Back to School Directed Drawing Sheets

Add fun Back-to-School Directed Drawing Sheets to your literacy centers this fall. Kids in kindergarten and first grade will love drawing pictures and writing sentences to go with it.

There’s something really special about the first weeks of school. Everything feels fresh and exciting, and kids are buzzing with energy about new supplies, new classrooms, and new beginnings. What better way to channel all of that excitement than through art and writing?

These Back to School Directed Drawing Sheets are the perfect combination of creativity and early writing practice, and they fit beautifully into those first weeks, whether you’re in a classroom or homeschooling at your kitchen table.

Back to school directed drawing activity for kids to learn drawing skills while practicing writing sentences in kindergarten and first grade.

Using the Back to School Drawing and Writing Sheets

This set lets kids learn to draw seven classic back-to-school objects step by step: a pencil, a backpack, a glue bottle, a book, a crayon, a bus, and an apple. Each object comes with two sheet versions, giving you built-in flexibility.

The first sheet includes a traceable sentence starter, which is great for early writers who are still building confidence with letter formation. The second sheet has blank lines for independent writing, perfect for kids who are ready to write on their own. After drawing, kids respond to a writing prompt about their picture, making this a natural bridge between art and literacy.

I highly recommend developing example sentences together with students and providing vocabulary words on the board that students can use to complete their sentence.

Back to school directed drawing activity for learning to write simple sentences in kindergarten and first grade.

What You’ll Need for This Literacy Activity

Getting started is simple and low prep:

Printed directed drawing sheets (print the version that fits your learner!)
Pencils for drawing and writing
Crayons or colored pencils for adding color after the drawing steps
That’s really it!

These sheets work wonderfully in a whole-group lesson, as an independent center activity, or as a take-home project that families can enjoy together.

Use these directed drawing sheets to add more fun to your back to school writing centers in first grade.

Ways to Extend the Learning

Once kids have drawn and written, there are so many fun directions you can go:

Books: Pair the activity with back-to-school read-alouds like The Night Before Kindergarten or First Day Jitters to spark great writing conversations.
Crafts: Turn the finished drawings into a mini “All About School” booklet by stapling several sheets together. Kids love having their own little book to take home.
Videos: Search for a simple directed drawing tutorial on YouTube as a companion or warm-up. Watching someone model the steps first can help hesitant artists feel more confident before trying on their own.
Writing extension: For kids who finish early, encourage them to flip the paper over and write more about their picture, draw a scene that uses several of the objects, or write a silly story starring one of the back-to-school items.

Students will have fun learning to write sentences while practicing drawing skills. A great addition to back to school literacy centers in first grade.

Differentiation Tips

The two-sheet format already does a lot of the differentiation work for you, but here are a few more ways to meet learners where they are:

For emerging learners: Use the tracing sheet and focus mostly on the drawing steps. Then you can transcribe the sentence for each student.
For on-level learners: Use the tracing sheet with the sentence starter, but work on developing sentences together as a class and write them on the board for students to copy.
For advanced learners: Encourage students to complete the sentence starter on their own or use the blank writing lines sheet and encourage them to write a full sentence or two in response to the prompt.
For mixed groups: Both sheet versions can be used at the same table at the same time without making it obvious which version each learner has, which helps maintain confidence among all learners.

Back to school directed drawing activity sheets for a fun way to practice sentence structure and early writing skills.

These sheets also make a wonderful open-house or meet-the-teacher activity or a fun first-week-of-school center.

Be sure to grab your free Back to School Directed Drawing Sheets and use them to kick off the year with a creative activity that gets kids feeling proud of what they made on day one!

Take a look at these other fun directed drawing activities! Plus a few other literacy ideas.

Festive Winter Directed Drawing Worksheets

Spring Directed Drawing Sheets

Summer Directed Drawing Sheets

Editable Back to School Write the Room Free Printable

Digital Back to School Letter Sounds Matching Activity

CVC Dot Marker Word Search Sheets

Consonant Blend Dot Each Sound Sheets

Alphabet Letter Worksheets – Alphabet Activity Pages