The week before school starts has its own particular energy in every house with children. There is excitement about new stationery and mild dread about early mornings, often in the same child, sometimes in the same hour. Back to school crafts are one of the best ways to channel that mixed-up energy into something productive. The child who spends an afternoon making a paper pencil holder or decorating a bookmark arrives at the first day of school having already done something creative and school-related. The transition feels a little less abrupt.
This collection covers 30 back to school crafts for kids across every age group, from simple back to school crafts for toddlers that need only torn paper and glue, through back to school crafts for preschoolers and kindergarten, to more involved projects for elementary and middle school students. Every craft uses supplies most families already have at home. Where a coloring page makes a craft easier or more finished-looking, there is a free printable PDF linked alongside it.
What You Need for Most of These Crafts
Before going through the individual projects, it is worth gathering a basic craft supply kit. The majority of these back to school crafts use the same core materials, and having them ready before you start means the session runs smoothly rather than stopping every five minutes to hunt for scissors.
Basic supplies needed across most projects: plain printer paper or cardstock, scissors (child-safe for younger children), a glue stick and white craft glue, pencils, crayons and washable markers, tape, googly eyes in different sizes, yellow and red paint or craft foam, paper plates, toilet paper rolls and cardboard tubes, and a black marker for adding details.
Back to School Crafts for Toddlers and Babies
Crafts for very young children need to be achievable with minimal fine motor skill and maximum sensory satisfaction. The best back to school crafts for toddlers are ones where tearing, squeezing, pressing and stamping do most of the work.
1. Apple Handprint Card
Age: 1 to 3 years
Time: 10 minutes
Materials: Red paint, white paper, green cardstock, black marker
Press a toddler’s palm and four fingers into red paint and stamp it onto white paper. The palm becomes the apple body and the fingers fan out above it. When dry, cut a small leaf from green cardstock and glue it to the top. Add a small brown rectangle for a stem with the black marker. This is one of the most popular back to school crafts for infants and very young toddlers because it requires nothing from the child except willingness to get their hand painted, which most toddlers find delightful.
The finished card makes a meaningful gift for a teacher on the first day. Handprint crafts for back to school have this advantage over purely decorative projects: they capture a specific moment in time. A handprint from September of kindergarten year looks completely different from the same child’s handprint in September of second grade.
2. Torn Paper School Bus
Age: 2 to 4 years
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: Yellow paper, black paper, white paper, glue stick
Cut a large rectangle from yellow paper and stick it to a backing sheet. Tear small circles from black paper for wheels and press them below the rectangle. Tear small squares from white paper for windows and press them across the yellow rectangle. Add a torn black rectangle for the bus door. No scissors required for the child, which makes this a genuine back to school craft for babies and very young toddlers who are not yet safe with scissors.
3. Crayon Collage
Age: 2 to 5 years
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: Unwanted broken crayons, white paper, glue
Arrange broken crayons into simple shapes on a backing sheet, a pencil shape, a star, a simple house, and glue them down. This uses up broken crayons that would otherwise be discarded and produces a textured collage that young children find genuinely satisfying because the materials are familiar and three-dimensional.
Back to School Crafts for Preschoolers
Back to school crafts for preschool work best when they combine a simple creative activity with a learning element. Counting, color recognition, name recognition and basic shape work all fit naturally into preschool back to school crafts.
4. Paper Plate Apple Craft
Age: 3 to 5 years
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Paper plate, red paint, green cardstock, brown cardstock, black marker
Paint a paper plate red on both sides. While it dries, cut a simple leaf shape from green cardstock and a short thick stem from brown cardstock. When the plate is dry, glue the stem to the top and the leaf beside it. Draw a small worm peeking out from a hole with a black marker for a fun detail that makes children laugh. This is probably the most widely made back to school crafts apple project in preschool classrooms, and for good reason: it uses a paper plate as a ready-made round shape, requires only one color of paint and produces a result that looks finished and satisfying.
5. All About Me Craft Wheel
Age: 3 to 6 years
Time: 25 minutes
Materials: Two paper circles, brass fastener, markers or crayons, coloring page printable
Cut two circles of card the same size. Divide the top circle into six sections like a pie and cut a window section out of one segment so the circle below shows through. Write a different prompt in each remaining segment: my name, my age, my favorite color, my favorite food, my best friend, my favorite animal. The child writes or draws their answers on the bottom circle in the corresponding segments. Fasten the two circles together with a brass fastener so the wheel turns. This is one of the back to school crafts all about me formats that works particularly well because children can spin it to share different facts about themselves with classmates.
Pair this with our free printable coloring pages of animals so children can color their favorite animal answer while they work.
6. Pencil Case Toilet Paper Roll
Age: 3 to 6 years
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Toilet paper roll, colored paper, tape, stickers, markers
Wrap a toilet paper roll in colored paper and secure with tape. Decorate with stickers, marker patterns or strips of washi tape. Add a folded card rectangle as a simple lid if desired. This is one of the back to school crafts for toddlers that crosses into preschool territory because it is genuinely useful: a finished pencil roll holds two or three pencils or crayons and children take great pride in using something they made themselves.
7. Back to School Bookmark
Age: 3 to 8 years
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: Cardstock strip, crayons or markers, laminator or sticky-backed plastic
Cut a strip of cardstock approximately five centimeters wide and twenty centimeters long. Have children draw a back to school design on it: a pencil, an apple, a school bus, their name in bubble letters. Laminate it or cover with sticky-backed clear plastic to make it durable. Back to school crafts bookmarks are perennially popular because children who are just starting to read have a genuine use for them, and older children appreciate making something practical rather than purely decorative.
Back to School Crafts for Kindergarten
8. School Bus Paper Craft
Age: 4 to 7 years
Time: 25 minutes
Materials: Yellow cardstock, black circles pre-cut, white rectangles, brass fastener, black marker
Cut a large rectangle from yellow card and round the front corners slightly. Add black circles for wheels, white rectangles for windows and a black rectangle for the door. Add a black circle on a brass fastener at the front for the steering wheel visible through the windscreen. This back to school crafts bus project works well as a first day of school craft because teachers can write the child’s name on the bus, class their grade on the windows and display the whole class set as a bulletin board of school buses.
9. Pencil Craft from Paper Rolls
Age: 4 to 7 years
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Toilet paper roll, yellow paper, pink craft foam or paper, black marker, gray paper
Wrap the roll in yellow paper. Cut a pointed hexagonal tip from gray paper for the pencil tip and a short cylinder from pink paper or foam for the eraser. Add a narrow strip of silver foil or gray paper as the metal ferrule between the yellow body and pink eraser. Draw a simple face on the pencil body if desired. This is one of those back to school crafts for kindergarten that doubles as a pencil holder: stand the finished pencil upright and it holds three or four real pencils inside it.
10. Backpack Craft
Age: 4 to 7 years
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Brown paper bag, colored paper, markers, yarn or ribbon
Take a small brown paper bag. Cut two shoulder strap shapes from matching paper and tape them to the back. Add a front pocket by gluing a folded paper rectangle to the front of the bag. Draw buckle and zip details with a black marker. This backpack craft for preschoolers and kindergartners mimics a real backpack well enough that children immediately understand what it is and want to put things inside it.
Back to School Crafts for Elementary School Kids
11. Crayon Roll Craft
Age: 5 to 10 years
Time: 40 minutes
Materials: Felt, needle and thread or fabric glue, ribbon
Cut a rectangle of felt large enough to roll up and hold twelve crayons. Cut narrower felt strips and sew or glue them across the rectangle at regular intervals to form crayon pockets. Sew a length of ribbon to one edge for tying. This is a back to school diy craft that produces a genuinely useful object and introduces children to basic felt work. Children who make their own crayon roll treat it differently from a store-bought one, which tends to mean the crayons stay more organised.
12. Name Art Coloring Craft
Age: 5 to 10 years
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Large letter templates or coloring pages, crayons or markers
Print large bubble letter outlines of each letter in the child’s name. Have them decorate each letter differently, one with stripes, one with polka dots, one with stars, one with swirls. Mount the completed letters in a row. This is a particularly strong back to school crafts name project because it combines letter recognition, color work and a finished display piece.
Print our free alphabet coloring pages to use as the large letter templates.
13. DIY School Supply Organiser
Age: 6 to 10 years
Time: 35 minutes
Materials: Several toilet paper rolls or small tins, cardboard base, paint, markers
Group three or four toilet paper rolls together and tape them to a flat cardboard base. Paint the whole arrangement one color and allow to dry. Add stripes, polka dots or name labels to each roll. Stand pens, pencils, scissors and rulers in the separate sections. This is one of the most useful back to school crafts diy projects in the collection because it solves an actual desk organisation problem and children who make their own storage solution are more likely to use it.
14. Paper Plate School Bus
Age: 5 to 9 years
Time: 25 minutes
Materials: Paper plate, yellow paint, black and white craft foam or card, black marker
Paint a paper plate yellow. When dry, add black foam circles as wheels along the bottom edge, white foam squares as windows across the middle, and draw window frames and wheel spokes with a black marker. This paper plate back to school crafts for kids version of the school bus is slightly more forgiving than a cardstock version because the circular plate gives a distinctive bus-front shape.
15. Apple Stamp Art
Age: 5 to 9 years
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Apple, red paint, white paper, green marker or paint
Cut an apple in half crosswise to reveal the natural star pattern inside. Dip the cut side into red paint and stamp it onto white paper in a pattern. When the stamped apples are dry, add a stem and leaf with green and brown marker. The natural star pattern at the center of every apple stamped becomes a feature of the finished piece rather than a mistake, which is the kind of happy surprise that makes craft sessions memorable.
16. Monster Bookmark Craft
Age: 6 to 10 years
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Cardstock, scissors, markers, googly eyes
Cut a rectangle of cardstock. Round one end to make the monster head. Draw or paint a monster face on the rounded end with googly eyes and a marker-drawn smile or fangs. Add simple arms cut from cardstock on both sides. This connects easily with our free monster and Halloween coloring pages for additional monster character reference.
17. Coloring Page Bookmark
Age: 5 to 12 years
Time: 15 minutes
Materials: Printed coloring page, scissors, laminator, ribbon or tassel
Print any character or animal coloring page from our free collection. Have the child color their favorite character carefully and cut it into a bookmark shape. Laminate it for durability. Add a small ribbon or tassel at the top. This back to school crafts printable approach is one of the simplest in the collection because the hard part, producing an appealing image, is already done. The child just needs to color and cut.
Back to School Crafts for Teens and Tweens
18. Aesthetic Pencil Case Decoration
Age: 11 and up
Time: 45 minutes
Materials: Plain canvas pencil case, fabric markers or paint pens, stencils
Plain canvas pencil cases from craft stores are inexpensive and take fabric marker well. Teens can create their own aesthetic design using fine-tipped paint pens, copying a style they admire. Botanical illustrations, geometric patterns, a favorite quote in hand lettering, a small portrait of a pet. This is one of the back to school crafts aesthetic projects that genuinely gets used because the finished object replaces something the teen would carry to school anyway.
19. DIY Notebook Cover
Age: 10 and up
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Plain notebook, decorative paper or magazine pages, mod podge, brush
Tear or cut decorative paper, photos, pressed flowers or magazine images into pieces and arrange them across the notebook cover in a collage pattern. Brush mod podge over the top to seal everything flat and add a glossy finish. This is one of the back to school crafts for teens that travels well: the finished notebook looks like something from a stationery shop and the teen uses it every day.
20. Watercolor Name Poster
Age: 10 and up
Time: 40 minutes
Materials: Watercolor paper, pencil, watercolor paints, black fine-tip marker
Write the name in large pencil letters across the watercolor paper. Paint each letter a different color using watercolors, letting the colors bloom slightly at the edges. When completely dry, outline each letter with a fine black marker and add small decorative details: stars, flowers, dots. Mount on card for display.
Back to School Crafts for the Classroom
21. Class Handprint Tree
Age: All ages, teacher-led
Time: One session
Materials: Large paper or canvas, brown paint, multiple colors for handprints
Paint a large tree trunk and bare branches on a long sheet of paper. Each child presses their handprint in a leaf color around the branches. Write each child’s name under their handprint. This is one of the back to school crafts for kindergarten and elementary classrooms that works as both an icebreaker activity and a display piece that stays on the wall for the whole year.
22. All About Me Coloring Page Display
Age: All ages
Time: One coloring session
Materials: Free printable all about me coloring pages, crayons, display board
Print one all about me coloring sheet per child. Children fill in their details and decorate the sheet. Display the completed pages side by side as a class portrait gallery. Pair this with our free coloring page collection for additional character sheets children can customise.
23. School Bus Welcome Banner
Age: Teacher-led, children assist
Time: One session
Materials: Yellow paper, black circles, white rectangles, string, markers
Each child makes one paper school bus using the method above. Write each child’s name on the side of their bus. String all the buses together to create a welcome banner across the classroom door. This is a particularly good back to school crafts classroom door project because every child is represented and the bus theme is immediately understood by visiting families.
24. Crayon Name Tags
Age: All elementary ages
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Cardstock, crayons, laminator
Cut cardstock into crayon shapes: a tall rectangle with a pointed top. Children write their name in the center and decorate the body with their favorite colors. Laminate for durability and punch a hole at the top for a lanyard. Back to school crafts name tags that children make themselves get worn with more pride than printed stickers.
Back to School Crafts Using Our Free Coloring Pages
One of the most flexible approaches to back to school crafts for kids is using a free printable coloring page as the starting point for a craft rather than the finished product.
25. Coloring Page Puzzle
Print any coloring page, have the child color it carefully, and then cut the finished page into puzzle pieces. The number of pieces can be adjusted for age: six large pieces for a toddler, twelve medium pieces for a preschooler, twenty or more irregular pieces for an older child. Store the pieces in a ziplock bag with the child’s name on it. This is one of the back to school crafts for preschoolers that doubles as a first-week quiet activity.
26. Character Bookmark from Coloring Sheet
As described above in the elementary section, any character from our free coloring pages can become a laminated bookmark. Animal characters, vehicles, alphabet letters and celebration designs all work well for this purpose.
27. Coloring Page Greeting Card
Fold a sheet of cardstock in half. Print a smaller version of any coloring page design on the front panel. Have the child color the design. Write a message inside. This works as a first-day-of-school card from a parent to a child, as a welcome card from a teacher to incoming students, or as a thank-you card from a child to a teacher.
28. Coloring Page Lunch Box Note
Print a very small coloring page design onto cardstock, color it, cut it out and slip it into a school lunchbox as a surprise note. This is a back to school crafts idea that requires almost no time from the parent and produces a meaningful moment in the middle of a potentially overwhelming first week.
Easy Back to School Crafts When You Have Almost No Time
Some of these back to school crafts diy projects take under fifteen minutes with supplies that do not require a special shop trip.
29. Five Minute Paper Crayon
Cut a long rectangle from yellow paper. Roll it diagonally into a cone shape and tape it. Flatten the pointed end slightly and wrap it in gray paper for the tip. Write the child’s name along the side. Done. This is about as easy as back to school crafts get while still producing something recognisable and charming.
30. Back to School Coloring Page Session
Sometimes the craft is simply sitting down and coloring together. Print a selection of back to school themed pages from our free coloring pages collection and let children choose what to color while you talk about what they are looking forward to this year. It is quiet, it is creative, it is genuinely calming and it requires nothing except a printer, some paper and a set of crayons.
Back to School Craft Supplies List
Before the first session, gather these basics so every project runs without interruption:
Paper and card: plain printer paper, colored cardstock, cardboard scraps, paper plates, toilet paper rolls. Adhesives: glue sticks, white craft glue, tape. Cutting tools: child-safe scissors, adult scissors for younger children’s use. Paint and color: washable red, yellow, green and black paint, crayons, washable markers, paint pens for older children. Extras: googly eyes in assorted sizes, brass fasteners, ribbon, yarn, stickers, washi tape.
Conclusion
The best back-to-school crafts are not necessarily the most impressive ones. They are the ones that a specific child, in a specific mood, at a specific point in the long transition between summer and school, finds genuinely absorbing for twenty or thirty minutes. Sometimes that is a careful crayon roll that takes the whole afternoon. Sometimes it is a five-minute paper pencil that they make in a rush and carry to school anyway because they made it themselves. Download the free coloring pages alongside any of these projects to give the craft session an extra dimension, and enjoy the last few days of summer in the most creative way possible.
FAQ
What are the best back to school crafts for preschoolers?
The best back to school crafts for preschoolers use minimal cutting, large shapes and familiar materials. Apple handprint cards, torn paper school buses, paper plate apples and simple bookmark projects work well because they are achievable in one short session and produce something recognisable even with limited fine motor control.
What back to school crafts can toddlers do?
Easy toddler back to school crafts focus on pressing, stamping and tearing rather than cutting and drawing. Apple handprints, torn paper collages and finger painting with school-themed stamps like apple shapes and stars are all appropriate for children aged one to three.
What supplies do I need for back to school crafts at home?
Most back to school crafts at home need only basic supplies: paper, cardstock, scissors, a glue stick, crayons and markers. Many projects also use toilet paper rolls, paper plates and paint, all of which are inexpensive and easy to find.
Are there back to school crafts for teens?
Yes. Back to school crafts for teens focus on objects they will actually use, decorated pencil cases, DIY notebook covers, aesthetic name posters and personalised bookmarks. The key difference from younger children’s projects is that teen crafts produce a functional object rather than a display piece.
Can these back to school crafts be used in a classroom?
Yes. Every project in this collection works for home or classroom use and all pages print in multiple copies at no cost. The handprint tree, all about me display, class school bus banner and crayon name tags are specifically designed for classroom settings.
What is the easiest back to school craft for kids?
The five-minute paper crayon and the apple handprint card are the simplest back to school crafts for kids who are short on time or patience. Both are achievable in under fifteen minutes with minimal materials.
How can I use coloring pages as back to school crafts?
Free printable coloring pages from our collection can be turned into bookmarks, greeting cards, lunch box notes, puzzle pieces and display art. Print the page, color it, and then cut or fold it into the craft format you need.