31 Easy Back to School Crafts for Kids for a Creative Start

This craft activity guides children through creating a pencil using basic geometric shapes like rectangles and triangles. It encourages tracing, cutting, and assembling pieces from different colored papers and foil to form a complete pencil image.

The project helps young learners practice shape recognition and develop fine motor skills through cutting and gluing. It also offers an opportunity to assess listening and following directions while producing a decorative, school-themed art piece.

This craft transforms an ordinary Kleenex box into a bright, cheerful school bus using simple materials like construction paper, lids, and foam pieces. It includes personalized touches such as photos of children in the windows and a family member as the bus driver, making it a fun and meaningful back-to-school project.

The finished school bus serves as a decorative item that can brighten a classroom or home while celebrating the start of the school year. The process encourages creativity and hands-on involvement, suitable for kids and adults working together on a memorable craft.

This craft activity invites children to create a colorful apple tree using pom poms, glue, and a tree template. It encourages fine motor skill development as kids attach soft pom pom “apples” onto a textured tree trunk made from felt or paper.

The process is hands-on and tactile, allowing young children to explore different materials while assembling their own tree. The finished project results in a charming, three-dimensional apple tree that can be displayed as a seasonal decoration.

This craft project creates a charming school bus photo frame using wooden craft sticks painted bright yellow. The design incorporates cut and arranged sticks to form the bus shape, with black foam circles and buttons serving as wheels and headlights.

Photos can be placed in the “windows” of the bus, making it a personalized keepsake for back-to-school memories. Adding magnets to the back allows the frame to be displayed on metal surfaces like a refrigerator.

This craft activity invites toddlers to create a colorful apple using torn pieces of construction paper glued onto a paper plate. It encourages children to practice fine motor skills by tearing, gluing, and arranging the paper, helping them develop hand strength and coordination.

The project also introduces young kids to the fall season through a simple, hands-on art experience. It allows for creative exploration while providing a quiet, engaging task that can be adapted to different skill levels and preferences.

This craft project involves creating colorful crayon characters using popsicle sticks, paint, and simple craft supplies. Children can personalize their crayon friends by choosing any colors, faces, and styles they like, encouraging creativity and imaginative play.

The finished popsicle stick crayons make great companions for story time or classroom activities, adding a fun, hands-on element to reading sessions. The project is easy to assemble and safe for kids with adult supervision, making it an engaging and inexpensive way to keep children entertained.

This craft involves transforming a paper plate into a colorful apple with a playful worm that can slide up and down. It combines simple cutting, painting, and gluing techniques to create a fun, interactive decoration.

Children can practice fine motor skills while assembling the apple, painting it red and green, and adding details like a stem, leaf, and googly eyes. The movable worm adds an element of play, making the finished craft both decorative and entertaining.

This craft involves creating a pencil using four popsicle sticks painted yellow and glued onto a cut piece of paper shaped like a pencil. The project is completed by adding a black tip and a pink eraser made from paper, giving it a realistic look.

It offers a hands-on activity where kids can practice painting, gluing, and cutting skills. The result is a simple, colorful pencil craft perfect for back-to-school decoration or a fun classroom project.

This craft invites children to create a colorful apple using sponge painting techniques. Kids dip sponge strips into red or green paint and dab them onto a paper plate to form the apple’s shape.

After the paint dries, a brown paper stem and green paper leaf are glued onto the plate to complete the apple. This activity encourages creativity while helping develop fine motor skills and color recognition.

This yarn apple garland features soft, round apples made from wrapped yarn, accented with green felt leaves and tied onto twine for a festive fall decoration.

The craft avoids cutting or trimming yarn, making it simple and safe for kids to create with adult supervision.

The garland can be customized in length and color, perfect for hanging as seasonal decor or attaching to gifts for teachers and friends. The process encourages hands-on creativity and results in a charming, handmade accent that celebrates autumn.

This craft project helps children create a personalized countdown banner to ease back-to-school anxiety. Using school-themed cutouts, kids decorate each piece and write down what excites them about the upcoming school year.

The banner can be displayed during the week before school starts, encouraging conversations about positive school experiences. It also becomes a keepsake that captures a child’s thoughts and handwriting from that moment in time.

This craft involves creating colorful stained glass apple decorations using clear contact paper, tissue paper squares, and construction paper frames. Children layer tissue paper pieces within the apple frame to fill the shape, then seal it with another sheet of contact paper, resulting in a vibrant, translucent design perfect for hanging in windows.

The activity is simple and mess-free, making it suitable for young learners in classrooms or at home. It encourages fine motor skills and creativity while producing festive fall decorations that brighten any space.

This item features a whimsical pencil holder made from recycled paper rolls, designed to look like a colorful bookworm. It can be customized in length by adding more rolls, making it a practical and playful storage solution for pencils, markers, and other school supplies.

The bookworm’s face is crafted with paper glasses and hand-drawn details, while a small paper book is attached to its “hands” for added charm. This project encourages creativity and adds a fun, personalized touch to any desk or classroom space.

This craft uses bubble wrap as a unique painting tool to create textured apple shapes on paper. By applying paint to the bubble wrap and pressing or rolling it onto an apple template, kids can produce colorful, patterned apple prints.

After the paint dries, the apples can be cut out and decorated with painted stems and leaves. These finished pieces make charming decorations for classrooms or playrooms and can be used as banners or personalized name tags.

This item provides a creative way to capture and preserve a child’s first day of school memories using a personalized time capsule. It combines handprints, photos, height measurements, and special notes inside a decorated jar to create a meaningful keepsake.

The time capsule encourages families to celebrate milestones and track growth throughout the school year. It offers a fun, hands-on activity that turns everyday moments into lasting treasures to revisit later.

This craft activity uses halved apples as stamps to create colorful, textured prints on paper. Children paint the apple halves with red or green paint and press them onto white construction paper, producing apple-shaped patterns that dry into vibrant artwork.

The project also includes making a woven paper basket to place beneath the stamped apples, adding a three-dimensional element to the piece. Kids can glue apple seeds onto the prints and decorate with markers to add stems and leaves, making a charming fall-themed decoration.

This craft involves creating a three-dimensional school bus using painted paper plates, a toilet paper tube, and cut-out construction paper shapes. The finished bus stands on its own and can be pushed around on a table, making it both a decorative and interactive project for kids.

Children will practice painting, cutting, and gluing while assembling the bus, which helps develop fine motor skills and shape recognition. The project encourages creativity by allowing customization of colors and details, resulting in a fun, hands-on activity suitable for various ages.

This craft involves creating an apple core design using popsicle sticks, colored cardstock, and glue. Children assemble the sticks into a rectangular shape and decorate it with paper cutouts of apple halves, a stem, and a leaf, adding drawn seeds for detail.

The project encourages creativity while celebrating fall and back-to-school themes. It is simple, inexpensive, and suitable for kids of various ages, making it a fun hands-on activity to enjoy together.

Create a charming school bus photo frame using painted craft sticks, red jewels, and a personalized license plate to showcase a favorite back-to-school picture. The finished frame can be decorated with magnets for easy display on a refrigerator or other magnetic surface.

This craft encourages creativity and fine motor skills while celebrating the excitement of a new school year. It offers a fun way for kids to engage with the start of school, even before their first day arrives.

This craft transforms natural pinecones into charming apple decorations by painting them red and adding small paper leaves and stick stems. It offers a hands-on way to celebrate fall using simple materials like pinecones, paint, and cardstock.

The finished pinecone apples can be used as seasonal decor, such as a garland for a home or classroom. The project encourages creativity while combining nature with festive autumn themes.

Create a vibrant, one-of-a-kind backpack by transforming a plain white bag into a colorful watercolor masterpiece using fabric markers and a light mist of water. The bleeding ink effect blends the colors together, giving the backpack a unique, hand-painted look that stands out in any school hallway.

This project is quick and budget-friendly, taking less than thirty minutes and under $20 to complete. After coloring and spritzing the bag, heat-setting the design with a dryer or iron ensures the colors stay bright and the fabric smooth for everyday use.

These apple-themed mason jar pencil holders transform simple jars into charming, functional gifts perfect for organizing pencils, pens, or small items. The jars are spray painted red with green cardstock leaves attached by twine, creating a cute apple look that can be personalized with names.

The project is easy to complete and suitable for all ages, making it a fun group activity or thoughtful homemade gift. Beyond school supplies, the jars can also hold treats or craft materials, adding a creative touch to any space.

This item features a colorful pencil vase made by attaching crayons around a recycled tin can. The crayons are secured with double-sided tape and a rubber band, then decorated with ribbon or twine for a polished look.

It serves as a charming and practical holder for pencils, pens, or other small school supplies. The project is simple to assemble and offers a creative way to personalize a teacher gift or organize a desk.

These DIY pencil shoes transform plain white canvas sneakers into a fun, colorful design inspired by classic pencils. The process involves taping off sections of the shoe and painting them in black, tan, yellow, silver, and pink to mimic the look of a sharpened pencil with an eraser.

The step-by-step approach helps create clean, distinct color blocks that bring the pencil theme to life. Once painted and dried, the shoes can be sealed for durability, making them a playful and wearable craft project.

This item features a simple craft project that transforms mason jars into charming apple-themed containers. The process involves painting the jars and lids, creating paper leaves, and attaching a painted wooden peg as the stem, resulting in a decorative and functional piece.

These apple jars can be filled with treats, making them ideal as thoughtful gifts, especially for teachers or back-to-school occasions. The project is quick to complete and suitable for involving children in the creative process, adding a personal touch to the final product.

This item features a colorful wreath made by gluing crayons around a wooden base, creating a vibrant and playful decoration. A small chalkboard is attached at the center, allowing for personalized messages or names to be written and changed easily.

Additional embellishments like a pencil, mini composition book, and apple add a school-themed touch, making it a perfect gift for teachers or classroom decor. The wreath includes a ribbon for hanging, combining creativity with practical use in an educational setting.

This item demonstrates how to create a handmade teacher appreciation gift using string art shaped like an apple. It guides the user through preparing a wooden board, placing nails along a printed apple stencil, and threading colorful yarn to form the apple design with a heart detail in the center.

The project combines simple materials like wood, nails, and yarn to produce a personalized and meaningful keepsake. It offers a creative way to honor teachers by connecting a traditional symbol with a modern crafting technique that can be customized with names or colors.