As a parent, watching your child grow up is an emotional and exciting experience—especially as you witness their firsts. Their first steps, their first time saying mama and dada, their first birthday, and embarking on their first day of school. One of the best ways to capture this moment is to create your own reusable first day of school sign.

Whether your kid is attending their first day of kindergarten or the first day of their senior year, capturing these milestones and memories of starting school is a must. A great first day of school sign should incorporate your child’s name, age, grade, and date. Keep reading to learn how to create your own sign that you can reuse every school year.

Tools and Materials

Before you start designing your sign, you should consider the following:

• The age of your child and if they’re willing to hold the sign
• Do you have multiple children? Do you want to reuse one sign or make multiple?
• How much information do you want to include on your sign?

Those factors above will help you determine how many boards you need and how much material and tools you need to complete the sign. If you have multiple children, you might want to use a reusable surface like a chalkboard or whiteboard to have the ability to erase and customize for each child. If your child is older, you might want to create a sign that reflects their style—and ask them to help contribute to the sign’s design!

When creating your child’s sign, allow your creativity to run wild. You can use any art supplies, from paints to markers to crayons, to create a reusable sign. A popular way parents create the first day of school sign is by using chalk paint and erasable white chalk markers to make a chalkboard that you can erase and reuse for every school year.

You can use any tools and materials for your sign, but the main tools you need are:

• Chalk Paint
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Wooden Board
• Chalk Markers

Feel free to use any colors you’d like for the markers and paints. There is no wrong choice here.

How to DIY First Day of School Signs

Now that you’ve purchased your materials and tools, it’s time to create your own reusable first day of school sign! Follow these steps to help you through the planning and designing process.

Step 1: Plan Your Sign

We recommend you plan out your sign rather than freehand your design to ensure you properly utilize your space. Using your ruler and a sheet of paper, you can determine how big your words can be and other design elements. This is time to plan your sections, fonts, designs, colors, etc.

You should include your child in this process to give them input regarding colors, stickers, or other embellishments they want on their sign.

Step 2: Sketch Your Design

After measuring each section, planning your design, and making small changes, you’re ready to sketch. If you’re creating a chalkboard sign, this is the time to paint your surface with chalkboard paint and allow it to dry thoroughly. Transfer your plan onto the board using light strokes of your chalk marker, pencils, or paint when the paint dries.

While sketching your design on the board, don’t worry about the small details! You will be able to add them after the main sketch.

Step 3: Embellish the Sign

Once you’ve sketched your design onto your board, you can add colors and fine details. You don’t want to embellish the sign too much because the primary focus should be on “[child’s name] First Day Of [grade].” To avoid overcrowding the sign, try to add small designs or stickers like their favorite sports or subjects in each corner, or flowers and hearts—anything that shows your child’s personality and interests.

Step 4: Say Cheese!

It’s time to pose for the camera. Use a chalk marker to add the current information on your sign, take a picture with your child holding it, and wipe it off for the next year! You won’t regret capturing these moments and watching them grow through the camera lens. You can reuse this sign from kindergarten to their final year of high school (and college too!)

First Day of School Sign Ideas

Do you still need inspiration for your child’s first day of school sign? We got you covered. Here are a few first-day-of-school sign ideas to help you get a vision for the upcoming school year.

First & Last Day of School Signs

If you’re feeling extra creative, you can create a first and last day of school sign. You can capture your child's beginning and end of the school year with both signs. You can get a great side-by-side comparison of how your child grew or changed in nine months! Maybe they got braces or a new haircut; you will capture these loving moments.

First Day of School Journal

Instead of a sign, you can create a journal that documents your child’s teacher, grade, what they want to be when they grow up, and their favorite part of the day. This is the ultimate creative project for you and your child to enjoy. Your child can express themselves through drawings and stickers. You’ll see your child’s interests and aspirations change throughout the years.

First Day of School Message Board

You can use a letter board to help create the first day of school sign. You can make fun memos that correspond with their first day of school and the grade they’re heading into. This is still a great reusable sign option and is used for other school-related events like competitions, proms, and graduation.

Celebrate your children and their education milestones by remembering their first days with a reusable sign. Take the time to create this sign to help track so many precious memories and pictures down the line. If you need a chalkboard sign or chalk markers to help you make your first day of school signs, check out our wide selection of chalk paints, markers, paper, and boards!