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FUN Back to School Games for Kindergarten

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Today I want to share some FUN back to school games for Kindergarten with you, but first – let me tell you what I’ve been up to lately…In my last post I mentioned that we recently bought a house and we’re busy getting settled.

You know you’re a teacher when you are excited about decorating and making everything homey, but in the back of your mind, you’re constantly thinking about all things back to school!

We have been unpacking boxes from storage and finding things we completely forgot we had. It has been like Christmas in July around here! We are enjoying Wisconsin so much! Summers here are way more enjoyable than Florida summers. Can’t say the same about the winters though!

Get this, you can actually go outside and do things without feeling hot, sticky and icky. Who knew?! We have been living it up at the zoo, the park, and the pool.

This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
We also took our daughter to her first baseball game. She was chosen to be the Junior Announcer during the game. That shy little girl took us all by surprise. Proud mama moment right there!
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
While I was unpacking boxes I found some bus cut-outs that I bought at Dollar Tree awhile back. I completely forgot I had them. I’m telling you, Christmas in July! I thought they would make a cute counting activity. If you don’t have these cut-outs, see if your school’s die cut machine has a bus. That would work too!
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.

I’m calling this one “Bears on a Bus”. It took me a long time to come up with that title, can you tell?! I programmed each bus with a number and added some counting bears. Students read the number and then count out that many bears to be passengers on the bus.

You could add dots or stickers on the back of the buses to make this self checking.If you don’t have bear counters on hand, you can use my affiliate links to get yours from Amazon by clicking here.

This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
And of course I had to make a recording sheet! Click on the picture below to download it.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
This is another activity that I make at the beginning of the year.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
I use the die cut machine to make cut outs of different shapes. I cut them apart to make puzzles. I usually put three or four different colors in a bag so the kids have to sort the pieces before completing the puzzle.
Do yourself a HUGE favor and laminate the paper before you use the die cut machine!
 
I just finished my latest packet in the It’s All Fun and Games series. I love this series because it has a lot of interactive activities and includes many partner back to school games for Kindergarten. I love that the kids are learning to share and take turns.
 
These activities are also low prep and perfect for the beginning of the year.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.

 In this activity, the kids are practicing their first name. It’s definitely a good idea for the kiddos to have their name tag handy so they can refer to it as they write. Students spin the spinner (using a paper clip and a pencil) to determine what writing utensil they are going to use. Then they write their name. So easy, but getting to write with a highlighter is really cool when you’re five!

This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
In this activity students are matching the lowercase letters to the uppercase letters. For kiddos just learning their letters, they can use uppercase magnetic letters. You could use dry erase markers instead of magnetic letters. Eventually I switch this center out for beginning sound mats.
 
No letters in your classroom? I’ve got you covered! Use my affiliate link to grab your letters on Amazon by clicking here.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
For this activity, “Colorful Letters”, students say the name of the letter on the card. They find the letter on their paper and trace it using the color from the card.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.

 A tic-tac-toe partner game to practice uppercase and lowercase letters.

This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
 With “Colors All Around” students spin the spinner and find a real life object on their paper that matches.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
For this activity, students count each color of fish on the mat. On their paper they color the same number of fish to show how many.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
Here are pattern cards to use with the snap cubes in your classroom (or use my affiliate link to buy snap cubes on Amazon). After the first day of my first year teaching Kindergarten, I learned that it is a really good idea to spend time letting the kids play with the manipulatives before you start teaching with them.
 
The kids see these new bright colored toys, they don’t see them as learning tools. So let your kids play with the snap cubes before you pull the pattern cards out!
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
With these mats students can use play dough or small manipulatives to make the numbers.
 
You can check out all 28 activities included in this packet by clicking on the pictures below.
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.

 

This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
Check out the It’s All Fun and Games YEAR LONG BUNDLE: PART 1 and save 20%! This math and literacy bundle contains over 100 activities made just for Kindergarten. Skills progress as the year goes on. Click on the picture below to see it now!
 
This post has some great ideas for back to school games for Kindergarten! Click through to learn about counting, puzzles, name practice, uppercase and lowercase letters, colors, and more! These puzzles can be used ANY time of year, and they even work for your preschool and 1st grade students.
 
Thanks for reading along as I share all the back to school games for Kindergarten that I love!
 
 

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Comments

  4. Deanna House says

    When I clicked on the link to open your It's All Fun and Games series, the TPT page said "We looked around and couldn't find the page you asked for." I was thinking I would use your spinner with the different writing utensils to have the students practice writing their sight words.

    Reply

    • Melissa says

      hi Deanna,

      I fixed it! I'm sorry about that. And I'm so sorry it took me forever to get back to you. Thank you for letting me know. ๐Ÿ™‚

      -Melissa

      Reply

  7. Robin says

    Where did you get the clipart images of the pencil, crayon, highlighter etc? I love the ones that are on your Spin and Write name activity. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Melissa says

      hi Alison, I'm sorry, but I don't have a way to break the packet apart and sell just one activity. I do have the files posted separately in my shop where you can just get the literacy activities. Hope that helps. ๐Ÿ™‚
      -Melissa

      Reply

    • Melissa says

      Aww thank you so much, Jenn! I'm so glad so loved the ideas!!! The kids love calling the little bears the "passengers". They even walk the kids to the bus like they are getting on board. So cute! Thank you for sharing on your Facebook page! ๐Ÿ™‚
      -Melissa

      Reply

    • Melissa says

      lol You're right! It does change! We've had to reschedule plans a few times because of it. But that's okay… Wisconsin is such a beautiful state, especially in the fall.
      -Melissa

      Reply

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