First-day-of-School Kindercone

In Germany there is a really sweet tradition to give children going into first grade a Schultüte, also known as a Kindercone.  The cone is filled with sweets, treats and school supplies and is intended to ease the anxiety that comes with starting a new school.   Some of the research I have done on this suggests that the intention of the gift is to send the message “time to put your big person pants on.” 

What I don’t understand is why didn’t we get these when we started school, hmmm? Our grandparents were very German, I am talking English spoken with thick German accents and hugs so severe you thought your guts were going to pop out.  Well I am resurrecting this tradition for generations going forward.  You can too by creating your own Kindercone. 

Here I show you how to make one from poster board, streamers and wrapping paper.  Don’t forget to decorate it with some fun images or stickers and fill it with treats.

Supplies:

Large Poster Board
Scissors
X-acto knife
pencil
String
Hot Glue Gun
Paper glue
Ruler
Streamer roll
Wrapping paper
Tape
Ribbon
Treats and school supplies to fill

To create your cone measure the shortest side of your poster board.

Create an oversize compass by stretching a string (or ribbon) from the corner of your poster board to the short side measurement while holding your pencil. (Mine was 22″.) Draw an arc with your pencil holding the string at the corner in place and moving the pencil while holding the string tight and taut.

Cut the poster board along the arc as shown above.

Roll your poster board into a cone shape.

Use hot glue to secure one side and close up the cone. (Trim the top if it turned out uneven like mine did. Ha!)

To make the fringe decoration measure out your streamer so that it goes completely around the top of the cone. Cut three more the same length so you have four total pieces of streamer.

Use a stapler or hot glue to attached the streamers together along one edge. With your scissors snip into the streamer 3/4 of the way and at 1/4″ increments to create a fringe effect. Do not cut all the way through.

Attached the streamer fringe to the top inside of your cone with hot glue.

Measure out a piece of wrapping paper at least 15″ wide and long enough to go around the inside of the top of the cone at the same place that the streamer was added.

Attach the wrapping paper to the inside of the cone with the hot glue and run a line of glue up the seam to seal up the wrapping paper into a cylinder shape as shown in this photo. Fluff up your streamer fringe.

Add some sort of decorations or image to the front of the cone. I am using a vintage kids birthday card but you can use what ever you have. It could be more streamers, stickers or even photos.

Attached your decoration to the cone and add a bit of streamer fringe to plug up the hole at the bottom if needed.

Fill your cone with treats, toys and school supplies.

Once your cone is filled gently gather the wrapping paper so as not to rip it and secure with ribbon.

Present this to your anxious first grader on the first day of school with the promise that they can open it when then get home after school. Something to look forward to!