Make the first day of school fun with a scavenger hunt for kids. Whether you play as you walk your child to school or whether you’re a teacher and use this free printable with four different designs on the first day of school. Make going back to school fun this year.

This free first day of school printable contains four different scavenger hunt boards that you can download as many times as you’d like.
How to Use the First Day of School Scavenger Hunt
- Use it with your child as you walk to school
- Send it with your child to look for the items when they get to school
- Librarians can use it with children
- Teachers can have the student play a back-to-school game using these scavenger hunt boards
- You can have students play individually or in teams
- The scavenger hunt can be played as way for students to familiarize themselves with the classroom, library or school
- When they are more familiar with the space, they’ll feel more comfortable more quickly in the space
- If the first day of school is rainy use this scavenger hunt for kids as an activity to replace going outside
The first day of school is a big deal. Making it fun can relieve the natural nervousness many children feel. The distraction of playing a game that is fun works well for most children.
Get 20 different scavenger hunts in the Big Bundle of Scavenger Hunts, with a total of 80 different game board pages, that you can download immediately.

More resources for the first day of school:
- Morning Routine for School Tips
- Back-to-School Morning Routine Printable
- Decluttering Calendar for Back-to-School
- Homework and Study Planner Free Printable
- Simple Back-to-School Ideas
First Day of School Scavenger Hunt
- Download the free printable First Day of School Scavenger Hunt
- Print the scavenger hunt boards out on computer paper or card stock paper
- I prefer card stock paper because it’s sturdier and holds up better in little hands running around playing a first day of school game
- Print as many copies as you’d like depending on as many children will be playing this back-to-school scavenger hunt
- I recommend printing extra copies since the scavenger hunt boards can get lost or damaged in the excitement of the hunt
- You can have the children find all the items on their sheet or have them find all the items in a row or column like you do in playing bingo
- If you’re playing the hunt with a larger group of children, you can have the children look for the items in teams rather than individually
Pin for later so you can find this first day of school scavenger hunt year after year for the start of a new school year.

Check out the variety of other free scavenger hunts that could be adapted for your first day of school:
Seana Turner says
I love your scavenger hunts! They are fun at all ages, but especially for little ones. Great way to help kids get interested in their new routine, while also keeping the nerves at bay!
susan says
Thanks, Seana. I really like scavenger hunts because they’re perfect for kids of all ages to play.