Teacher Appreciation - Peoria,AZ

Have them write their favorite part of the school year. I don't know the age group, but if they are capable of writing, you can send a piece of paper home with instructions (the size of the page in the book) and tell the parents to brainstorm things they did in the classroom, you can even include some ideas in the instructions. Also include the rule they can't say recess, P.E. or library - it has to be something in the classroom with their full time teacher. Also include why they enjoyed that activity.

I would give the kids choices of something to write and let them draw a picture and/or decorate their page. Some choices might be:

My favorite memory of ____ grade is ______________.

Mrs. __________ is a great teacher because ___________.

Mrs. ___________ taught me how to ____________.

Last year, the room mom for my daughter's 2nd grade class, sent home a sealed note asking each child to write a thank you/appreciation letter to the teacher. She asked the children to take their time with it and give it some thought. She encouraged them to draw a picture and/or design the letter with a border. Each family also chipped in $5 a piece so that the room mom could present her with a gift too. (She asked that the children hand in the letter and $ donation to her daughter in a sealed envelope at school.)Then the children presented it to her a few days later on.

When I taught 1st grade, my room mom that year had each child put their thumb in paint and put their thumbprint on a large terra cotta pot. After that dried, she had them design their thumbprint into something. Most of the kids created animals from their thumbprint. She wrote their names in paint under each thumbprint design. Then around the rim of the plant she painted the sentence..... Thanks Mrs._____________ for helping us bloom!
Then she planted a beautiful plant in the pot. (I still have the pot today.....15 years later. So I'd say it's a keepsake:-)

I still treasure the book my 3rd graders gave me more than 10 years ago. It had a square on the top of the page for the kid to draw a picture and some lines where the kids could write their favorite thing or a small note. Many of the kids wrote about how much fun they had playing basketball with me (although I was terrible) and they drew the cutest stick figures of us playing basketball. Fun times, fun times!

Is this for Teacher Appreciation Week? I'm wondering the age of the kids... One year we took pictures of the spelling out the letters t-h-a-n-k-y--o-u with thier bodies laying on the hallway floor or out in the grass. We've done a movie basket. We had movie passes in a popcorn bucket. We had all the kids draw pictures/ write about their movie recommendations and put them all in a binder with clear pages. Another year we took a group picture of the kids and had it put on a mug. It was her last year at that school and she loved it. If they don't drink coffee, then maybe a mouse pad would work. You could even have a calendar made on-line with pictures that the kids draw (scan them in). You could have the kids write about/draw what they think the teacher should do over the summer. You may get some great advise!

What age/grade are the kids? Does the teacher have some special interests/hobbies that the class knows about? For example - one of my daughters' 3rd grade teacher does a lot of social studies projects with the entire grade that involve maps - so we made a big map of California and had the kids list their favorite places in california and sign the map. The other daughter's teacher does a lot of writing and grammar work with the whole grade, so we made her card like a big thesaurus and (since it was a birthday card) each student came up with a creative adjective for a birthday greeting (e.g., "have a stupendous birthday")

My favorite thing about Mrs. __________'s class is__________.
I love Mrs. _______ because _______________________.

I just let the kids decorate it any way they like. some would write a note and others would draw pictures.