Photo credit: Tracy DeCurtins Holland (one of the many teachers we are a big fan of. Follow her on Instagram @nerdybirdteacher)
There is no doubt that this upcoming school year will be a year like we’ve never seen before! The restrictions necessary to keep students safe(ish) will force us to forgo our preferred back-to-school style. No more new backpacks and shoes, or photos getting onto the school bus.
Like many of you, we were wondering how you might cover this milestone in the yearbook. We spoke with countless yearbook advisers to gather some back-to-school yearbook coverage ideas to share with you.
Setup A Selfie Board At Your School
The PTA at Westgate Elementary in Illinois set up a selfie frame on school grounds so parents can stop by and take their child’s picture. This is a great way to get your community involved, let students have some fun, and leads to 100’s of fun shots for the yearbook!
What’s So Great About Remote Learning?

Nutella on-demand. Yum! Definitely a benefit to remote learning. One of our yearbook parents in Pleasanton, California decided to skip highlighting the back-to-school backpacks and clothes. Instead, she asked her kids to pick their favorite thing about remote learning and snapped those fun photos. Not only does this capture the back-to-school memory, but helps students focus on the positive aspects of virtual learning. Asking parents for photos of their kids’ favorite aspects of the upcoming year could make for a yummy spread.
What’s On Your Desk?

One of our schools in Kemah, Texas asked their students to send in photos of their at-home school desk. You might be surprised (or not) to see who has the snack stash, or video game console with them at school. Given teachers typically put so much effort into decorating their student’s desk before school starts, you might enjoy seeing how different students set up their virtual workspaces when they don’t have their teacher’s help.
Just because some of our back-to-school traditions are no longer possible, doesn’t mean this annual milestone should be missed–or worse yet–left out of the yearbook.
If you’re looking for more ideas on what to cover in the yearbook this year, check out our post Yearbook Ideas: We’re All in this Pandemic Together. How to Capture 20-21 in the Yearbook. We will be adding to it all year to make it easy for you to capture these special memories in your school’s yearbook.