First (or Last) Day of School Sign

I love celebrating the new school year by taking a photo of the boys holding first day signs. I usually find a free printable sign online the night before after some last minute googling and hope that I have enough ink for my printer.

With school being online last year, I almost created special distance learning signs for the boys to hold. In the end, I decided to stick with a regular but cute first day of school sign. How did I do that? By creating my own printable signs using my their school colors.

Precious First Day of School Pictures

I couldn’t take pictures of them boarding the school bus or meeting their teachers in the classroom, so I kicked our first day of school signs up a notch by simply printing them in color.

I know it doesn’t sound like much but the boys were at a new school in August and I wanted to encourage them their new school environment with some school spirit. Using the distinct school colors helped do that, I also made them custom shirts using my Cricut.

Free Printable First Day of School Signs

Why is my free printable first day of school sign better than other free printables out there? Because you can easily customize them yourself using your own kids school colors!

Most first day and end of year signs are black and white. It’s not really feasible for someone to share every color combination possible along with every year and grade combination. There are some options on etsy, if you want to have someone make it for you but you will pay a pretty penny and will need to order it ahead of time.

My own personal solution, and now a great option for you is using Canva. Canva is a graphic design platform I often use for my blog. Usually I just make pinterest graphics for my blog posts, but this time I used it to create my own first and last day of school signs.

Once I created my basic sign using design elements and text, I was able to swap colors out easy peasy. This came in handy when I reenrolled my son Quinn back at his home school. His first day of 7th grade sign was maroon and gold and I easily changed his last day of school sign to black and red since he switched schools mid year.

First Day and Last Day of School Template

Are you ready to check out my first day of school editable sign template? If you are familiar with Canva then you can easily edit the file to fit your needs. It’s perfect for first grade through twelfth grade, actually you could start with a first day of preschool sign if your kids are still that young. Mine aren’t. :-/

CLICK HERE for the First Day of School Template – this template is for your personal use only

These are my new favorite things for back to school, and I wish I had created it when my kids were younger. We could have easily had first day and end of year signs that coordinated with their school colors from kindergarten and elementary school through 12th grade. I will just have to settle for middle school and high school now.

Free First Day of School Printables

If you are unfamiliar with Canva, watch the video above to see how easily you can change the colors, and text to customize these signs. Plus edit it to make a last day of school sign, and then signs for each following grade levels.

Now, there is no need to hunt for a new first day of school sign each year, or try like I did to find the same designs we’ve used in previous years. These free printable signs can be created for each school year on your own computer and downloaded ready to print when you need them.

First Day of School Photo

Let’s have a happy first day of school, your big kids might even like these fun signs. Or maybe they just tolerate them, like mine do. 🙂 I do think printing them in color using my personal color printer does make for an adorable little prop.

If using my free printable first day of school signs aren’t your thing, you can always use another first day photo prop like a school chalkboard sign or dry erase board. Both are frugal ideas that can be reused each year without having to print new signs.

I honestly would never be able to write out the school year details in the perfect way, aligned correctly with super neat handwriting. If you saw my handwriting you would think I was a doctor. 😉 Printing out a cute sign is a great idea for me and anyone else that doesn’t have the skills to neatly create a new sign each year, for each of their kids.

Favorite Back To School Traditions

Taking first day of school photos is one of my favorite school traditions. It’s second only to finding the best deals on back to school supplies. I love sending my kids with all the supplies they need, supplies their teachers request and donating school supplies to kids in need without breaking the bank. Finding and sharing deals has always been a hobby of mine. This free printable editable sign is my new back to school deal for you.

More Back To School Ideas

• Red apple back to school donut holes
• DIY desk organizer using cardboard and duct tape
• Printable lunch box jokes