Key Takeaways:

• Making the first week of school special for early learners is always a top priority for teachers.
• To ease the transition from summer break to the classroom, it’s important to have fun and engaging early-learning lessons planned for the first week back.
• These ready-made lessons from Scholastic Classroom Magazines are the perfect way to make the first week of school fun and memorable for all your young learners!

Dedicated teachers like you are always on the lookout for new and ingenious ways to put smiles on the faces of students and make the first week of school special. With these free early-learning resources for preK and preschool classrooms, kindergarten, and grades 1 and 2 from Scholastic Classroom Magazines, you’ll ease the transition from summer break to back-to-school and ensure your early learners are excited to learn, too. Choose below from our free back-to-school resources and engage your students from day one.

Try any magazine free for 30 days and enjoy unlimited access to our skill-building resources for early learners!

Start new routines for your littlest learners.

Your littlest learners will absolutely love “Let’s Start School!,” the first issue of the year from My Big World. This delightful classroom magazine for preK enhances curriculum themes. We’re starting the new school year off with a key social-emotional-learning topic: new routines.

• Begin by showing your students what a day at preschool looks like with our “Welcome to School!” video.
• Get children comfortable with school routines by reading our digital magazine. It features real kids who greet classmates, enjoy choice time, and more.  
• Plus, help preschoolers get to know their new space with our “What Is in Your Classroom?” printable.
• Then extend the learning with our hands-on activity ideas!

Help shape a comfortable kindergarten community.

Your kindergarteners will be adjusting to the classroom, and Let’s Find Out magazine is here to help. “School Rules” is our first issue of the new year, and it’s perfect for covering this important social-emotional skill.

• Start by turning your first-day-of-school lesson into a learning game with “Name That Rule!,” our interactive, game-show-style video in which kindergarteners model how to follow classroom rules.
• The accompanying digital magazine features simple, fun text with photos of kids who stay quiet in line, look and listen, treat others with kindness, and more. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to show the video and magazine.
• Get your kindergarteners ready for “Cleanup Time!” with this printable that also builds counting and graphing skills.
• There’s also a movement activity that lets fidgety first-day students hop like a kangaroo.
• And our step-by-step lesson plan helps you get the most out of all these resources with your new class.

Give first graders the tools to become “Good School Citizens.”

In first-grade classrooms, we’re kicking off the new school year with a celebration of “Good School Citizens” from Scholastic News magazine.

• Bring the concept of community to life for your new students with this inspiring video and digital magazine. Both model how kids can be respectful, honest, patient, and more.
• Reinforce new words such as cooperative with our vocabulary slideshow.
• Next, encourage students to think and talk about being a good citizen using the discussion questions and critical-thinking prompts in our lesson plan.
• Then try hands-on learning with our “Make Flip-up Stars” activity that’s perfect for the first day of school. This printable encourages early learners to draw a self-portrait and share fun facts about themselves. A great icebreaker, it helps students get to know their fellow “citizens” and form a sense of community.

Try a fresh, fun way to teach communities with your second graders.

Summer break may be over, but second-graders will love returning to the subject with “Summer in My Community” from Scholastic News. This lively lesson takes your class on a summer trip to three types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural communities.

• Start by watching our original video and hand out or project the accompanying printable with comprehension and discussion questions.
• Read the digital magazine with your class and learn more about life in each kind of community from kids who are enjoying ice cream cones.
• Use the vocabulary slideshow to reinforce challenging words like suburban.
• The fun’s not over! Your class can show off what they learn with our compare/contrast printable and play our “Build a Community” digital learning game.
• Just follow our easy step-by-step lesson plan!

Try any magazine free for 30 days!

Our 32 award-winning magazines not only feature captivating, original stories your students will love, they also come with dynamic digital resources, powerful differentiation tools, and flexible teacher support to help you launch incredible learning journeys in every grade and subject.

Once you’ve started school with these irresistible teaching resources, you’ll want to keep Scholastic Classroom Magazines in your classroom all year long! Try any magazine free for 30 days and enjoy unlimited access to our skill-building print and digital resources for your grade and subject. Start now and keep that first-day-of-school excitement going all year long!