growth—through open-ended STEM challenges.
 | Each card includes easy-to-follow instructions and a list of materials commonly for each activity. |
🦁 8 more “WILD” extension activities
1. "My Wild First Day" Drawing or Painting
Students draw or paint their own wild and wonderful first day of school outfit or moment (e.g., neon glasses, fancy shoes, parachuting in).
Skills: Creativity, self-expression, fine motor
Extension: Create a class display titled Our Wild First Days
2. Mini-Book Writing Activity
Have students write and illustrate a mini-book called My Wild First Day of School, mimicking the book's rhythm and structure.
Example: “On my first day of school, I’ll wear my superhero cape. I will zoom, I will fly, and never make a mistake!”
3. Dramatic Play / Act It Out
Let students act out parts of the book (e.g., parachuting in, playing basketball, reading rhythmically, making music).
Skills: Oral language, movement, confidence-building
4. Music and Rhythm Activity
Create classroom beats and melodies using rhythm sticks or body percussion, just like the “make music come alive” part of the story.
Add-on: Make up a “Wild First Day” class chant together.
5. Wild First Day Self-Portraits
Have students draw themselves with their favorite outfit or accessory (neon glasses, fun shoes, etc.), then write one sentence about what makes their first day “wild.”
6. Mix and Dab Painting Station
Inspired by the art scene in the book—set up a painting center where students can “dab and mix” to make expressive, colorful art.
Prompt: “Paint your excitement for the first day!”
7. Friendship Circle: High-Five Introductions
Just like in the book, encourage students to high-five and say “Hi” to 3 new classmates. Then, write or draw something about one new friend.
8. Poetry Corner
Work as a class to create a group poem using the pattern “On my first day of school, I will…” with each student adding their own line.
🛍️Teacher Finds for the Classroom
🎮 An A-MAZE-ING gift idea!
Love all of those cute back-to-school student gift ideas but don’t have the time to think of something? If you want a simple but clever idea that won't break the bank or take hours to create, you'll want to grab these.
This set of 36 handheld mini maze puzzles offers a fun and engaging way to welcome students back to school!
 | Pair them with a clever gift tag— “Get ready for an a-MAZE-ing year!”—for a simple, memorable, and budget-friendly student gift.* |
*This idea was inspired by True Life, I’m a Teacher
🤭 Giggle of the Week
Please let there be at least one kid on the list who knows how to tie their own shoes 🙏
h/t Bored Teachers