12 First Day of School Activities for 2nd Grade

Summer has come to an end and it’s already back to school time. Today I wanted to share some fun first day of school activities for homeschool, public school, and co-op.

These first day of school activities for 2nd grade (and most other elementary school grades) are a great way to get to know new students and make the first week of school fun.

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I’m sharing activities that are more for a classroom/ homeschool setting first and then ideas for making the day of school fun at home in the next section.

In first grade and kindergarten, everything is so new to the kids that you may not have as much time for fun activities. By the time kids are second graders they are a little bit more familiar with the routines of school.

Yes, each classroom has different routines but kids often have an easier time starting a new school year as they get into second grade and beyond.

I know there are so many possible first-day of school activities that you can do and I can’t share them all in this post. But I am going to share my favorite ideas and some of the things we do to start our first day of homeschool.

First Day of School Activities

While I’m calling these activities, first day of school activities they would work as fun activities throughout the first week of school and many other times throughout the school year. So don’t think you have to do all of these things the first day.

Pick your favorites to include in your first day of school plans and do what works for you and your class situation.

A few important things to include in your first day of school lesson plans are: getting to know the students, letting the students get to know you (the new teacher), helping the students meet each other, and going over class rules.

First Day of School Questionnaire

The first day of school questionnaire is a fun way to start a new school year. It’s a great way to get to know the kids and have them get to know new friends.

The questionnaire is also fun to compare the answers the kids write at the start of the school year to the answers they give at the end of the year.

You can get a free printable first day of school questionnaire here. You can edit the date on the printable if you want to have a date typed on the paper. If you don’t want a date on your printed copy of the questionnaire just delete the date that is typed into the pdf.

Read a Favorite Book

There are a lot of great back-to-school books to read at the beginning of the year. The Kissing Hand is a classic story and a great book for the first day of school.

A few other possible titles to read aloud during those first few days of school are:

First Day Jitters
How to Get Your Teacher Ready
2nd Grade, Here I Come (they have preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade here I come as well.)
How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Many of the books I mentioned above work for public schools, charter schools, and homeschooling.

A couple of the books we are going to be reading for our first day of homeschool 2nd grade are This is My Home, This is My School, Mama, Why am I Homeschooled? and Miss Teacher Mom.

Name Tags

Learning names is one of the big challenges at the beginning of the school year. A great first day of school activity for any grade level is making name tags.

Give kids a blank name tag or paper to make a name tent and have them write their name or spend time decorating the name tag to start the day.

Make sure they put the name tag someplace safe at the end of the day so you can use it for the first week or so of class to learn students’ names.

This Crayon Craft would be a fun and different name tag (name tent) the kids could make in their favorite color.

Classroom Scavenger Hunt

Help the kids get familiar with your classroom by doing a classroom scavenger hunt. You could do this in a few different ways. You could create a sheet with things for the kids to find and have them mark off each item as they find it. (or use one of these scavenger hunt sheets from Organized 31)

Another option is you could hide several clues (on a sticky note)around the classroom for the kids to find in a specific order.

Read the first one and have the kids find the rest. With each new clue leading to another area around the classroom. At the end have a little surprise (treat or activity).

Self Portrait

Having the kids draw a self-portrait is one of my favorite things to do at both the beginning and end of the school year.

It’s so fun to see the students change from the first days of school to the last. You can also put the self-portraits your students draw on the bulletin board for back to school night (open house).

All About Me Worksheet

Along with the self-portrait having the kids fill out an all about me worksheet is a great activity for the first weeks of school. You can get this free printable all about me worksheet with space for kids to draw a self-portrait and answer questions.

I did this with my kids last year and I can’t wait to do it again on the first day of 2nd grade for my oldest (and my kindergartener will love it too!)

Back to School Color by Number Worksheets

These back to school color by number worksheets are simple but 2nd graders will love doing them as morning work those first few days of school.

Love color by number pages? Check out these free printable holiday-themed color by number worksheets!

Coloring Pages

These welcome back to school coloring pages are a great idea for an independent activity. You could have it on the student desks at the beginning of the day or at any other time throughout the day. (it could even be something you have for the kids to do while you talk to the parents at teacher night.)

Lunch Box Jokes

These lunch box jokes are a fun activity kids could do with new classmates in a small group. I’m sure that you will get lots of cute giggles on the first day of second grade with these jokes.

Word Search

This back to school word search printable has two different levels and is a perfect way to welcome the kid’s first thing one morning during the first week of school. The activity won’t take a lot of time but could be a good way to start the day.

First Day of School Activities at Home

While all of the activities above could easily be adapted to do at home the next couple of activities would probably be better done at home instead of in a classroom setting.

First Day of School Photos

I’m sure you have seen the first day of school photos complete with the first day of school sign. Well, you can get the free printable sign here and join the masses is taking a cute first day of school photo. Just do better than me and remember to take the last day of school photo too. (I totally forgot last year!)

Back to School Sugar Cookies

We all know kids love cookies and treats. These back to school sugar cookies are a fun treat to make for the kids when they get home that first day.

For Homeschool, you could make the cookies together, I know it would be one of my kid’s favorite activities.

Final Thoughts

I hope you are able to use some of these ideas of first day of school activities for 2nd grade (or any elementary school grade) that I shared in my post.

Good luck starting the new school year! I hope you have a great time the entire year.