Back to School season is such a fun and exciting time—even for our little learners at home! Whether you’re easing into a new homeschool rhythm or just introducing preschool routines, a themed week of playful learning is a great way to kick things off. In this post, I’m sharing some of our favorite Back to School Preschool theme activities to help you start the year feeling confident, organized, and full of ideas!
If you’re spending your days with little Preschool cuties, this Back to School Preschool theme is a perfect way to keep their little hands and brains engaged with Math and Literacy practice! Below you’ll find tons of activities that combine fine motor skills practice with tons of Back to School Preschool theme Math and Literacy skills!
Table of Contents – CLICK to jump ahead!
Back to School Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Back to School pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our Back to School sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the dried black beans we use in ours. Something about the black beans really makes all the primary colors in our Back to School theme POP! Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra Back to School themed items like plastic letters, foam shapes, colorful pompoms, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool Back to School pack! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Back to School Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Back to School Theme Overview
Our set of Back to School theme Preschool activities is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 15 center-style activities to choose from – 5 Math, 5 Literacy and 5 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 Back to School theme picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
To use these printables, you can follow the PRE-MADE lesson plans for a week full of fun! Each of the 5 pre-planned days your students will have 1 read aloud, 1 Math activity, 1 Literacy activity, and 1 Fine Motor activity to work on. This is a great pace for little learners! But if you’d like to spread the activities out or rearrange them according your own child’s needs, simply print our provided Build-Your-Own Plans page and make your own plans!
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Back to School Theme Math Activities
This pack of printables includes 5 fun Back to School Preschool theme activities for practicing early Math skills! Children will practice number formation, number identification, counting, colors, and shapes. Many of our set includes the use of small manipulatives for added fine motor skills practice!
One of my favorite activities is the one shown above – there are so many ways to use this one set of cards! To begin, have children count the crayons in the boxes and cover them one-by-one with a manipulative of their choice. This is a great way to practice one-to-one correspondence! Then, children can use those same manipulatives to build the number on the card. Or trace the number with a dry erase marker if they’re ready.
Want to extend this activity? Guide students as they put the cards in number order from 0-10, or even backwards from 10-0! And if you’re also working with older students and siblings, they can use these cards to practice comparing numbers and addition by adding up the leaves on more than one card!
Back to School Theme Literacy Activities
In addition to the Math centers, this pack includes 5 early Literacy activities! Children will practice skills like letter identification, letter formation, beginning sounds, and handwriting practice with Back to School theme vocabulary words!
One of our very favorite ways to sneak in learning time is with games! This alphabet board game above is an example of the types of games you’ll find in our Preschool Curriculum themes, including this Back to School theme. To play imply roll the dice, move to the matching letter, and continue until you reach the end!
If you want to switch up the use of this game, try using a regular dice instead of the provided letter dice! That way instead of just matching the letter they roll, children can be challenged to move the correct number of spaces and identify the name of the letter they land on from memory! I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a game that can be used in more than one way!
Back to School Theme Fine Motor Activities
When working with little learners, strengthening fine motor skills is a must! Our 5 Back to School theme fine motor activities will have your children working hard and having TONS of fun! They will practice matching using clothespins, mold using play dough, trace using manipulatives, and so much more!
My favorite thing to include in all of our Preschool Curriculum themes is a set of themed play dough prompt cards to match that week’s theme. It’s always so much fun to see kiddos find new excitement in their good ‘ole play dough when paired with bright pictures to build!
Just a tip – laminate your play dough cards or pop them in sheet protectors to give them the glossy cover that keeps the play dough from sticking!
And… I lesson planned FOR YOU!
This set of activities (and all of the other 45+ sets in our FULL Preschool Curriculum) include a full week of print and go visual lesson plans! It shows you exactly which books and printables to use each day for a 5-day school week, making lesson planning an absolute breeze!
Want to build your own? Or maybe your kiddos are ready for some of the activities but not all of them? That’s great! Use the included Build Your Own lesson plans page! These thematic centers were designed with growing learners ages 2.5 to 5 years old in mind, so this lesson planning page allows you to choose which activities your child is ready for right now!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our August Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes over 4 engaging August themes, complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP Back to School themed fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 38 NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Back to School theme Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
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