DIY Back to School Greeting Card Paper Craft Project

About this resource

What's inside this resource

DIY Back to School Greeting Card Paper Craft Project Students will have fun creating their own personalized greeting cards with this easy Back to School paper craft. The black and white template prints a 5" x 7" card ready for coloring, writing, and designing. Learners can write an encouraging note inside and give their cards to friends or teachers. This simple prep independent art activity works for whole groups, small groups, sub plans, and homeschool. After customizing their cards, students will be excited to gift them! Extend the crafting by trying more one-page paper projects like ice cream designs, Fourth of July cards, name crabs, quirky crabs, dolphins, and turtles. Unleash creativity with DIY paper crafts from Doodle Thinks!

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Colour a whole card front within printed outlines
Cut accurately along a curved printed outline rather than a straight edge
Fold a sheet along a marked guide so the two panels of a card line up
Write a short personal message inside a card for a named recipient

Teaching tips

Everything sits on one sheet, so a class set is a single print run with no assembly beyond a cut and a fold.
The grey line is the fold guide and not a cut line - saying so before scissors come out prevents most of the reprints.
The greeting is already printed on the front, so the only writing is the note inside, which keeps the craft workable for children who are not yet writing much.
The four instructions are printed on the sheet itself rather than on a separate teacher page, so it runs unsupervised as an early-finisher task or in a sub plan.

Skills covered

Colouring within outlines - the whole card front is supplied as line art, so step 1 is a sustained colouring task rather than a small detail.
Scissor control - step 2 asks students to cut along the printed card outline, following the shape rather than a straight edge.
Folding to a guide - step 3 names the grey line as the template for the fold, so the two panels have to be brought together accurately.
Writing for a reader - the inside is left blank and step 4 asks for a note, giving the colouring a purpose beyond the page.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What is already printed on the front of the card?

The greeting "HAVE A GREAT SCHOOL YEAR!" is set into the design alongside the picture, so the occasion is fixed before a child starts. Everything else is theirs: the colouring on the front and the whole of the inside panel.

What does the grey line on the sheet mark?

The fold. Step 3 names it as the template for folding the card in half, so it is a guide to crease along rather than a line to cut. The cutting happens at step 2, on the card outline.