Do you need a fun, quick art project to complete with your class on the first day of school? You will love this first day art project. Each year, my Kindergarten team does the same art project on the first day of school. This freebie 1st day art project is an easy assessment to learn what our students can they do as far as writing their name, color, cut, and glue. And, of course, teachers need to know if students can follow directions!
Easy to Use First Day Art Project
Start by printing out this simple freebie first day of school art project sheet for each student. We use this activity on the first day, or close to the first day, in order to give this printable to each student. We use this learning activity to figure out what our students can and can not do.
How to Use
To begin, ask students to write their name on the top. Make a note of who can and can not write their name. Also take note of what hand each student writes with. It is not a huge deal if students can not write their name, but this is a skill that is good to know.
Next, have students color their school house. I suggest students who are 5 try to use 5 colors and students who are 6 use 6 colors. I like to see who is holding their crayons correctly and who can apply the right amount of pressure.
Then, ask students to cut across the dotted line. You can see who can cut on a straight line. I know this will cut off their name, but the goal of this activity is for students to work on simple skills AND for you to learn what students can and cannot do.
Grab Your Freebie
The first day of school can be stressful and fun of chaos. Planning ahead with this freebie can be a huge help. This freebie file can be found right here.
How to Display Art Project
Finally, give students a piece of colored construction paper or cardstock. In the last step, students should glue the art to the colored paper and let it dry.
What’s even better is that your walls will instantly be decorated! Look at how easy it is to identify who may need more hand strength practice and who has excellent hand strength. How do you get a quick assessment of your students’ abilities on the first day?
Best news is, you will instantly have some décor for your walls! Look how easy it is to see who may need more hand strength work and who has great hand strength. How do you get a quick assessment of your students’ abilities on the first day?
One More Art Project Use
I am all about working smarter and not harder. At the end of the year, I create student scrapbooks. Every year, I save first day of school art projects for the cover to these scrapbooks at the end of the year.
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I love this! Thank you so much!!!!
Once again, thanks for sharing!!!
I plan on doing the first page of a memory book and having them write their name and draw a picture of themselves. We also ask them to illustrate a picture of their choice and write about it. Of course most of this is scribble scrabble but it gives me a good idea and starting point.
Karla
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Cute idea. 🙂
Susan
Kindergarten is the Best
Super cute! Last year we made popsicles, but I think I like this better. Not only would it be a great way to assess, but like you said, it does double duty as a scrapbook cover!! Thanks for sharing!
What a cute idea!! Can you share more about your scrapbook? I've been teaching kindergarten for 5 years and I'm looking to shake things up next year and try lots of new things!
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing! This will be a great addition to my first week plan!
I am your newest follower! I hope you'll check out my blog!
Greg
Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten
I'm a 2nd grade teacher and even though this is for kinder, I want to give them this activity to get an idea of their abilities as well. In my experience, students are still struggling with their fine motor skills in 2nd and 3rd! I will have instructions written on the board (with visuals), I will read them to them, and then walk around to assess how they work independently. Great idea!
IF they are cutting on the dotted line don't they cut their name off?? Confused……
They do cut their name off. But I want to show them where to write their name on a paper AND where to write their name on art. We do bottom left on art. I get to show them both on day one.
Thanks so much! We actually have a "kindercamp" where all of our registered kids come in to meet us and see the school, and we do a short assessment to group them for our classes- so we have an idea of their levels before school starts. But this will be helpful too!
Love this and the idea to have them use five colors – there is some counting you can check, too! I will definitely be using this!
-Carol
Mrs. Cobb's Kindersprouts