The fresh boxes of crayons. The pointy tipped pencils. The clean notebooks with no mistakes. The bright charts with ABCs and numbers dancing across them. I love back to school season.
Last year my babies, my twin who remind me every day that they are in fact NOT babies, survived their first year of school.
Since we homeschooled for preschool the First Day of School was a BIG first day for us.
Whether you are working with kids about to start Kindergarten or K4 or preschoolers that are dreaming about that big day, this is a fun story time to do in August or September when these new feelings are fresh.
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ABCs of Back to School : Preschool Storytime
Captain Freddy Counts Down to School by Elizabeth Shreeve
It’s the first day of school but Freddy isn’t certain he’s ready. Perhaps if he conquers outer space first? As Freddy slowly gets dressed, packs his backpack, and plays with his baby sister he imagines an entire adventure to space in his mind. This picture books has bright illustrations and a story oozing with imagination.
Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
This is about a little mouse named Wemberly who worries. A lot. In fact she worries about everything and this is only made worse when the first day of school approaches. This is a darling book about all of those little fears that feel huge and how a friendship can make them all okay. I love reading this one aloud with a growing sense of worry in my voice as she gets closer to the first day of school.
A is for Salad by Mike Lester
This is one of my all time favorite alphabet books. On each page is a preposterous statement, such as “A is for Salad” or “G is for soccer” along with an animal that starts with the letter on the page. Children more familiar with letter sounds will figure this out and call out the correct word. The first time I read this to my kids, they looked confused when I read the title so I simply said, “hmmm…is that right? What really starts with A in this picture?” They shouted out Alligator and continued calling out the animal names as we went.
also read: abcs book inspired phonics lesson
*Note if you are doing this story time with children primarily under 4, I would read a different alphabet book like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in it’s place. It is much less funny if you don’t yet have a basic grasp on phonics.
Back to School Song + Group Activity
Sing: Wheels on the Bus
Group Activity: Letter to Object Match
Now you are going to play a game. You will need:
*Letters. I used felt board ABC letters like these but you could also cut them out and attach velcro if you want to attach them to your felt board or lay them out on the floor. I like to focus on lowercase letters because they are more common in writing, but uppercase would work just as well for this activity.
*Objects. You will need one per child that corresponds to a letter. You could match more than one object to a letter if you have more than 26 children. We used found objects around the house, but if you want to make it a little easier – this phonics set has an object for each letter.
read also: Best Books to Discuss First Day of School Worries
How to Play:
- Lay out the ABC letters either on the felt board or on the floor. I sang the ABCs with my kids while I laid out the letters.
- Next, hand out an object to each child. Have them look at it, feel it, and say the word out loud.
- Then ask them to think about what the first sound of the object is.
- Go around the group and one by one have each child match their object to the correct letter. Depending on the age of your children and their familiarity with letters, they may need more help.
- When the object is matched, say the pair out loud so the kids can hear the object, letter, and sound.
Goodbye song.
The Goodbye Train is Leaving. (Watch on YouTube) from Jbrary
ABC and Back to School Table Activity
This is an ABCs mural for the preschoolers to work on collaboratively. I think back to school is a great time to start forming new friendships and working on social skills. What better way to do that then to work on a project together.
You will need:
*Large piece of paper. I used Butcher Paper.
*Sharpie or Black Marker
*Variety of Art Materials: I used Bingo Dabbers (I love these ones), Markers, Crayons, Glue, Gems (these ones are self adhesive to save you the glue step), Washi Tape
To set up, simple draw out an outline of all 26 letters. I didn’t put mine in any kind of order – just spread them out around the paper. I also chose to do uppercase so that we could later match our lowercase letters to the poster, but do whichever or both. Then lay out the art materials around the table.
Note: if you have a large group, feel free to make several alphabets and divide your group into 4-8 children per table. The size of the group will greatly depend on the size of the alphabet you have drawn.
Explain to your group that they will find an alphabet on the table and that they need to work together to make it beautiful.
When you are done, you will have 1 (or maybe even more!) beautiful alphabets to display.
If you want more books about back to school worries to share, THIS is a great list of favorites.
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Erin Buhr, thanks a lot for the article post.Much thanks again. Fantastic.helpwithmath
You’re very welcome. I hope you found it helpful. Best of luck with the new school year.