Back to school is a great time to bring out simple activities that help young learners settle into a routine, practice important early skills, and feel excited about a new year of learning.
I have gathered some of my favorite free back to school printables for preschool and kindergarten in one place. You will find All About Me activities, name writing practice, morning work, alphabet worksheets, calendar activities, and a few fun printables for those first weeks of school.
Use one activity for the first day, build a week of simple lessons, or mix several printables into your preschool or kindergarten routine.
All About Me Back to School Printables
All About Me activities are especially useful at the beginning of a new school year. Children get a chance to talk about their interests, families, favorite things, and personalities while practicing writing, drawing, coloring, and fine motor skills.
The All About Me Hoodie is a fun first day of school activity with plenty of space for children to personalize their page. Two printable worksheets include a hoodie filled with 18 prompts about favorite foods, colors, sports, books, and more.
Kids can draw themselves in the center of the hoodie, add their answers, and decorate the finished page. Completed hoodies also make an easy classroom, co op, or homeschool display.
All About Me Accordion Fold Out With Spinner
Add a little hands on fun to introductions with an accordion style All About Me activity.
Children can write or draw about favorite colors, books, hobbies, goals, special memories, and facts about themselves. A printable spinner adds an interactive sharing activity that works well with siblings, classmates, or homeschool co op groups.
The finished fold outs can also be displayed after the activity is complete.
Turn getting to know each other into a creative puzzle project.
Two puzzle templates give kids spaces to add information about birthdays, favorite colors, hobbies, books, foods, movies, family, and other fun facts.
Children can color and decorate the puzzle pieces before putting everything together. In a classroom or co op, individual puzzles can even be combined into a colorful group display.
For younger preschool and kindergarten learners, the free All About Me worksheet pack keeps things simple.
Drawing, tracing, and simple writing make the pack easy to use during the first week of school without requiring a long lesson.
Name Writing Practice For Back To School
Learning to recognize and write a name is an important preschool skill, and the beginning of a new school year is a perfect time to practice.
Free Printable Name Tracing Worksheet
Create a personalized name tracing page directly on the website.
Enter a child’s name and choose from print, D’Nealian, or cursive fonts along with different writing line formats. You can also add additional words or short phrases.
The finished worksheet can be downloaded as a PDF and printed for handwriting practice.
For repeated name writing practice, place the page inside a dry erase pocket and let kids trace with fine tip dry erase markers. Wipe the page clean when they finish and use it again another day.
Name tracing works particularly well as a short morning activity during the first few weeks of preschool or kindergarten.
Back To School Morning Work And Routines
A predictable morning routine can make the transition into a new school year much easier for young children. Simple calendar, weather, feelings, tracing, and early learning activities give kids something familiar to begin with each day.
Free Days Of The Week Worksheets
Days of the week are another easy skill to add to a new school routine.
The five page printable pack includes a Today Is chart, tracing activities, cut and paste sequencing, word recognition practice, and a mini days of the week poster.
Use the Today Is page during morning time and add one of the worksheets when children are ready for more practice.
Alphabet Printables For The New School Year
Back to school does not need to mean jumping straight into long lessons. A little letter recognition, tracing, and beginning sound practice each day can help preschoolers ease back into learning.
Free Letter Of The Week Worksheets A To Z
The complete Letter of the Week collection brings all 26 letters together in one place.
Each individual letter set gives young learners opportunities to:
- Recognize uppercase and lowercase letters
- Practice letter formation
- Explore beginning sounds
- Trace and write letters
- Color pictures
- Build fine motor control
Work through the alphabet one letter at a time or choose letters based on your child’s name, interests, or current preschool theme.
Playdough gives kids another way to work with letters without relying only on pencils and paper.
Alphabet playdough activities are especially helpful for preschoolers who enjoy hands on learning. Children can form letters, talk about their shapes, and strengthen little hand muscles at the same time.
Mixing printable worksheets with tactile activities can make those first weeks of alphabet practice feel much more playful.
Community Helpers Activities For The First Weeks Of School
Community Helpers is an easy theme to use near the beginning of the school year because it connects learning with familiar people children see in everyday life.
Community Helpers Printable Pack
The 12 page Community Helpers pack combines early literacy, handwriting, matching, coloring, and social studies.
Activities include:
- A When I Grow Up coloring page
- Community helper word tracing
- Matching workers to buildings
- Occupation vocabulary cards
- Jobs including doctors, police officers, firefighters, construction workers, postal workers, bankers, and more
Use a page for morning work or turn the entire pack into a simple Community Helpers theme during the first few weeks of school.
Free Community Helper Paper Hats
Finish the theme with a little pretend play.
The printable set includes eight community helper hats featuring a police officer, firefighter, doctor, nurse, mail carrier, construction worker, chef, and teacher.
Kids can color, cut, and assemble the hats before using them for dramatic play.
A pair of child safe scissors and glue sticks are useful to keep nearby for printable activities like these.
Simple Supplies For Back To School Printables
You do not need a huge collection of supplies to use printable activities at home or in the classroom.
A few basics cover most preschool worksheets and activities:
- Laminator
- Laminating pouches
- Dry erase pockets
- Fine tip dry erase markers
- Child safe scissors
- Glue sticks
- Crayons
Dry erase pockets are especially handy for name tracing, calendar pages, letter practice, and other worksheets children may complete several times.
Make Back To School Simple
There is no need to complete every printable at once.
Choose an All About Me activity for the first day, add name practice to your morning routine, and introduce alphabet, calendar, or Community Helpers activities as your child settles in.
A simple back to school week might include:
- Monday: All About Me activity
- Tuesday: Name tracing and coloring
- Wednesday: Alphabet practice
- Thursday: Days of the week activity
- Friday: Community Helpers craft or printable
The following week, reuse favorite activities and slowly add new skills.
Preschool and kindergarten learning works well in small, manageable pieces, especially at the beginning of a new school year.
Want Your Preschool Year Planned For You?
Free printables are perfect when you enjoy choosing activities and building your own preschool routine.
For families who would rather have a complete routine ready to use, Preschool Made Simple brings early preschool skills together into an easy full year system.
It is designed to take away the daily question of what to work on next while still keeping preschool flexible, simple, and manageable at home.
You can use the free back to school printables above to start the year, then move into a more consistent routine once everyone has settled in.
Bookmark this collection so you can come back whenever you need another easy preschool or kindergarten activity for the beginning of the school year.
