34 Back to School Crafts Kids Will Love!

The start of a new school year brings a mix of excitement, nerves, and fresh routines. These back to school crafts give kids a creative way to ease into the season while making something connected to classrooms, school supplies, and first-day memories.

They’re a good fit for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary-aged kids in the classroom, or as part of a homeschool activity. For more kids’ crafts and activities, visit Simple Everyday Mom.

Collage of colorful back-to-school crafts with a large central graphic reading “Back to School Crafts for Preschool and Early Elementary.” Surrounding examples include pencil, backpack, school bus, apple, glue, bookmark, and bookworm paper crafts, with simpleeverydaymom.com shown at the bottom.

First Week of School Craft Ideas

Below, you’ll find school-themed craft ideas organized by topic so it’s easy to choose a project that matches your child’s interests and the supplies you already have. Some are great for name practice and fine motor skills, while others make sweet first-day keepsakes or cheerful decorations for a classroom bulletin board.

Apple Crafts

This image is a collage of apple-themed crafts and learning activities for children. The projects include apple core torn-paper crafts, apple name spelling activities, apple bookmarks, apple-on-books paper crafts, apple puppets, snack-themed apple crafts, paper plate apples, and apple alphabet flashcards. With bright colors and playful designs, the activities help support literacy, fine motor skills, name recognition, and back-to-school learning.

Apple crafts are a classic choice for the beginning of the school year, and they work well with paper, tissue paper, yarn, popsicle sticks, and other easy supplies. These projects give kids a chance to cut, glue, color, and create while making something bright and familiar for back to school season.

Backpack Crafts

Backpacks make a natural back to school craft theme, especially during the first few weeks when school supplies are still fresh and exciting. It’s a cute way to bring in the school supply theme without doing another apple or pencil craft.

Bus Crafts

School buses are an easy theme to bring in at the start of the year because they connect right away to new routines, first days, and getting back into the school schedule. These back to school bus crafts add a little first-day energy to the page without the usual pencils and apples.

Crayon Crafts

This image is a collage of colorful crayon-themed back-to-school crafts and activities for kids. The projects include crayon box name crafts, crayon bookmarks, wearable crayon hats, personalized crayon name cards, and crayon-shaped paper crafts, all made with bright construction paper and simple craft supplies. The cheerful designs promote creativity, name recognition, and classroom fun while showcasing a variety of easy educational craft ideas.

Crayon crafts are a fun way to bring a colorful back-to-school theme into your lessons or craft time. These activities are especially good for preschool and kindergarten because they feel familiar, playful, and easy for kids to connect with. They’re also a simple way to work on creativity, color words, fine motor skills, and classroom readiness during the first weeks of school.

Pencil Crafts

This image is a collage of pencil-themed back-to-school crafts and activities for kids. It features pencil bookmarks, a first-day-of-school pencil keepsake, personalized name pencil crafts, simple paper pencil crafts, and a textured pencil art project made with crumpled paper. Bright colored paper, scissors, and glue sticks surround the projects, creating a fun and creative classroom-inspired display.

Pencil crafts are a classic choice for back-to-school season because they connect easily to school supplies, writing, and classroom routines. These activities are simple enough for young learners but still make cute displays for bulletin boards, cubbies, or take-home projects.

Miscellaneous Crafts

This image is a collage of three school-themed craft projects for kids. It features pencil gnome paper crafts holding red apples, a cheerful glue bottle craft made with pipe cleaners, and a bookworm handprint craft sitting on a stack of colorful books. The crafts are displayed on light backgrounds with bright fabric accents, creating a fun and creative back-to-school theme.

This section includes extra back-to-school craft ideas that add variety beyond the usual school supply themes. These activities are useful for classroom centers, morning work, small groups, or simple at-home projects during the first weeks of school. They give kids a creative way to celebrate a new school year while building confidence, independence, and fine motor skills.

Back To School Books For Kids

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates – This silly book is about a dinosaur named Penelope who is starting school and just can’t resist eating her classmates! Kids will love the fun drawings and crazy antics of Penelope, while also learning that being mistreated is never fun.

Chairs On Strike – The chairs have had enough of all the crazy things the kids do to them so they go on strike! This story helps kids learn to take care of their property and has lots of fun and silly humor.

Daniel Goes To School – If you have a little one who’s starting preschool or kindergarten and is reluctant to be away from you, this book is perfect for them! Daniel Tiger learns “grown-ups come back” at the end of every school day. We love this cute book!

More Ideas For Kids

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photograph of found of Simple Everyday Mom, Sam

Meet Sam

Sam is the crafter and founder of Simple Everyday Mom. She has been featured in Oprah Mag, Good Housekeeping, The Spruce Crafts, Country Living, The Bump, and more.

About Sam

3 Comments

Anna says:

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How can I print his project

1. Sam says:
  
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  If you go to the individual craft posts, you’ll be able to find the form or locked image at the end of the post to get the templates ◡̈
Anna says:

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thanks for your great ideas

34 Back to School Crafts Kids Will Love!