First Week of Kindergarten Activities

The first week of Kindergarten is an exciting time!

Students are getting used to a whole new world, and they are in your room being little sponges who are ready to soak in everything you throw at them.

So, what do you do that first week of Kindergarten? You use amazing first week of Kindergarten activities in your lesson plans. 

What Should You Teach on the First Day of Kindergarten? 

During the first week of Kindergarten, it’s important to focus on getting to know your students, your students getting to know you, and solidifying classroom procedures.

It’s also a good idea to start introducing some activities that require holding a pencil, crayons, using scissors, glue, bingo daubers,  etc.

For more details on what to teach on the first day of Kindergarten, make sure you check out this blog post. 

What Should You Plan for the First Week of Kindergarten Activities? 

The first week of Kindergarten, you don’t want to put anything too heavy into your lesson plans.

Take this first week to get to know your students, let them get to know you, practice some procedures, and have fun!

One way to have fun is to use as many hands-on activities as you can!

During these hands-on activities, students will have a great time, and you’ll be able to informally assess how students are doing. 

This first week of kindergarten activities should be all about building a positive classroom culture.

Doing this now will help students feel more comfortable within the classroom. 

Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy First Week of Kindergarten Activities 

During the first week of Kindergarten, you want to use hands-on Kindergarten activities that students can interact with every day.

I like to have an activity for students to do each day when they come in the door.

These first week of kindergarten activities are always interactive and involve coloring, dice, or drawing. 

Some of my favorite hands-on activities for the first week of kindergarten activities include: 

• Alphabet Crowns: With 42 different crown templates, your students can be the kings and queens of the a,b,c’s while they learn the sounds each letter makes! 
• Directed Drawings: Drawing is always fun for students to do. Using directed draws first thing in the morning is engaging and teaches students how to follow directions. Your students will also learn to use letters in their drawings. How cool is that? 
• Dice Games: The first week of kindergarten activities can be so fun when you’re playing a game. These low-prep hands-on activities are great for the first week of kindergarten, centers, and early finishers. I have dice games for literacy as well as math in my store that are easy to prep and easy to use! 

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You 

When you are planning your first week of Kindergarten lesson plans, it’s important to include time for you to get to know your students, for them to get to know you, and for them to get to know each other.

There are so many fun ways to do this in your classroom.

However, these are three of my favorites:

1. Snowball: This game is really fun for students because they get to make a mess. First, students write down three things about themselves on a piece of paper. Next, they will crumple them into a ball and toss them on the ground. I would suggest having students toss them into a hula-hoop or something on the ground that can contain the “snowballs.” Then all of the students pick up a snowball and you try to guess who’s paper is who’s. This is a great first week of kindergarten activity to help students get to know more about their classmates. However, it’s not super effective until students know each other’s names. 
2. Name Bingo: Name Bingo is a great way for students to start to get to know each other. Build a bingo card using any variety of free bingo card builders online. Then, have students go around the room and find people who have that name. The person with that name initials their square. Whoever gets five in a row first, wins. 
3. Find a Friend Scavenger Hunt: This is such a fun first week of kindergarten activity because it gives students a chance to move and to get to know each other better. Make a list of things that students need to find out about their classmates. Then, let them talk and try to find those people. Some things you might put on there include: find someone who has a pet or find someone who likes to play soccer. The possibilities are endless. 

Read Alouds for the First Week of Kindergarten 

Reading is such an important part of Kindergarten. That’s why incorporating read alouds into your first week of Kindergarten lesson plans is so important.

When you use read alouds, your students develop their vocabulary, increase their listening comprehension skills, understand more cultures, and develop a love of reading!

For more on how you can incorporate read alouds in your classroom, check out this blog! 

When you do read alouds, it’s always fun to do an activity with it. I love using “The King of Kindergarten” and “The Queen of Kindergarten” as a first week of Kindergarten activity. 

This King and Queen of Kindergarten Read Aloud Activities is a simple, low-prep activity you can use with these classic books. 

Literacy Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten

The first week of kindergarten lesson plans can be hard to make. You don’t have to have anything set in stone.

As a matter of fact, you still might be waiting for textbooks and curriculum.

However, you can still expose students to literacy activities during this first week.

Some simple first week of kindergarten activities you can work on in literacy include: 

• Handwriting Practice: This hands-on activity for the first week of kindergarten can be digital or print and helps students learn how to write their letters better. When students are just coming into kindergarten, they might need this review! 
• Letter Identification: Using letter recognition games like roll and cover,and matching capital and lowercase letters, letter matching are all great hands-on first week of kindergarten activities that will be useful in the coming weeks. 

Math Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten 

Just like literacy, you don’t have to have your math lessons set for the first week of kindergarten.

Instead, you can use these low-prep activities to give your students hands-on meaningful practice in math. 

• Counting to 10 Clip Cards: These interactive counting to 10 cards are a great tool to help students learn how to use a variety of ways to count to ten. These techniques include using numbers, their fingers, ten-frames, and tally marks! 
• Math Dice Games: You can also have students use interactive math games with dice. Roll and Cover is a fun activity that students can also use to work on their math skills. Because this game is one students can play with literacy and math, they will be great at it and need little to no help which means you can do some small group instruction. 

Using First Week of Kindergarten Activities to Assess Your Students 

While you might not be formally assessing students this first week, you can use the first week of kindergarten activities to get an idea where your students are performing.

By using some of the activities above, you can assess your students in a variety of ways.

For example, you can assess their literacy skills in terms of letter recognition, initial sounds, and observe students’ listening comprehension skills.

This is also true for math skills. By having students do math activities, you’ll be able to see what their skills are. 

Beyond academics, you can also assess students’ social skills with the games you have them play to get to know each other.

In addition, to social skills you can assess their fine motor skills by observing them play at recess or during a physical education class.

While you might not be formally assessing students, you can still take note of students’ strengths and weaknesses during the first week of Kindergarten. 

Review Rules and Procedures 

You always want to review rules and procedures during the first week of school.

Reviewing procedures like lining up, coming to the carpet, and walking in the hallway are important to master quickly to make sure you have control of your classroom.

When you practice these skills, your students get used to your expectations and are more likely to be successful. 

Always Allow Time for Play 

One of the best ways for students to get to know each other and work on social skills is through play.

Giving students time to play inside the classroom and explore it, helps them feel comfortable.

When your students feel comfortable, you build a stronger classroom culture. 

In Conclusion

The first week of Kindergarten lesson plans might not be perfect and you might not have everything you need.

However, you can use first week of Kindergarten activities to give your students an opportunity to review and later thrive!

Remember, you have little sponges in your room who are ready to soak up all the knowledge you can give them.

Don’t let one week go by without teaching them something!