Reusable First & Last Day of School Sign

It's that time of year friends are posting photos of their little ones going back to school holding signs noting their grade, teacher's name, favorite color, or what they want to be when they grow up.

Since our boy is starting preschool this week I decided to make one that we'd be able to use each year on his first day and last day of school.

I had some chalkboard paint and a leftover canvas so I started planning a sign that could be filled out and erased but was a little cheekier than a blank chalkboard.

Before I spray painted a base coat on the canvas I remembered that we had a sheet of paneling in the garage from a bookcase project. Since it would be a sturdier alternative to canvas and stand up better to wrapping and packing when we move it, I decided to use the back of a small piece of the paneling instead.

I wanted to section off parts of the sign that would be permanent and then have chalkboard paint in other sections that can change with the year, grade, and whether it's the first or last day of school.


First I taped the parts of the canvas that would be painted with regular red and white paint and applied the chalkboard paint.

After painting the chalkboard sections, I used the tape to create a line for the white painted border separating the sections and the places that would be painted red. 

I'm happy with how clean the lines came out especially since they're thin.

I painted and glued lettering on the board for the sections "Day Of" and "Age" so that each year I can fill in the blanks with either First or Last, the grade, the year, and his age.

I smudged up the chalkboard surface and added the text to the sign with a piece of chalk but it didn't take very long for it to get messy so after school I cleaned the board off and used a chalk ink pen for a somewhat neater version I could use in a few more photos.

This one might be easier to read but some of my favorite photos have the smudgy chalk in them.

For the finishing touch I traced my son's hand on the back and I'll trace it each year just like the tree rings pattern on the wood.