Back to School & August Teaching Ideas: A Planning Guide for Elementary Teachers

Back to School is the most important time of the school year. The routines you establish, the community you build, and the tone you set in August will shape everything that follows. Teachers who plan the first two weeks intentionally — not just the first day, but the full arc from open house through the end of the month — start the year with momentum instead of scrambling to catch up.

This guide covers every key date and task worth planning in August, community-building activities that double as real academic instruction, and ready-to-use resources for every week of the month.

A colorful graphic titled The Complete Guide to August Teaching Ideas for Elementary Teachers, featuring sections for planning, activities, and resources. Various books, supplies, and encouraging signs are displayed on a teacher’s desk.

Key Dates to Plan for in August

  • Open House / Back to School Night — Usually 1–2 weeks before school starts
  • First day of school — Varies by district
  • Grandparents Day — First Sunday after Labor Day (worth prepping in August)
  • Constitution Day — September 17 (start prepping in August)
  • Patriot Day or 9/11 — September 11 (prep materials in August)

Before School Starts: Easy Summer Prep

The best August starts in July. Having your sub folder ready, your first-week activities printed, and your parent communication templates set before students arrive means your first day is calm rather than chaotic.

Print-&-use resources:

The First Week: Community Before Content

The first week of school is not about content — it’s about community. Students need to feel safe, known, and capable before they can take the academic risks that real learning requires. The best first-week activities are the ones that teach you something about your students while also giving students something to be proud of.

Setting Up Your Daily Routines

August is when your classroom systems either get established or don’t. Homework choice boards, morning work routines, and Would You Rather opinion paragraph practice all give you ready-to-go structures that can run independently once students know the routine.

The single most valuable routine you can establish in August is your daily bell ringer. Students who walk in and immediately start working set a different tone for the entire class period than students who wait to be told what to do. A no-prep spiral review warm-up — one that takes 5–7 minutes and covers skills from across the year — is the easiest way to build that habit from Day 1.

The research behind spiral review is straightforward: returning to skills repeatedly in short, low-stakes doses builds retention far more effectively than intensive unit practice followed by nothing. Students who spiral from August through May arrive at state assessment season reviewing things they already know, not scrambling to relearn things they forgot.

Here’s what that looks like by grade level:

The same principle applies to ELA. A daily language warm-up that takes less than 10 minutes gives students consistent grammar, vocabulary, and writing practice without eating into your instruction time, and it runs itself once the routine is locked in.

Back to School Bulletin Boards

Your bulletin boards in August set the visual tone of your classroom for the year. The best ones feature student work from the first week, which means planning your first-week activities with the bulletin board in mind.

All About Me: Your First Writing Assessment

All About Me activities aren’t just icebreakers… They’re data. The writing samples, drawings, and survey responses you collect in the first week tell you about stamina, confidence, interests, and gaps before you’ve run a single formal assessment. Use them intentionally.

Colorful classroom activity sheets, perfect for an All About Me or Bulletin Board Craft, featuring student favorites and personal facts. Banner reads “Get to know your students in a meaningful way.” Text box: “Includes UK/AUS spelling options.”.

Print & Use All About Me – First Week Resources:

Grandparents Day — First Sunday After Labor Day

Grandparents Day falls on the first Sunday after Labor Day, which means the classroom work happens in the first full week of September, but you should prep for it in August. The World’s Best Grandparent writing craft makes a beautiful bulletin board display and a keepsake grandparents actually treasure.

Grandparents Day Writing Craft - The Third Wheel

Back to School Science

Back-to-school science activities — lab safety, scientific method, and what is a scientist — give you a low-stakes way to establish inquiry routines before the academic pressure ramps up. Running a science unit in the first weeks also gives you time to observe how students work collaboratively, follow directions, and handle materials — all useful information before you launch formal instruction.

A worksheet titled Science Lab Equipment introduces science vocabulary with labeled drawings of a hand lens, goggles, balance, gloves, and beaker. Colored pencils surround the sheet as a hand writes answers for engaging vocabulary activities.

Build Your Sub Folder Before You Need It

August is the only time all year you have enough breathing room to build your sub folder properly — before you’re sick, before a meeting lands on your calendar without warning, before you need it tonight.

A complete sub folder means you can take a sick day without guilt, attend a last-minute IEP meeting without panic, and leave for a professional development day without spending your Sunday night planning. It’s one of the highest-return investments you can make in August because you only have to do it once.

These posts walk through exactly what to include and how to set it up:

If you want ready-made plans you can print and leave without any additional prep, the Substitute Teacher Plans section of the shop has no-prep options for multiple grade levels — including Thanksgiving and holiday-specific plans for the absences that tend to happen in November and December.

Choose Your Anchor Texts for the Year

If you’re planning read-alouds or novel studies for the fall, August is when to lock them in — before your units begin, before the library copies are checked out, and before the planning window closes.

Anchor texts do more instructional work than almost any other resource in an ELA classroom. A well-chosen novel study gives you weeks of close reading, discussion, writing, and vocabulary practice built around a single text students actually want to read. Choosing in August means you can gather copies, preview the teacher materials, and sequence the unit before the pressure of the school year begins.

September Books for Upper Elementary is a strong starting point for fall read-alouds. For full novel study units — including reading guides, writing activities, vocabulary work, and comprehension questions — the Novel Studies section of the shop has options across multiple grade levels.

Reading Interest Survey: Know Your Readers from Day One

A reading interest survey in the first week gives you data that informs your whole-year read-aloud choices, novel study selections, and independent reading conferences. It also signals to students that their reading life matters to you… which is worth more than any lesson you’ll teach in August.

A pink clipboard holds an All About Me as a Reader worksheet, perfect for a student reading interest survey. Nearby are colorful folders, a pencil, and a succulent plant in a pot on a white surface.

Back to School Read Alouds & Novel Studies

The right August read-aloud does double duty; it builds community while also establishing your reading instruction routines. Miss Nelson is Missing is a perennial first-week favorite.

The Best School Year Ever is a perfect first novel study anchor for upper elementary.

Before Day 1: Your August Checklist

  • Sub folder built and printed
  • First-week community activities prepped and ready
  • Bell ringer routine chosen and first two weeks copied or queued
  • Anchor text selected and copies gathered
  • Reading interest survey printed
  • Open House materials ready — including something personal on each student’s desk
  • Bulletin board plan in place for Week 2 student work display
  • Parent communication templates drafted

This Post Works in January, too

Everything here, the routines, the sub folder, the anchor texts, the bell ringer habits, applies equally to January re-entry. The first week back after winter break is one of the hardest instructional weeks of the year. Students are out of routine, teachers are tired, and the gap between where students were in December and where they need to be by spring suddenly feels urgent.

If you’re reading this in January, start with the bell ringer routine and the sub folder. Both take less than a day to set up, and both pay dividends for the rest of the year.

If you’re reading this in August, you’re exactly where you need to be. The teachers who have the smoothest Septembers are the ones who did this work now, before the year began.

Looking for ideas across the whole school year? Head back to the Elementary Teacher Planning Calendar for monthly planning guides from August through summer.

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