In this blog post: Grab four free back to school centers for kindergarten that are perfect for the first week of school.
One question I get asked quite often is: What do you put in your centers at the beginning of the year?
And I get it!
You don’t want centers that you’re going to need to teach and explain, but.. what? What types of activities should you put in your back to school centers?
I’ve got you! I have four free back to school center activities that were specifically designed with the first week of kindergarten in mind.
In a hurry and want them now? Grab your free back to school centers for kindergarten here:
Do you love free stuff?
Free Back to School Centers for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
These back to school centers are perfect for beginning centers in preschool, pre-K, or kindergarten!
And if you have some time, let me explain why I chose these centers for back to school in kindergarten and how you can best use them in your classroom.
starting centers in kindergarten
The beginning of the year in Kindergarten is something my brain blocks out every year. I’m convinced this is similar to childbirth – you block out the pain so that you’ll be more likely to do it again!
Just so we’re clear; I LOVE Kindergarten and I love back to school in Kindergarten too.
But there are some painful parts! Namely, that everything is brand new to your students.
If you’ve ever taught Kindergarten before, you know that you need to break everything down step-by-step. Trying to go too fast and teach too many routines or expectations at once is just a recipe for disaster!
So when we are introducing centers at the beginning of Kindergarten, we need to remember: Go slow to go fast.
Start introducing centers slowly. If you’re working on the routine of completing a center, then that is your teaching point and it should be what students are practicing. By throwing in academic work, suddenly students are practicing that academic skill and learning the routine goes out the window.
It’s too much too soon!
But then what types of activities should you put in your Kindergarten centers at the beginning of the year?
beginning of the year centers
What I’m going to say might be a little controversial, but hear me out.
One piece of advice you will hear a lot is to put toys and manipulatives in your centers at the beginning of the year. That way the activities are open-ended and there are no academic expectations on students yet.
If that works for you, great! Do it! I 100% believe that every classroom is different and you have to find what works for you.
But I choose not put toys or manipulatives in my back to school centers and here is why:
I want my students to understand from the get go that our center time, while fun, is a time for working, not playing. I don’t want to confuse them by having free play and then suddenly switching to math and literacy centers.
Instead, I choose back to school center activities that are still open-ended or that don’t require any skills that my students don’t already have, but they still have an academic focus.
Some of my favorite center activities for the first weeks of school include:
- Building letters with different manipulatives
- Anything involving playdough
- Visual discrimination activities
- Matching same case letters
- Matching colors
- Sorting activities
- Name practice activities
These back to school center activities are fun and hands-on and they get students excited about centers in the future!
free back to school centers for kindergarten
If you’re looking for hands-on back to school center activities for kindergarten, you will love these four free centers! These center activities are low prep, but high engagement. They feature “just right” skills for the first weeks of Kindergarten – academic but nothing should be a new skill for students.
Let’s take a closer look at the 4 free back to school center activities:
School Bus Magnetic Letter Matching
I don’t know what it is about magnetic letters, but students seem to go crazy for them!
Matching magnetic letters in the same case (uppercase to uppercase and lowercase to lowercase) is a great way to work on visual discrimination.
For this center activity, students will match a magnetic letter to the school bus window. This just takes something fun, like matching magnetic letters, and kicks it up a notch!
Tip: Having the entire alphabet out can quickly become overwhelming to students! Choose only a few letters to put out at a time. If you run free flowing centers, you can spread these alphabet cards out into a few baskets.
I did include optional worksheets in these free back to school centers for kindergarten, but I don’t suggest putting these out in your centers the first weeks of school. That will be too much for students.
Rather, I would save these back to school worksheets to use whole group as independent work!
Visual Discrimination Link
Are you seeing a theme here? Visual discrimination is the name of the game for your beginning of the year centers!
Visual discrimination is such an important skill for our early learners because it creates a foundation for learning letters, words, and more.
This free back to school center activity is all about visual discrimination.
For this activity, students will look at the picture the bear is saying. Then, they will hook a plastic chain link through the hole under the matching picture.
Plastic chain links are my go to when I want a change up from clothespins, but you could absolutely swap those links out for clipping the correct answer!
Crayon Box Color Match Up
We work hard on learning colors the first few weeks of school, and matching colors is another great way to practice – you guessed it – visual discrimination!
For this center, students will match the crayons to the crayon boxes by color.
This seems like such a simple activity, I know, but students go crazy for it! I often find them making matches over and over again.
Being able to be successful in centers right away gives students a boost of confidence that will help them take on more challenging work in the future.
Color Matching Clip Cards
Clothespins are wonderful for fine motor, so I try to add them into our kindergarten centers whenever possible.
For this color matching center, students will clip the object that matches the color.
Tip: Don’t have clothespins or want to change this colors center up? Use cubes or bingo chips instead! Students can cover the correct answer.
Grab the free back to school centers here!
These four free back to school centers are perfect for the beginning of the year in kindergarten.
Grab them here to have your first week of centers ready to go:
Do you love free stuff?
Free Back to School Centers for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
These back to school centers are perfect for beginning centers in preschool, pre-K, or kindergarten!
Kindergarten Low Prep Centers for the Year
Are you looking for more low prep center activities that your kindergarten students will love?
Now that your students know the format from these free back to school centers, they can dive right into the low prep Kindergarten centers for the year!
Don’t let the “low prep” fool you – these center activities are completely hands on and super engaging for students.
What are other teachers saying about the low prep Kindergarten centers for the year?
“This is a GREAT deal for a year of center activities! If you are new to Kinder, I recommend you quit searching for center ideas on TPT and just purchase this now. I’m very happy there is a black and white version offered for each center, so you don’t have to worry about printing with a color printer. They fit into those plastic colored boxes that everyone buys from Michaels and they are on sale right now. These centers are easy for students to use and need minimal extra supplies.” – Carol C.
“I am in LOVE with the skills and ease of these centers!! I feel like the I CAN cards are easy enough for students to get a good grasp of what they need to do. I will use these for differentiated centers. This is exactly what I was looking for! CUTE, FUNCTIONAL, and EASY to prep. Thank you!!!!” – Amanda B.
Grab the low prep Kindergarten centers for the year here and have over 240 math and literacy centers ready to go for the year!
