If you’ve seen my previous post on what to put in a schultüte, then you already know my oldest is starting first grade soon. Which means our house is currently in the first day of school slash back-to-school crafts wave. Then we have the excitement, the nerves, the school supplies, and me wondering how we got here so quickly, like seriously, how? While getting ready for Klasse 1 here in Germany, we’ve also been doing some simple back-to-school crafting at our dining table. And I’m so glad that it’s been helping us talk about starting school, practice the morning routine and enjoy these last days of Summer before the busy days come along.
So, if you’re looking for back-to-school crafts for your preschoolers, kindergarteners and new first-graders, I’m sharing five simple crafts you can recreate at home with your mini crowd.
Disclaimer: This post might contain some affiliate links, and if you choose to purchase through them, I may earn a little at no extra cost to you.
5 Easy Back to School Crafts for Kids
1. DIY Worry Eater for First-Day-of-School Nerves:
You see, while starting school might be exciting, it can also come with plenty of little worries that our children may not always know how to explain. I actually came across the idea for this craft here in Germany, where it’s known as a Sorgenfresser, which literally means “worry eater.” The idea is that your kids write or draw something that’s worrying them on a little piece of paper and then feed it to the worry eater, and I thought it was such a playful way to get my children talking about what’s on their minds.
Now, in our family, we’re Christians, and we teach our children that we take our worries to Jesus, so we’re definitely not telling them that this cardboard monster is somehow going to magically eat their worries and make everything better. I mean, It’s a cereal box with googly eyes that doesn’t have that kind of authority in our house. It’s simply a fun craft and a conversation starter that might encourage our kids to maybe draw or write that they’re worried about making friends, or finding their classroom, or anything at all. They just slide the worry into the monster’s mouth, and we can use that moment to talk about it together.
We made ours from an old cereal box, which made this a very easy, inexpensive back-to-school craft. These are the supplies you’ll need:
- An empty cereal box
- Paint
- GlueScissors
- Scissors
How we made ours: We painted the box first and left it to dry completely. Then I drew the eyes, the mouth and all the doodles on it with my paint markers before I cut open a large mouth, and the last thing was glueing the horns; that was all. By the way, if you’d rather skip the cereal-box crafting altogether, you can actually buy the Sorgenfresser plush toy online. It has a zipper on its mouth so the kids can open its mouth and close it back shut whenever they like.
2. Pencil & Crayon Name Craft
Name crafts are everywhere at the beginning of the school year, and since they’re so popular, I wanted ours to be a little more interesting than simply writing a name across a pencil. So I cut out a pencil and a crayon shape and wrote the letters of my kids’ names across them. Then I gave them objects such as buttons, beads and paper to decorate each letter differently, so that one letter would have buttons and the other letter could have beads, and another could be covered in little pieces of paper, stickers or whatever is already sitting in the craft box.
Anyway, these are the supplies we used:
How to make it: Draw and design the pencil and crayon shapes on the A4 cardboard and carefully cut them out. Then write out the letters of your kids’ names in the order that you like and give your kids the craft supplies for each letter of their names. It works especially nicely as a first day of school craft or first-grade keepsake.
3. How Do I Feel? Emotions Flip Craft
There are a lot of feelings packed into starting school for the first time, and it can be really emotional for the kids as much as for the parents. So for this craft, I made round faces showing different emotions and attached them to a popsicle stick so that my children could flip through them and choose the face that matches how they feel.
What we used:
- Paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Glue
- Popsicle sticks
How to make it: Fold a sheet of A4 paper into 6–8 sections and cut out matching circles. Keep one circle flat and fold all the others in half. Place the flat circle on the table and add glue only to its top half. Place the top half of one folded circle onto it, then continue layering the folded circles in the same way. Only the top halves should be glued together; the bottom halves need to stay loose so they can flip.
Once the glue has dried, draw a different emotion on each layer. Draw the eyes on the lower back of the flap you’re lifting and the mouth on the section underneath it. Try happy, nervous, excited, worried, shy, tired or even grumpy. As your child flips through the layers, the different eyes and mouths can mix to create different expressions. Finally, glue the whole stack onto a popsicle stick and let it dry completely. Then your child can flip through the faces to show how they’re feeling about starting school.
This is one of those back-to-school activities that can also be brought out again during the first few weeks of school when the novelty wears off, and the big feelings start showing up.
4. Mini DIY Schultüte
This one is inspired by the German first-day-of-school tradition that I’ve really come to love since raising my children here. When children start first grade in Germany, they usually receive a Schultüte, which literally translates to “school cone.”It’s a big colourful cone filled with little treats, school supplies, toys and other surprises, and children traditionally receive it on their very first day of school. And when I say big, I mean BIG, because some of these Schultüten are almost as tall as the child carrying them. In fact, the one I got for my own child is literally bigger than her….I know, I know…I’m extra like that. I wrote more about it and showed how to make it here.
With my own daughter starting Klasse 1, the Schultüte has naturally become part of our back-to-school preparations too. But for this craft, instead of making another full-sized one, we made a mini Schultüte that the kids could decorate themselves. And I really love how such a simple back-to-school craft can become something that combines feelings from the kids and thoughtfulness from the parents. It’s such a lovely tradition that even if you’re outside Germany, you might feel inclined to make it a first-day-of-school tradition in your home.
Supplies needed:
- Construction paper or cardstock
- Tissue paper
- Glue or tape
- Ribbon
- And some cute decorating items, like stickers, foam sheets, coloured paper shapes, etc
How we made it: Roll the paper into a small cone and secure it with glue or tape, then let your child decorate the outside. After that, attach tissue paper or even tulle around the opening and tie it closed with ribbon. You can even put a few pencils, erasers, stickers or a tiny sweet inside when they’re finished. I love this one because there’s a little story behind it, and it feels extra special this year because we’re not just making a random German craft anymore. We’re actually preparing for our own first Einschulung.
5. DIY Back-to-School Morning Routine Chart
This one is definitely for Mum too. We all know the hustle and bustle that comes with school mornings, like waking up, brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, packing the school bag and all of those tiny jobs that Mom does most of the time, just so everybody leaves the house on time. With my first daughter starting a new chapter, I’ve decided to be more intentional about our morning routines and make them easier for both my kids and me. I drew up this simple visual routine chart for them so that they can see what needs to happen without me repeating the same seven instructions seventeen times.
What you need:
- Cardboard or thick paper
- Markers
- Velcro dots or clothespins if you want the chart to be reusable
How to make it: Add each step of your child’s morning routine in order. Let them tick, flip or move each task when it’s finished. It may not technically look like a traditional craft, but I’m happily counting anything that makes school mornings easier as a back-to-school craft.
6. Pencil Picture Frame
This one started with me trying to make a pencil and accidentally making something that looked suspiciously like a little house. After a few changes, though, we got there, I think. I made the frame with painted popsicle sticks, added the wooden part and black pencil tip at the top, and a silver strip and red eraser at the bottom. Then my kids decorated it with beads, buttons and pearls. Your kids can decorate theirs however they like; after that, you can glue a first-day-of-school photo behind it afterwards.
What you need:
- Popsicle sticks
- Cardboard
- Markers
- Glue and whatever little decorations you already have
How to make it: Glue the popsicle sticks together to make the frame. Cut out a triangle from your cardboard and glue it behind the frame, then colour the tip at the top of the triangle with a black marker. Colour the popsicle stick at the bottom pink, and the stick above that one grey. Then give the decorations to your kids and let them do their thing. Once it’s dry, add a photo from their first day of school in the middle.
Making Back-to-School Crafts Less Stressful
After crafting with three children, I have absolutely no interest in turning every activity into a major production; that’s why I’m team low-mess, low-prep, use-everything-you-have-first type of mom, and it’s why all the crafts above are super easy to make. So to make back-to-school crafts less stressful, especially with all the buying and prep plus your already existing job schedule, do these four things.
- First of all, use what you already have, and I’m talking about things like empty cereal boxes, your Amazon cardboard boxes, old buttons, paper scraps and popsicle sticks. Because, trust me, these supplies are more than enough for most of these easy back-to-school crafts.
- Secondly, put everything on a tray before calling your children over, because it saves you from getting up every thirty seconds looking for glue, scissors or the missing purple crayon.
- Most importantly, you don’t need to make all five of the crafts in this post. Just pick the one that fits what your child is going through right now, and do it according to that pace.
Which of these back-to-school crafts would your child want to try first?
