Written by guest contributor, Shannon Fong

Having fun pictures of the first day of school is a fun tradition we have!  I love looking back at them each year and seeing how they’ve grown and changed.  Since mornings are busy you can get these first day of school signs ready ahead of time.  With these simple and playful ideas you’ll create memorable first day of school pictures!

Simple Back to School Banner for Pictures

I love cute holiday banners! They’re an easy way to make things festive and fun. It’s a great option because it can be used as decor as well as a picture backdrop! I’ve found a lot of cute and free back-to-school signs on Pinterest, but they don’t always have exactly want I’m looking for. One simple way to create a custom sign is by making in Canva, that’s how I made this simple sign!

Simple Back to School Drink Picture Idea

My boys love fun sugary drinks. Most days we try to avoid the sugar rush but on the first day of school, we celebrate! I found these fun glasses at Target a few years ago and they’ve become my go-to celebration glasses. First I added stickers to the glass showing the grade and year. Then I poured the drinks in and added a fun straw. By taking a few extra minutes to add the stickers to the glass I turned this fun drink into a back-to-school picture prop!

Tips on Decorating Your Glass

-Count the number of letters then start in the middle to help keep things centered.

-Do not press the all the way down till you’re done. This makes it easier to move things around if you need to.

-Put the stickers on before you put your liquid in. Once you put your liquid in it may start to sweat and the stivkrts will have a harder time sticking.

-Add a fun straw!

Fun Drink Ideas

-Juice with fruit in it (we did orange juice and sliced strawberries)

-Flavored milk

-Colored milk (we did milk with red food coloring, I think other fun option would be to make milk their school colors)

-Milk or juice with colored ice cubes (just be sure to put the ice cubes in right before you serve it so it doesn’t melt)

Fun Cookie Picture

I love to bake with my kids! It’s one of those hobbies that I had before having kids and love sharing it with them! Plus having a yummy dessert to go with all your hard work is so rewarding for both you and your kids! To keep things simple we baked a cookie cake using Design Eat Repeat’s recipe. By baking a cookie cake rather than individual cookies it cuts down on time since you’re not measuring out the dough and it’s all in one pan rather than multiple cookie sheets rotating in the oven. We didn’t have a round pan as she used, so we did it in a 9×13 pan instead and it worked perfectly!

Ways to Have Fun with Your Cookie

-Use letter board letters on your cookie.

-Decorate the cookies with your kids!

-Separate the frosting out and add food coloring to it!

Easy T-shirt Sign

A simple shirt is a fun way to show off the first day of school! By turning your sign into a shirt you don’t need to worry about holding a sign. Your kids can pose with you reminding them to hold the sign up. My middle loves to be silly and holds his sign backward/upside down. I love capturing his personality but when I’m trying to take the first day of school pictures and rush out the door I rather just have a nice quick picture.

For this shirt, I quickly designed it in Canva, printed it on Avery Iron-On paper. You aren’t able to flip the words in Canva. To do it, I saved it as a JPG and then created a new project, dragged the images into the workspace, and was able to flip it!

Tips to Create a Custom Shirt

-Washer your shirt before you iron on the design.

-Iron your shirt after you wash it. You want it to be as smooth as possible.

-Print your image backward. When you iron it’s a mirror image.

-Make sure your design is a strong contrast from your shirt color.

-Check the Iron-On sheets, they have one for dark and another for light fabrics.

Fun Chalk Art Background

Still, have a bunch of leftover chalk from summer? I always stock up on chalk during the summer to play with all year and use it for my projects. One fun way to use it is to make a back-to-school sign. I love that you can use your imagination and easily create a fun background.

Since it’s chalk art, having it simple and imperfect is what makes it fun! Some fun ideas for the background are what they’d want to do when they grow up or fun facts about them right now! I added fun borders around the fun facts to make it a little more playful! 

Things To Think About

-Don’t make it too detailed.

-Draw it ahead of time on a large sheet of kraft paper.

-When you’re drawing, think about the height of the child which helps with the placement.  

-Leave room on the side for the child to stand.

-Pick contrasting colors.

-Remember it’s chalk, it’ll rub off if your child leans on it.  

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I hope that you’ve gotten some ideas on cute and stress free ways to make your first day of school signs!  Have fun getting creative with it!

Blogger, Shannon Fong, of Our Hawaii Test Kitchen, is all about making simple memories! She loves the stability and fun memories that come with traditions and routines and loves to help other moms create experiences trying new things, even if it’s just going to the mall! She is full of activities to help them learn and grow!

Follow her on Instagram: outhawaiitestkitchen!