Using high school back to school activities for homeschool or classroom can really help set the tone for a new school year. If you’re wondering How do you make the first day of homeschool special for high school or you’re looking for engaging activities for high school students, you’ll love these back-to-school ideas!
Super Cool High School Back To School Activities and Ideas
Whether you’re using these for first day of home school for your teens / high school homeschool back to school ideas, high school classrooms, or even homeschooling co-cop, you’ll find something fun here for your teenagers! Beginning of school doesn’t have to be boring or intimidating!
What should you teach on the first day of high school?
High School Homeschool Activities For Back To School:
- Surprise your high schoolers with a special back to school breakfast buffet
- Have a back to homeschool scavenger hunt for fun prizes
- Use short activities for high school students on the first day and get them moving to different stations
- Play Guess What’s In The Backpack
- Skip the first day of school pics / first day of school signs for homeschoolers and set up back to school selfie stations for fun first day of school pictures they can share with their friends (and you can still add them to your homeschool back to school pictures, too!)
- Complete the first part of a First Day of School / Last Day Of School questionnaire with fun questions like favorite snack, favorite YouTuber / TikTok influencer, favorite song, etc.
- Have a homeschool bootcamp quiz game (think: Jeopardy) and have funny questions about material from last year
- Play Back To School Bingo for fun (and funny) prizes (it’s a lot of fun for groups for fun back to school activities for high school students!)
- Do fun first day of homeschool printables packs (What I did over the summer, About me, Current likes/dislikes, etc.)
- Let students create a special space for homeschooling or a fun study corner
- Make it a half day / end the day early and do something fun!
*See our full list of high school back to school ideas and first day of school activities high school below. KEEP SCROLLING!
Why back to school activities for high school students?
- High school can be intimidating and doing fun activities can help reduce that stress
- Fun ideas for the first day of school surprises your high schooler
- Activities for first day of school can help set the mindset and expectations for the entire year
- Back to school games can help break the ice for classrooms or groups like home school co-op
- Creative activities for high schoolers show the teenagers that you can still have fun in upper grade levels!
So, if you’re wondering will back to school activities for high school students help? The answer is YES!
CHECK OUT OUR COMPLETE HOMESCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL TIPS GUIDE!
Here are more ideas for first day back to school activities for high school and welcome back to school ideas for high school students…
Back To School Activities For High School Students
The first day of school can be a daunting experience for high school students. There are so many new things to learn and a seriousness that surrounds the high school grades. However, there are a few back to school activities that can help ease the transition and make the first day a little less stressful for teenagers in high school!
Here are the best high school first day of school activities ideas…
Back To School Activities For High Schoolers
1. Back to School Breakfast Bar
This is a great way to help students start their day off right. Set up a breakfast bar with a variety of food options for students to choose from (that they don’t usually have) like:
- Sausage and pancake corndogs
- Build your own breakfast sandwich bar
- Yogurt bar with fun toppings
- Hot Chocolate board
- & MORE
MORE HELPFUL HOMESCHOOL INFO: DO HOMESCHOOL STUDENTS GO TO PROM?
2. Back To School Cone
Have you heard of a back-to-school cone? I learned about it from our German friends when they lived in the States. It’s a paper cone full of school supplies and candy (and is really fun!).
In Germany, this cone is called a schultute is usually done for younger kids on their first day every of school. However, we’ve been doing it every year for a long time for back to homeschool now and my daughter really looks forward it each year. We just advance the gifts inside to her level each year.
LEARN HOW TO MAKE A BACK TO SCHOOL CONE HERE
DON’T MISS THESE OTHER FUN HOMESCHOOL IDEAS:
Fun Happy First Day Of Homeschool Ideas For All Ages
100th Day Of School Celebration Ideas
3. First Day of School Selfie Station
This is a fun way to help students document their first day of school, but without you getting the teen eye roll and sigh reaction for asking them to hold a first day of school sign on the front porch.
Set up a selfie station with props and backdrops for students to take photos with. Don’t forget to include a back to school banner with the date on one of the stations.
These back to school frames and props are fun!
4. Classroom Scavenger Hunt
This is a great way to get everyone up and moving! Have a classroom or homeschool room scavenger hunt for fun prizes. (Make the gifts good! Remember, these are high schoolers!)
Make a list of clues and hide them with prizes along the way. They have to solve one clue to get the next clue and set of prizes.
Back to school scavenger hunts are also good for group classroom or homeschool co-op first day of school because it gets everyone working together and immediately works as first day of school ice breakers and is a great get to know you for high school students.
5. Supplies Scavenger Hunt
For this activity, students will need to find all of the supplies on their school supply list. This can be done individually or in teams if you’re in a classroom or a homeschooling co op.
The first student or team to find everything on the list wins.
6. What’s In Your Backpack?
What’s In Your Backpack is a fun game and can be played with a classroom group, just a few kids, or even one child for a homeschool first day.
Place a variety of school supplies and fun items (the kids would like) in a new backpack. Kids then try to identify the items in the backpack one by one just by reaching their hand in feeling it (not looking!).
You can play a couple of ways, but a fun way to play the what’s in the bag game is to set a timer for 3o seconds for each person. Every item the player can guess in 30 seconds (they grab an item, feel it, make a guess and the teacher looks in the bag and verifies yes or no), they get to keep!
At the end, give the backpack to the player with the most prizes!
Make it a supplies for school game, but also put in funny items (funny socks, juice box, sucker, headphones, etc.).
7. Summer Scrapbook
This is a fun way to help students share their summer experiences and is one of my favorite things I have my homeschooling student do each year.
Instead of diving right into hard subjects (especially in high school), I ease back into homeschooling our first week with a set of fun projects.
One thing we always do is a summer scrapbook page or two. She uses pictures of things she did over the summer and writes about each one of them. (It’s a great return to school activity for language arts and they won’t even know it!)
If you do this at the beginning of each high school year or semester, you/they will have a memory page for their entire high school career!
8. Back To School Game Stations
Have gameschoolers or gamers and really want to add some first day of school fun?
Use back to school games to play as your learning for the first day or week (video games, card games, and board games!).
Check out learning games like:
- Transitions
- Game Of Thrones Risk Strategy Games
- BrainBolt
- The World Game (geography card game)
- Learning Physics
- Chemistry Fluxx
- Cystosis Cell Biology (perfect if you’re looking for fun first day of school activities high school science!)
- Poetry For Neanderthals
9. Set Up Your Learning Space
Use the first week of school as an opportunity to let the kids get involved in setting up classroom or learning space, their own study space or even a reading corner.
Plan ahead with some fun items (bean bags, hanging lights, etc.) and give them an area where they can set it up to use throughout the year.
Or, give them a budget and let them “shop” online for items.
One year for Christmas, we put play money (in the amount we were willing to spend) and catalogs and website ideas and allowed the older daughters to plan a bedroom update. They had to plan, collaborate, budget and compromise and loved it!
Giving high school students a say in their space can help get them excited about the year ahead!
CHECK OUT IDEAS ON HOW TO SET UP A HOMESCHOOL CLASSROOM OR LEARNING SPACE HERE
10. Surprise Them With A Day Of Doing What They Love!
Spend an hour our so reviewing their high school schedule for the year (or semester) and creating a schedule with them. (Don’t forget to ask what is one thing you really want to learn about this year and then add that to your high schooler’s schedule!)
After that, take the day off to do something they love (head to the waterpark, go on a bike ride, visit a favorite museum, play video games, or do whatever is their “thing”!)
Customize your welcome back to school activities for high school students to meet your needs, but most of all have fun on your first day of school and with your return to school activities!
Have fun high school back to school activities ideas? Leave them in the comments and let us know how do you make the first day of school fun!
STARTING HOME SCHOOL? CHECK OUT OUR HOW TO HOMESCHOOL GUIDE
