I decided to try out this German/Austrian first day of school tradition this year, and it was a lot of fun!

The items in the cones (which I made out of 12×12 scrapbook paper), were simple, and some of them we already had around the house: a pencil, new crayons, tape, colored pencils, stickers, a pencil sharpener (from Grandma and Grandpa), candies, a mini Post-It notepad, a Lego brick eraser, and a lanyard (to hold their new library cards). Don’t worry, I made one for Moose, too, to open when he got home from school!

It was like opening stockings on Christmas morning…the children were so excited to see what was in their present.

I think this may need to become a permanent tradition…I loved making the Schultüte, and the children loved opening them!