Teacher Gift Ideas

My kids got their teachers cups that they hand painted cute sayings on them. Then, they put candy in one and transferable plant in the other.

One year we painted small flower pots. Put some dirt in a bag, a pack of seeds of Forget-me-nots, and a card that said Forget Me Not. Kinda cute I thought!

I found a bunch of teacher quotes online & am actually right now printing them out for my son's teacher. I'm going to cut them out & fold them in half to put into a pretty jar so she can count down the year (we have 181 days at school, I printed 181 quotes).
HTH
Dollar stores are a goldmine too-I bought a huge Christmas stocking & filled it with thank you cards, a nice pen (office supply store for that one), a tall coffee mug & some post-it notes. I got the ideas from my mom, who's a teacher. They don't want trinkets, they want something useful-notecards, stationary, pens, that sort of thing.

i side with the plants/flowers idea too. one cute thing i did once was bought small herbs for a home herb garden. i got rosemary, thyme, etc. herbs can run a few dollars a plant, so a few may add up to $20, and a single thyme plant may be closer to $5. a great thing to write on the card is something to the effect of "thank you for helping my child "grow" this year. i appreciate all of your "thyme."

teachers love creativity, but most of all thoughtfulness.

your child can even decorate the pot the herbs can be grown in. even easier than that, your children can decorate a small brown bag (all sides) and then you place the plant inside the bag, roll down the top and tie a bow around it so the top of the herb plant or flowers comes out of the top.

Hello,
My mom always has cool ideas. And one that was always really popular was to put a couple movies in a basket & garnish it with microwave popcorn, candy & soda pop. It's like a night out in a basket. You can add anything else that you think would go good in there as well. Well good luck.
Val

I am a substitute teacher and so I see alot of different teachers desks, the little things are what make a difference durring the day... I find myself reaching for

Lotion- the comercial grade soap tends to dry out the skin.
Hand Sanitizer-
Tissues
Post it Notes
travel size Advil/tylenol/aleve that they can refill
Gum

You could easily make little baskets with any or all of these items....as their little care package :D Hope this helps.

T. Joe

Hi J.
I have a GREAT idea! I work with a local Colorado company that makes ALL NATURAL bath products. We have a GREAT natural germ spray that smells amazing. We call it Germ Buster, and it's an all natural room and surface spray. You just spray it on a surface and let it dry. You can use it for desks, door knobs, key boards, cell phones, etc. Pretty much anywhere you would use Lysol and Febreeze. I cannot tell you how many teachers who have thanked us for having made such a safe great smelling product. It comes in an 8oz. spray bottle for $12.99.
We also have a fun project she could use in the class room for her kids. It's a 4lb bucket of Rainbow Soap Spaghetti. Are you curious? Ok it's all of our natural bar soap scraps of different colors run through a grinder. The end result is soap that looks like colorful spaghetti. It's a great kids craft, all they do is get their hands a little wet and they can mold it and make shapes just like playdough. It comes with a cute cookie cutter and is enough for about 25-30 kids. Then when they are done it can be taken home and used as a fun soap or wrapped in a cute celophane bag for a gift. One 4lb bucket is $19.99.
I just thought these would be cute ideas for you that are a safe and all natural alternative to other products. It's also supporting a local company.

You can check out our website at www.bubblegoddessbathco.com just note that it is under construction so not all items are shown. The germ buster is not up there but the Rainbow Soap Spaghetti is under "Baby".
We have a boutique in Inverness Business Park near Park Meadows mall. It's very conveniently located and I would LOVE to show you around and give you a tour of where everything is made and you can take home your teacher gifts that day.
Let me know what you think, I would be happy to meet you there when it's convenient for you!

Hope I helped!

T. B.
Team Leader
Bubble Goddess Bath Company
"Natural Bath Products For Your Inner Goddess"
###-###-####
____@____.com

personally, i like going to the dollar store and choosing one of the ornaments for teachers. Don't worry about cost.

I am a teacher.
J., the most precious gifts I've ever received are the things that my students made with their own hands. I keep some things that are about 10 years old, thinking of my dear students who really took time and cared about me much enough to make it from their heart.
being mom, I taught my children to care also, and my daughter used to make little (tiny) crocodiles from beads, as gifts to her teachers: different colors.
Your little girls cannot make much yet, but two of them can draw, and maybe write a line under your guidance.
Also, if you help them to make some applications with colored paper, it'd be wonderful gift! You may wish to add one little something also, but this is my suggestion to you.
Cheap moneywise, but priceless soulwise!

J.,

I am a teacher and thought I would tell you about my top 3 gifts ever received.

1. an assortment of handmade thank you cards ready for me to just write a message in

2. a picture of an individual child on a hanging ornament

3. plants and flowers I can plant in my yard - my yard is an assortment of plants and flowers I have received from kids over the years

J., There is a website called familyfun.com that has a lot of craft ideas as well as other ideas. I saw on there about a teacher appreciaion day gift. It was sachet bags made out of scrap pieces of material. They were glued together with fabric glue and then three or four of them were tied together with ribbon. Very cute idea and inexpensive to make. I was going to make them for My son's teacher, but time got away from me somehow. Hope that helps.

As a teacher I know I spend lots of my own money on books. A gift card to a book store, even for a small amount like $5, is always really appreciated!

A lot of times the Dollar Tree with have cute teacher coffee cups or other thing like that. You can get those and put some candy or teacher supplies inside them and tie a cute box and your set: ) Or you could write(or find online) a cute teacher poem on some sort of creative paper (construction paper for card type or small poster board or even decorated cardboard) then have your kids decorate around it you can all sign and date it they love and keep it always :)
S.

Every year I give each of my kids' teachers a photo mug. You know the kind you can order at all the photo stores and on-line. I use a digital class picture and add some words. It's simple and cheap.

As a teacher, I can tell you that coffee mugs and candles are extremely overrated! I know gift cards seem impersonal, but if you get together with several other parents and get a decent amount on a gift card, they really are appreciated! You can always include a nice personal note from you and the kids.
Good luck!

I use cuttings from my plants at home and have the kids paint a cermaic pot to send it in. Spider plants root quick and they are the gift that keeps on giving...

I found a frame/ art / type shop. Found stained glass dragon flies,hummingbirds or hearts and all sorts of designs...Wanted to do them all myself, but had no time...they were $8-$18. It was cheaper to buy them outright. The teachers love them

This year we did some simple cookie jar mixes, that my kids put together themselves. You've probably seen them, we just got a good recipe off the internet that had several different ingredients so that it looked pretty cool in the jar. Get some cute fabric and decorate the lid, tie with some ribbon and attach the recipe, be sure to include the other ingredients they will need to add to the dry mixture such as eggs, butter, etc. My kids had a blast making them, and who doesn't love cookies, especially if you have to just take a few minutes to make them!!! I usually give our teachers a sizable gift card for Christmas, but I like to have the kids give them something they make for the end of the year.

I did for my sons teachers:

I went to The Colorado Cupboard (www.thecoloradocupboard.com) I had some baskets made with: Colorado Cornbread, Colorado Gourmet Honey and two special Colorado Dip Mixes. They baskets looked really great.... And I figure that it's grilling time now and they can use these products great at the summer time. One basket only cost me about $ 16.00.

I also wanted to do something creative and not something borning like everybody else.

Hope this helps C.

I have four daughters, and for the past couple of years, we have given homemade burned CD's to the teachers. We ask their fave style of music, and make a CD from our collection. Then we stamp up some paper and put it in the CD case. You can also get labels from the store and run those through the printer.

Plants that can be planted in there yard. A framed picture of the class with all the students signing it. A summer fun basket with sun screen, beach towel, snacks, or something they enjoy. Maybe a sun tea jar with different teas to try. Put them inside and put a bow on it.
C. B

Hallmark and other gift/card shops carry a variety of charm bracelets, coffee mugs, magnets, ornaments, sun catchers and other pretty, inexpensive, teacher-specific gifts. Bouquets of flowers, some potted plants in a pretty planter, scented candles, hand lotions and sanitizers, journals and pens, picture frames, and food gifts are some of the things I really enjoy recieving as an infant/toddler teacher. Hope this helps!!

any assortment of candles and holders - lots would fit your price ranges; box of art supplies for their classes; seeds for planting or plants -- loved that suggestion from the other response.

Happy shopping!
M.

i wish i could remember exactly how we did this for a teacher once.. if i did it in a basket or how i packaged it up i can't remember.. but you take some apples and some hersheys hugs.. the saying is.. a teacher can't live on apples alone. she needs hugs too! and then you can just add your own thank you's and it is simple but kinda cute.

I'm a teacher. In this situation it REALLY is the thought that counts. You and/or your children should make a gift that comes from the heart. Write the teacher a note telling her how much you appreciate what she does for your children. Be specific. This is something a teacher will keep forever and refer to whenever she's down because of some of the unrewarding aspects of teaching. I had my son and his buddies paint terra cotta pots. I planted flowers in them and we gave them to his teachers. My friend had her son make homemade cards. A homemade meal is nice, too.