Visual Routine Cards for Before and After School

We start school this week, which means it’s back to routines! It can be challenging getting back in the swing of things and can make for stressful mornings rushing out the door.

In order to alleviate that, I decided to make visual routine cards for before and after school activities. These would be great to use with children in kindergarten up through 5th grade. In my free printable, I included simple activities that happen in a morning and afternoon routine, such as brushing teeth and making the bed.

I created these cards to show what a typical routine would look like. You can choose to use whichever ones you’d like and don’t feel like you have to use all of them. I also added blank cards so you can write or draw other activities you’d like to add in.

Before School Routine

The first set of cards is for the morning routine and includes the following:

• wake up
• make bed
• get dressed
• eat breakfast
• brush teeth
• brush hair
• go to school
• school

After School Routine

The second set of cards is for the afternoon/evening routine and includes the following:

• go home from school
• playtime
• homework
• eat dinner
• bathtime
• reading
• pajamas
• bedtime

I didn’t include an additional card for brushing teeth, but you could use the same card from the morning set.

Here are some ideas for displaying the visual schedule:

• place the cards in a pocket chart (like I did in the pictures)
• add a magnet to the back and place on the refrigerator
• tape to the wall (use tape that doesn’t take off the wall paint!)
• place the cards in a notebook

I also encourage you to go over the cards with your child so they understand what they mean. One thing I like to do is to give the cards to my child and then see if they can put it in the order we do it in. To make it fun, we even time each other!

Earlier this year I published a post with a printable for a toddler visual schedule. I’ve been so happy to hear how many of you have been using it! You could definitely use some of these cards in you’d like since they match this style. For example, I have cards for screen time, play dates, appointments, etc. You can grab them on this post.

If you’re not sure why you should use a visual schedule, I encourage you to check out this post. She shares 10 awesome reasons for using these types of schedules for establishing routines.

My hope is that this visual schedule helps YOU establish an awesome routine with your kids. The beginning of the school year is a perfect time to start, but really you can do it anytime!

Routine Cards Printable

You can download this printable right here —> Routine Cards