We do a sign of her first day of whatever grade( 1st this year) and her favorite meal that night. End of first week out to dinner to restaurant of her choice.

Mine is still too young but I've seen friends take photos of their kids holding a sign saying something about the grade the child is going into and what they would like to be when they grow up. I thought it was really cute.

We make muffins in the morning for breakfast (admittedly, from Jiffy mix!) and then take pictures at home and in front of the school.

DD just started k and this is what we did: DH and I both took her to school, photos in front of school, special dinner (home cooked but her favorite) and cake for dessert.

Front porch photo on first day.

DH and I both do drop off on first day.

Kindergarten--tons if photos walking into school too.

Photo in their uniforms with their new backpacks in front of the school. Extra special dinner that night.

I pick DD up after school and take her to frozen yogurt on the first day. Plus I buy her a new outfit.

Photo in the morning. Dinner at restaurant of son's choice.

Just a photo, that's it.

We had cake the night before school started when my dd entered kindergarten. This year we invited the whole bus stop to party at the park on Sunday evening...pizza and cake to kick things off!

We do the kids picture in front of school sign and go out for ice cream after school

We don't do anything creative yet, but would like to start. Google suggests:
http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/10849-8-back-to-school-family-traditions

Our end of the school year tradition include going out to a "nice" dinner (in quotes, since how nice can it be with young kids!) and each kid getting a book that is at least loosely based on something they studied/learned/got excited about at school. I want to have a different tradition to celebrate the beginning of the school year. Any ideas? My kids are entering PS3 and 1st grade.