Back to School Stations Activity - Get to Know You, Goals, & Community Passport

Kickstart your school year or semester with this engaging back to school stations activity designed to build classroom community, encourage meaningful student connections, and set a positive tone from day one. In this interactive resource, students “travel” around the classroom to complete a variety of short, high-interest activities, earning stamps in their passports as they go. Each station invites students to share personal information, reflect on past experiences, and set goals for the year ahead, making it an ideal low-pressure way to get students talking, collaborating, and feeling comfortable in your classroom. This back to school stations activity works well for the first days of school, the start of a new semester, or when you need a fresh reset to rebuild classroom culture.

This is included in our best-selling bundle:
→ Back To School Activities For Middle School

Included In This Back To School Stations Activity:

➡️ Blank Passport Template: Students receive one of two included passport template sizes to collect and display stamps as they complete each station. The passports create a fun, cohesive theme for the activity while also helping students track their progress and stay motivated.

➡️ Comic Strip Stamp Sheet: At this station, students create a comic strip illustrating a memorable moment from their summer vacation. Students can choose to use illustrations only or add dialogue and descriptions, allowing for creativity while keeping the task accessible for all learners.

➡️ Hashtags Stamp Sheet: Students craft social media–style status updates using provided hashtag categories. This activity gives insight into students’ interests, experiences, and personalities, while providing teachers with valuable information to help build relationships and tailor instruction.

➡️ Find Someone Who… Stamp Sheet: Students interact with classmates to find individuals who meet specific criteria, encouraging conversation and collaboration. Prompts include examples like finding a student who “has more than two siblings” or “speaks a second language,” helping students make connections in a structured, comfortable way.

➡️ Last Year vs. This Year Stamp Sheet: Students engage in reflective writing by comparing the previous school year with their goals and aspirations for the current one. This station supports goal setting, self-reflection, and a growth mindset as students begin the new year.

How This Back To School Stations Activity Works:

Set up four stations around your classroom, with space for approximately one-quarter of your students at each station. Each student receives a personalized passport and rotates through the stations, completing short tasks and submitting their work to earn a stamp at each stop. As students move from station to station, they learn about their classmates, share their own experiences, and begin building a sense of community in an active, engaging way.

This back to school stations activity is perfect for middle school classrooms and offers a fun, structured approach to relationship-building, reflection, and goal setting during the first days of school.

What Teachers Are Saying About This Back To School Stations Activity:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was brilliant and the kids loved it. It broke the ice and get the kids chatting. It was the perfect addition to our travel/passport-themed classroom.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a great "getting to know you" activity to do with a new group of students. It allows movement, social interaction, and the learning of interesting information as students share their stories. My eighth graders loved it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was fun way to get to know my three classes of Social Studies students. It worked well to utilize the "Find someone who" page in a Jamboard to use with our hybrid model so the two cohorts for the class would be able to get to know each other even though they weren't in class on the same day. I also liked it because it tied into our travel theme for the year.

If you like this, you'll love this resource:
→ Daily Attendance True Or False Questions

© Presto Plans

➡️ Want 10 free ELA resources sent to your inbox? Click here!