Back to School - Printable Backpack Label

Last week was an exciting week, the start of Preschool for my little guy. To get ready, one of the requested items to bring on the first day of school was a labeled backpack.

It may sound crazy, but we didn’t realize a 3 year old Preschooler would need a backpack. So we were off to the store after back to school night and managed to score a nice Toy Story backpack, for only $3 on clearance. The only problem with this inexpensive find: the inside is black, so a typical marker wouldn’t show up to label it, and there isn’t a sizable tag that I could just label with a Sharpie.

It was time to get a little creative and whip something up that would work to label my son’s backpack on short notice. I’ve read about some great new labeling products, but this was definitely a last minute, late night project so I had to work with what we had at home.

I turned to the computer and first decided on the important information that would be most useful on a backpack label.  We chose to include:  Name,
Phone Number (in case it gets lost), School, Class, and
Teacher. You could also include Address, but I decided since we shared my phone number that wasn’t needed.

I added a splash of color and clipart to personalize the label. It is printed on white cardstock and then covered with a laminating sheet to protect it from a years worth of wear and tear. To attach the label to the backpack, I just punched little holes in the four corners and quickly hand stitched it in place inside the backpack.

Definitely a successful project, as my son was super excited to take his new labeled backpack along on his first day of Preschool. I especially like that this backpack label can be removed at the end of the year. We will be able to easily hand down this backpack to a relative, friend, or donate it to a thrift shop without my son’s name permanently emblazoned on this school necessity.