Back to school activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade can help those first few days feel a lot less awkward for both you and your students. You want your new class to feel comfortable, start making connections, and get excited about the year ahead, but you also need activities that are easy to prepare and appropriate for upper elementary students. The best first-week ideas give your students something meaningful to do while helping you learn more about the personalities and interests that make up your new classroom.
Choosing Back to School Activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade
When you are planning for the first week of school, it helps to choose a mix of activities for your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders instead of relying on the same type of icebreaker over and over. Some students will happily introduce themselves to everyone in the room, while others would much rather write, draw, or talk with one classmate at a time. Including a variety of back-to-school activities gives more students a way to participate that feels comfortable.
Those first-day activities can also help you learn quite a bit about your new 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade class. You may quickly notice which students enjoy speaking in front of a group, who prefers working independently, which classmates already have things in common, and what interests your students have outside of school. Those little details can make it much easier to begin building relationships during the first weeks of the year.
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Get Your Students Talking With Simple Icebreakers
A good back-to-school icebreaker does not have to involve having every student stand in front of the class and introduce themselves. For 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, a Who Am I? game can take some of that pressure away. Your students write several clues about themselves without including their names, and the rest of the class tries to figure out who wrote each set of clues. Along the way, your students learn about hobbies, pets, favorite foods, interests, and other fun facts about their classmates.
Two Truths and a Lie is another easy activity that works especially well with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at the beginning of the school year. Each student writes three statements about themselves, but one statement is made up. Their classmates have to decide which one is the lie. It gives your students a chance to be creative and usually leads to plenty of follow-up conversations as everyone learns surprising things about one another.
If your students have been sitting for a while, try making one of your back-to-school activities a class mixer. A bingo-style activity gets your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students out of their seats and talking to people they may not normally approach. They can search for classmates who match different descriptions on their bingo cards and begin discovering shared interests, talents, and experiences.
Give Your Students a Private Way to Share
Not every back to school activity needs to be a game. One of the most valuable things you can do with your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students is give them a private opportunity to tell you what they want you to know about them. An “I Want My Teacher to Know” letter gives your students a chance to share things they may not feel comfortable discussing during a whole-class back-to-school activity.
Some students may use the letter to tell you about their favorite subject, hobbies, or goals for 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. Others may share something they are worried about, explain how they learn best, or tell you about an important part of their life outside of school. Either way, you are giving your students a quieter way to connect with you while learning information that may help you support them throughout the year.
If you want several of these back-to-school ideas ready to go, you can find them together in my set of five Back to School Activities. The resource includes Who Am I?, Two Truths and a Lie, Class Mixer Bingo, an I Want My Teacher to Know letter, and a Beach Ball Community Builder for your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. You can use the activities throughout the first few days instead of trying to cram all of your community building into one morning.
Add Some Movement to Your First Week
After sitting through procedures, classroom expectations, and all of the other information that comes with the first days of school, your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are probably going to be ready to move. A beach ball community builder is an easy way to add movement while still helping your students get to know one another.
For this back-to-school activity, numbers are written around a beach ball. Your students toss the ball around the classroom, and when someone catches it, they answer the question that matches the number under their hand. It keeps the activity unpredictable and gives your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade class lots of chances to laugh, talk, and learn more about each other.
You can even try this idea before purchasing the complete set because the Beach Ball Community Builder is available as a free download. You will need to provide your own beach ball, but once you prepare it, it is an easy activity to pull out again later when your upper elementary students need another community-building break.
Create an All About Me Display for Back to School
If you want one of your first-week activities to double as classroom decor, an All About Me project is a great option for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Instead of completing a traditional one-page worksheet, your students can create a personalized 12-sided 3D ball filled with information about themselves.
Each section of the project gives your students something different to write, draw, or reflect on. This gives your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders a chance to show their personalities and creativity while completing an activity that still has plenty of structure. It can also be a nice change of pace after some of the more social back-to-school games you have used during the first few days.
The finished projects can also solve the problem of those empty beginning-of-the-year bulletin boards. You can display your students’ 3D balls for Back to School Night, arrange them on a bulletin board, or hang them from the ceiling. Your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students get to see their work displayed right away, and families have something personal to look at when they visit your classroom.
My All About Me 3D Ball Project includes everything you need to use this activity with your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Your students complete 12 different prompts as they color, draw, and write about themselves. The resource also includes student directions, a checklist for completing the prompts, the ball templates, and teacher assembly directions with photos.
Spread Your Back to School Activities Throughout the Week
You do not have to complete every community-building activity on the first day of 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. In fact, spreading them throughout the first week can give you natural breaks between procedures, classroom routines, assessments, and curriculum introductions. Your students get a chance to reset, and you do not have to plan an entire day filled with elaborate icebreakers.
You might start the first morning with Class Mixer Bingo, use the I Want My Teacher to Know letter later in the day, and bring out Two Truths and a Lie the following morning. Your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders could work on their All About Me 3D balls a little at a time throughout the week, especially when you need an independent back-to-school activity while you organize supplies, check paperwork, or handle all of those little beginning-of-the-year tasks.
Spreading these activities out also allows your classroom community to develop more naturally. Your students do not have to learn everything about one another on the first day of 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. They simply need repeated opportunities to talk, share, create, and discover things they have in common. Each small interaction helps the classroom begin to feel more familiar.
Start the School Year With Activities That Have a Purpose
The best back to school plans for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade are not just about filling time before the “real” learning begins. These activities can help your students become more comfortable with you, learn about their classmates, practice communicating, and begin seeing themselves as part of a classroom community.
If you are planning those first few days, these two resources can give you a variety of activities without adding a lot of extra prep. Use the five Back to School Activities when you want ready-to-use icebreakers, games, and community builders for your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classroom. Then add the All About Me 3D Ball Project when you want a creative activity that can also become your first classroom display. Together, they can help you start the school year with activities that are fun for your students and useful for you.
More Back to School Resources
10 Must-Read Back to School Books for Upper Elementary with Activity Ideas
