Teacher Appreciation Ideas

Check it Out!  Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up May 2 thru May 6 and although I homeschool and am now the teacher, I have had 6 years worth of teachers with 3 kids so I know the importance of saying Thank You to a teacher and I have tons of ideas for gifts.  So if your lookin' for a last minute quick, easy and CHEAP idea on how to make your child's teacher feel a little special, here is my favorite thing to do for Teacher Appreciation Week.  You can whip these up really quickly and if you have multiple kids it makes giving all of their teachers something a little easier.  You probably have some of these snacks in your pantry already and if not see what you do have and then use your creative side to come up with a little saying to match.  Using regular paper lunch sacks and typewritten (you can hand print these, but it is quicker if your doing multiple teachers) notes send in a small snack everyday leading up to the little gift on Friday.  Here are a few of the supplies I used:

So I used punches to punch out my days of the week and an orange punched circle to highlight it and printed my sayings out using my computer.  I used the days of the weeks on the back of the sack so that if you need to send them all in together on Monday, your teacher will know what bag to open on what day and so that I could make them ahead of time and have them ready for the whole week.  I used a piece of green cardstock cut to fit the bag for the bag topper and glued a diecut apple with my saying onto the front and put the punched date on the back.  Inside the bags I put the poem in with the snack and if your snack needs a spoon, just use those free ones you get from the drivethru that are wrapped in plastic and roll it in a napkin and tie with a ribbon, a small touch that really makes a person feel special!

There are so many different poems and sayings you can use and you can modify the ones below to fit what you have in the pantry, but these are the ones that I use for my gifts:

*Poem on the Apple that I put on the front of every sack:

A daily gift for all you do,

teaching my child each day through,

making a difference without

taking a rest,

as a teacher,

You're the Best!

*Snack item and Daily sayings to put in with the snack:

Monday- Goldfish Snack(single serve bag)- "You're O'Fishally the Best Teacher!"

Tuesday- Orange or cup of oranges - "Orange you special!"

Wednesday- Pudding cups - "Thanks for Puddin' up with me this year!"

Thursday- microwave popcorn bag- "Poppin' up to say what a wonderful teacher you are!"

Friday- coffee/tea mug gift - "Whether it's coffee or tea, relax, enjoy and think of me.  Thanks for all you do!"

For the Friday coffee/tea mug gift, I used a dollar store teacher mug and those wonderful coffee and tea samples that I get for free about once a month and if you have some of those sugar/sweet n low packets, you also add those.  You can also add some mints or candy if you have some.  GO HERE and see my Christmas samples.  All these are examples and can be modified to fit your needs, change a word or two if you need to. And don't forget teachers really love gift cards so you could add one or two to the mug.

Don't forget that Friday 5/6 is also National Nurses Day.  I give bottled water and a snack with this little poem that I used for the nurse:

"Thanks for doing your best to provide us with care.  You're a Special School Nurse with so much to share!"

And for the Bus Driver:

 "Accept our many thanks as you travel on your way. Delivering students safely to school and home each day."  

So you see that it's just a corny little saying, but it really is the thought that counts and most teachers never get a gift (small or not) every day of Teacher Appreciation Week.  DJ's 5th grade teacher had all those little notes pinned to her bulletin board the NEXT year when my daughter got her for her teacher.  Did I mention, how it can make you feel?  Yeah, sometimes really great things can come out of small packages!  Just saying!