It seems like the school year ends, summer flies by and just like that, it is back to school time! When the whirlwind called summer is done, it is time to plan some fun (and low prep) beginning of fall activities for your 1st or 2nd grade students. But fear not, teacher friend, our team has hammered out a list of our favorite fall activities to make your teaching life easier.
Peruse all of our ideas in the post below. Looking for something specific? Click the links below to hop to that section!
Beginning of Fall Academic Activities
Books & Videos for the Beginning of Fall
Beginning of Fall Art Activities
Tradition Starting Fall Activities
Real quick, before we jump into our list, the beginning of the school year is an exciting time. It is also a time to model and teach procedures and expectations in your classroom. One procedure to get into place is how to quickly get student attention. A teacher and student favorite method is call backs. Download fall themed call backs below.
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And, be sure to keep your kids engaged, and not running around the classroom on day one with this first day of school placemat.
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Beginning of Fall Academic Activities
🍂Kindergarten Fall Themed Review
Math
Math puzzles are an excellent choice for Kindergarteners (and all other grades) due to their easy differentiation. Your students come in your classroom door with different academic strengths and needs. You need activities they will all be able to accomplish independently, no matter their skill level. The fall themed math puzzles are editable for easy lesson planning!
Math puzzles can be done the following ways:
- Already put together, students write the answer in the circle and color the puzzle picture
- Already cut: cut the puzzle strips apart and place them in baggies. Students will practice ordering them and answering the problem in the circle.
- Just ordering: for skills like counting and least to greatest, give students an already filled in puzzle, they will just need to put the pieces in the correct order
- Laminated or not: if you want to reuse the puzzles, laminate them. If you want students to be able to bring them home, do not laminate.
Check out all of the fall themed math puzzles your students will love.
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ELA
Practice your consonants in an engaging way that may give students a case of the giggles. Alliteration is a form of poetry in which the author tries to use the same first letter in as many words as possible. For example, “Callie the cow camps with cool cats.”
Add these posters to your consonant scope and sequence to have your students excited to see what the next poem brings.
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🍂1st Grade Fall Themed Review
Math
Bring some appletastic fun to your 1st grade classroom this fall with this apple graphing activity.
Apple graphing can be done in a couple ways:
- Give each students one of the paper apple templates and have them color it red, yellow or green. (Whichever kind of apple they like the most.) Then, create a graph with these apples on the board. Students will follow along, filling in their graph.
Whichever way your class completes apple graphing, be sure to ask and answer math questions about your data.
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AND, if you like this apple activity, check out our entire Johnny Appleseed Day Party Plan! Our team has planned out the entire day, down to the snacks and decorations.
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Read about Johnny Appleseed day here: Johnny Appleseed Party Plan for 1st Grade.
ELA
Get your first graders back in to the school swing with a first day of school writing prompt. Then, keep this prompt in a file and compare it to a writing sample the next month. At the end of the school year, students and parents will love looking through their writing portfolio to see how much progress has been made.
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🍂2nd Grade Fall Themed Review
Math
Kickoff your math centers for the year in an engaging way with a graphing school supplies activity. Start whole group by having students take their new supplies out of their backpacks, or desks, and graphing how many glue sticks, bottles, pencils, scissors, etc their table has. Then, have students organize and put those supplies away. This is a great way to get organized while tapping into math skills!
Next, use the Graphing School Supplies center to reinforce skills.
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Check out all the 2nd grade math centers, enough for the entire school year, below.
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ELA
Get your word study off to an autumn themed start a collection of fall themed worksheets. These sheets can be used for sight words, spelling words or to pair with your phonics study. Students will love the variety!
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🍂3rd Grade Fall Themed Review
Math
Ease students into their math year with these fall themed color by number sheets, perfect for review!
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ELA
Bring your sound wall to life with these student booklets that include posters for each sound, a word list (with blanks to write their own sound words) and sound how tos.
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If you are new to the world of Sound Walls, check out this post: Let’s Talk About the Classroom Sound Wall.
Books & Videos for the Beginning of Fall
Books
An engaging read aloud brings tons of fun and enjoyment to the classroom, for both the students and the teacher. The first week of school is the perfect time to create your reputation as a teacher with great read aloud ideas. Start the year strong with our 13 First Week of School Read Alouds & Activities.
If you are wanting a few more fall themed book and activity ideas, here is a great list to choose from. Click each book cover to find your own copy.
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
Students love the beautiful leaf filled pages. Read this short story, then take a leaf hunt to create your own collages.
Extra challenge: Make the collages symmetrical.
The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming
This is a cute story about a squirrel trying to solve the mystery of his missing leaves. Is someone stealing them? While reading this story, have students make predictions, and finally find out who the culprit is.
Extra Challenge: Have students write their own missing leaf mysteries.
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
This is a cute story about pumpkins and friendships sprouting. The main character, Rebecca Estelle, changes a bit over the book. Read the book and have the students complete a character traits graphic organizer, either projected whole group or as partner/independent work.
Extra Challenge: Use this book as an inspiration for students to write addition and subtraction word problems featuring pumpkins and other fall things.
The Autumn Visitors by Karel Hayes
This book walks readers through all of the fun autumn memories the bear family makes, all without being seen! After the read, have a discussion on what students’ favorite fall activities are. Then, send them to write about it with this writing prompt sheet.
Extra Challenge: Have students create their own fall memories book by stapling writing pages together, with a construction paper cover. They will write a sequential story using transition words: first, next, then, last.
The Reasons for Seasons by Gail Gibbons
Always a favorite nonfiction author, Gail Gibbons takes a deep dive into the four seasons with detailed illustrations and facts students are sure to soak up. During your read aloud, create a four column chart with the name of each season at the top. The class will create a list of all the things that go with each season.
Extra Challenge: Create a four seasons painting, like the one from Arty Craft Kids.
Videos
UJU Brain Breaks
My students have always loved all things UJU Bran Breaks! This back to school “Would You Rather” brain break video will have students up on their feet and learning about each other. Saying students are invested in these “Would You Rather” videos would be an understatement!
Kid President Pep Talk
Who doesn’t love a good back to school pep talk…especially from one as inspiring as Kid President?!
Class Dojo Growth Mindset
A series of five videos that show kids how to develop a growth mindset.
SciShow Fall Compilation
Kids love the SciShow and the kid friendly way the teach science concepts. Check out this science of fall video compilation to help your students understand what causes this beautiful season.
Relaxing Fall Work Music
This video has 11 hours (WOW!) of fall images with relaxing music and nature sounds, perfect for independent work time.
Beginning of Fall Art Activities
Nature Mandala
Bring your students outside in the nice fall weather to create a nature mandala. A mandala is a geometric, circular design. Students will enjoy finding natural objects to create their masterpiece.
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If you are interested taking your teaching outside, check out this Weekly Wednesday video filled with outdoor eduction tips and lesson ideas.
Name Doodles
Students love coloring sheets. They will especially love a coloring sheet featuring their name! (Celebrity status!) Best part? These name doodles are autofill, you type in the names and the doodles are created for you!
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Fall Themed Hallway Display Projects
Getting art up in the hall each month (more than once) has never been so easy! A growing resource, the hallway display projects are not just art…they also practice academic skills! For beginning of the school year, you can choose between our August or September themed projects below.
Download hallway display projects here
Tradition Starting Fall Activities
The primary grades are ones filled with fun activities and new friendships blooming. They are years many of us look back on quite fondly. Help cement those amazing memories with some tradition stating fall activities. (I say tradition starting because you are going to want to repeat these activities every year!)
Johnny Appleseed Day
September 26th is Johnny Appleseed Day. Why not make it a day to remember? With our Johnny Appleseed party plan, the day is already planned for you, all you need to do is send home the notes!
Find out more about throwing a Johnny Appleseed Day Party on the blog:
Seasonal Drawing
Another outdoor option your students won’t soon forget is a seasonal drawing. Pick a spot outside to visit each season of the year and draw it. If you live in an area with four clear seasons, choose a deciduous tree to marvel at all the changes. Students will love to see how this area changes over time. (It is a great way to throw in some Science standards too!) To setup before the first drawings, fold a blank piece of white paper into fourths. The students will write a season in each box.
Hopefully these beginning of fall activities are what you need to get your school year off to an amazing start. Remember, Team Lucky Little Learners is always here rooting for you to have an amazing school year!
Happy teaching!
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