Fun School Lunch Ideas

Your kids will love these fun school lunch ideas. Surprise your kids with a sandwich with a special message imprinted on the bread or a sandwich that looks like a book, an animal, or a schoolhouse. These back-to-school lunchbox ideas are all easy to make and fun to serve.

Do you pack lunch for your kids to take to school or do they come home at lunchtime? Make them something fun to power them through their school day. They'll love it!

I realize you may already be rushing to pack lunches, but adding a special touch to your kid's lunchbox will really make his or her day and it will only take an extra few minutes.

These school lunch ideas are sure to brighten any kid's day, especially at the beginning of the year when they are heading back to school.

Lunchbox Sandwiches

Stamped PB&J Sandwich

Add a sweet message to the top of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or any other sandwich your kid enjoys.

Use new or well-cleaned garden stone stamps to imprint your sandwiches.

• Press alphabet stamps into a slice of soft sandwich bread creating your own personalized messages like "Have a great day," "I believe in you," "You're my superstar," and more.
• Then, make a sandwich with the stamped bread on top. I spread peanut butter and jelly inside these personalized sandwiches but any fillings will work great.

Easy right?

Package the sandwich in a lunch bag or lunch box along with your child's favorite fruit, veggies, and drink.

You can use this same school lunch idea on tortillas instead of bread. Use the tortillas to make wraps filled with ham, turkey, roast beef, veggies, and more.

You can even imprint cheese using the stamps and add it to your lunchbox.

To make a wrap, stamp the message into a tortilla. Be sure to add the message near one end of the tortilla so it shows when you wrap it around the fillings.

More back-to-school lunches

Here are more fun school lunch ideas. If you don't see step-by-step instructions below the image, click the link (purple underlined text) and you'll be whisked away to another post featuring that recipe.

Schoolhouse Sandwich

Or, you can make a cute Peanut Butter and Jelly Schoolhouse Sandwich you just cut out the bread and add some edible decorations.

Instructions

• Print the schoolhouse template out and cut out around it.
  • You may need to resize the template to fit your bread.
• Cut the crusts off your bread.
• Set the template over a slice of bread and cut out around the template.
  • I found it easiest to use kitchen scissors to cut the bread.
  • Cut two schoolhouses for each sandwich.
• Spread Jif Creamy Peanut Butter over one of the schoolhouse shaped slices of bread.
• Top with Smucker's Strawberry Jam and a second piece of bread.
• Then decorate the sandwich to look like a schoolhouse.
• Use some peanut butter to attach two pretzel sticks along the lower roof line of the schoolhouse.
• Break another pretzel stick in half and attach it along the bell tower roof line.

• Attach two small crackers in the middle along the bottom edge of the sandwich to create two doors.
• Draw two door knobs using a black food coloring marker.
• Flatten a piece of yellow taffy and cut it out into a bell shape.
  • If the taffy is too firm to flatten, heat it in the microwave on the defrost setting for about 5 seconds to soften.
• Attach the bell to the middle of the bell tower.
• Flatten a piece of red taffy and cut it into a long oblong or rectangle shape.
• Write "SCHOOL" on the taffy using a black food coloring marker.
• Attach with peanut butter just above the schoolhouse doors.

School Book Sandwiches

You can fill these sandwiches made using flour tortillas with your child's favorite lunchmeat or fillings. Each book-shaped sandwich is easy to decorate using food coloring.

Bookworm Snack

This adorably cute Bookworm Snack is sure to delight any child who loves to read. I used mini mozzarella bites to make the bookworm but sandwiches made on round pieces of bread would work fine too.

Grad Cap Sandwiches

Be sure to surprise your graduates with this fun end-of-school lunch. Check out the tutorial to make these cute Grad Cap Sandwiches.

Fruit Leather School Books

Make the cutest little fruit leather school books out of fruit leather to add to your lunch boxes. They are simple to make using honey and white chocolate.

Sports-themed Sandwich

Top a sandwich with a slice of cheese that looks like a sports ball. Create the sports ball-shaped cheese using cookie cutters and food coloring.

To make a baseball, cut a circle out of white cheese and draw on red laces using a food coloring marker or a paintbrush dipped in red coloring.

To make a football, use a football cookie cutter and brush brown food coloring (blend red, yellow, and blue to make brown).

Other balls can be made using food coloring too. You could even get 3-D printed sports ball cookie cutters with stamps to imprint the cheese.

Sandwich Dog

Make an adorable dog-shaped sandwich for your puppy-loving kiddo. This is one of the cutest sandwiches ever! Don't you think?

You can make your puppy sandwich using pita bread, plain Naan bread, or white bread, Cut out two big ovals for the dog's head and two floppy ears. Spread peanut butter and jelly on one oval-shaped bread and add two ears.

Top with another oval bread. Fill a zip-top bag with chocolate spread and pipe on the puppy's eyes, nose, mouth, spots, and ears.

Smiley Face Egg Sandwich

Here's another fun idea for a back-to-school meal. This fun Smiley Face Egg Sandwich will be great for breakfast or an after-school snack.

Simply top an English Muffin with some cheese (I heated the cheese in a toaster oven so it melted, scrambled eggs, and a bacon smile.

Cut a slice of white cheese into circles and top with slices of black olives to create eyes. Top your egg sandwich with the eyes and it's ready to serve.

Instead of eggs, you could make a lunchmeat sandwich topped with a slice of American cheese then add the bacon smile and cheese and olive eyes.

Monkey Sandwiches

What kid wouldn't go bananas over these Monkey Sandwiches?

This fun school lunch is made using PB&J Uncrustables but could be made by cutting a sandwich into a circle. The monkeys are made using peanut butter but could be made using any other type of nut butter or spread including Biscoff.

Bunny Sandwiches

You can also use Uncrustables or a round sandwich to make adorable Bunny Sandwiches. Each bunny is decorated with a chocolate spread, white chocolate, and a candy nose.

Fun After-School Snack Ideas

Chicken Nugget Butterfly

This cute Chicken Nugget Butterfly will make super fun lunch or after-school snack. It's easy to make using nuggets and nacho tortilla chips. Yum!

Corn Dog Bumble Bee

When your kids get home from school and find this Corn Dog Bumble Bee on their plate, they will be buzzing with excitement. It's so cute and easy to make too.

More back-to-school recipe ideas.

I have lots more fun back-to-school recipes for you to check out. See all of my School-Themed Recipes.