5 Easy Back To School Craft Ideas For Preschoolers and Beyond

The start of a new school year can be tricky — for kids and parents alike!

Where the summer months were more laid back, now’s the time for a routine to set back in. What’s more, your little one might be gearing up for a big change — starting their first day at preschool, or moving from kindergarten into elementary school.

New teachers, classes, and buddies are all really great things for your child to experience. But the new names, places, and faces might also make them feel somewhat stressed out and emotional as they adjust.

… Could arts and crafts be the answer?

After all, engaging in creative activities has been proven to improve children’s problem-solving skills, enhance their focus and motivation, and strengthen their visual learning. Everything your little one needs to get their head in the ‘back to school’ game.

So, what are you waiting for? Our back to school crafts for preschoolers and beyond are easy, engaging, educational, and so much fun.

3 easy back to school preschool crafts

Crafting doesn’t need to be complicated — especially when you’re planning for preschoolers. Just give them paints, markers, paper, glue, and watch them go wild!

But if you’re looking for something more closely related to the ‘back to school’ theme, these craft ideas are great places to start…

1.   Sand number flashcards

For this back to school craft activity, you will need: a pack of white card/blank flashcards, glue, marine life stickers, and some sand.

This crafting exercise is great for your preschooler in so many ways. Not only will it encourage them to get messy and creative with you, it will also help them to start to learn their numbers and animal names. Here’s how you do it:

• Before you get your toddler involved, cut the white card into flashcard-sized rectangles (or, if you’ve already got ready-made flashcards, you’re all set!)
• On each card, use your glue to draw out a number. Let your child watch you do this, so they can start to see how numbers are formed. Then, give your little one the sand and ask them to sprinkle it on top.
• Help them to shake off any of the excess, then show them the sand number they’ve created!

If you’ve managed to get your hands on some marine life stickers, ask your little one to stick the correct number of stickers on the reverse side of the flashcards (mirroring the number written on the front of each card).

2.   Crayon Caddy

Every kid needs somewhere to keep their crayons, right?

To make a Crayon Caddy, you will need: an empty shoebox, toilet roll tubes, and some paints/glitter/felt tip pens.

• Give your little one the shoebox and let them decorate it in whichever way they choose.
• Then, place the toilet roll tubes, standing up, inside the box — you can glue them down into the box if you’d like, but this isn’t strictly necessary.
• Once your child adds their crayons, pens, and pencils into the tubes, the tubes will stay standing up on their own. Nice! Now they’re all set to go back to school.

3.   Handprint apple

What preschooler doesn’t love to finger paint?

For this back to school activity, you will need: paper, red and green finger paints, felt tip pens, googly eyes, and some glue.

• Get your little one to paint the palm of their hand in red paint and just their thumb in light green.
• Then, get them to press their hand and thumb onto the paper at the same time. Their palm print should look like a round apple, and the green thumbprint will be the worm peeking out of it!
• Help them to draw on a stem and leaf onto the top of their apple, and glue some googly eyes onto the worm’s head.

This handprint apple is a great keepsake to commemorate your child’s first week at preschool!

2 fun back to school craft ideas for Kindergarten plus

Not wanting your older kid to miss out on back to school crafting fun? Then look no further! Here’s two of the best back to school arts and craft ideas for older kids.

1.   Portrait silhouettes

The start of a school year represents growth, and it’s something your little one will look back on when they’re older. In the blink of an eye, they’ll be in middle school and then off to college! So why not make a tradition of capturing a portrait silhouette every year until they do?

For this back to school ritual, you’ll need: a desk lamp, A3 paper, marker pens, old magazines, scissors, and some glue.

• Set up your desk lamp so that it’s shining directly onto a wall in your house and stick the A3 paper on the wall.
• Get your child to sit in front of it, facing sideways and away from the lamp’s light — you might need to move the lamp around a bit, but eventually you should end up with a shadow of your kid’s portrait on the paper behind them.
• Carefully draw around the outline of their portrait onto the paper (kids will need to try their hardest not to wiggle while you do this!)
• Once you’ve finished, you should have a complete portrait of your child’s head.
• Then, let them go crazy with the old magazines. Get them to cut out pictures and words which mean something to them, or things they would like to be when they are older. Then help them to stick the words inside the outline of their portrait.
  
  

2.   Word art journal

Got some more old magazines lying around? It’s time to put them to good use. After all, older children love to have a cool notebook to start the new school year with. So why not help them to make their own?

For this activity, you will need: old magazines, a notebook, scissors, and glue.

• Get your child to cut out some of their favorite words from the magazines you have — these could be words they think describe them, some of their favorite things, or words they’d like to learn to use this year.
• Then, help them to stick the words to the front of their notebook. It’s really easy to create a fun design with the different colors, fonts, and styles of the words that your child has chosen.