Christmas Gift for Our Daughters Teacher

We make gingerbread ornaments. The kids love helping make the cookie dough and then once cooled decorating with colored royal icing. Remember to make a hole for the ribbon to go through before cooking the cookies.

Around this time of year they have pre-made gift sets of popcorn/candy for a movie gift that I think is perfect for a teacher. Last year I got some plastic popcorn containers from the $1 section at Target, bought movie theater sized boxes of candy, some popcorn and a Blockbuster gift card and put them all together inside the popcorn container, wrapped them up with some clear celophane and tied them with ribbon. This way the teacher can have their own little movie night at home with their significant other or family. I like this gift because it isn't something the teacher has to use for the class and is not even related to school like a lot of the teacher gifts seem to be.

Gift cards to Target, Walmart etc are great since many teachers have to buy some of their own supplies. If you want something a little more just for the teacher, a gift certificate for a pedicure/manicure or a gift card to Starbucks or a restaurant. Another thought would be movie tickets. Teachers don't make near enough money for what they do so they sometimes bypass the "luxuries" of life - i.e. the pedicure or going to the movies.

Hope this helps.

L.

Knick knacks are cute, but man do they pile up. As an ex-teacher, I had difficulty parting with these sweet items that kiddos had given me, but you have to declutter at some point. NO knick knacks!!!

Actually, something I enjoyed was a Christmas ornament where the child wrote their name on the back. I still put these on my tree and really enjoy remembering the kid or the class, etc.

Giftcards are great, but mine would pile up....I never had time to go out and I'm not much of a shopper. One that could be used for supplies for the classroom would have been great.

So much of my own $ would go into my classroom that the #1 appreciated gift was money. I know a lot of people don't like to give $ because you don't know where it goes, but teachers really do spend so much of their own $ on the classroom that this was always an appreciated gift by me!!! I made ornaments with the kids for them to give their parents that was a wreath with the student's picture in the middle....just buying these supplies/developing these pictures for my 90 students was a big expense, but I loved the idea of them hanging it up every year and thinking about the year they got to share with me. Ahhh, I hope some of my kiddos still have them. (I've been out of teaching since 2005.) :-)

Good luck, anything is appreciated and sweet!

gift cards are great, gift certificates for restaurants, stores like best buy or amazon..
spending is up to you, if you don't have a lot, don't feel obligated to give alot.
a $10-20 gift card is great
if you have money to give, a $50 gift certificate for a nice restaurant would be much appreciated.

I like to give my kids' teachers a class sponsorship of an animal at the ABQ BioPark (Aquarium, Zoo, or Botanic Garden). For just $25, they put together a packet with an information sheet on the sponsored animal, a certificate of the sponsorship, and the teacher's name (Mrs. B's 1st Graders)goes up on a sign at the Zoo or Aquarium or Botanic garden. For fun, you can add a book on the animal as a gift to the class. I like the educational value of the gift, and also that the whole class can enjoy it while honoring the teacher. The website is www.bioparksociety.org/support.

Last year for our daughter's K teachers, we made a simple photo book with a photo of each child in the class. There was also a "collage" 5x7 print of some of the goofier photos. The free software Picasa created the collage automatically then we just took it to walgreens and printed it out. We also got them each a $10 plant for their yard.

Here's a link from the Great Schools website that talks about what gifts teachers say they've appreciated and kept for a long time.
http://click.email.greatschools.net/?qs=e14576954cd499e27...

I usually give gift cards to restaurants. I like the ones that have multiple restaurants that they can choose from. If I know they have kids, sometimes I get movie gift cards they can use on break with the family or movie rental gift cards. How much ? Well, I like to spend enough so that it covers a nice dinner or movies for 4 people. My kids have one teacher with lots of pets, so she always welcomes a gift card to the pet store.

Last year I made cookies and put them in a cute jar with a mathching jar of cocoa. The teachers loved it and it was pretty in expensive. I let my daughter help me with the cookies. I plan on doing teh same thing agian this year.

This year I am letting my son pick out a plant. I will get a pretty pot and have my son decorate the pot and put the date on it for her. She can keep it in class or take it home.

Last year we got hios teacher a gift card but I think the plant idea is a little more personal!

We just gave our son's teacher a gift for the holiday season (her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas) We made a donation in her name to an organization that provides clean water to individuals in Africa, as they only have access to dirty, tainted water. This organization puts the money together to provide villages with wells, so that the people have access to clean, running water. Just $20 can provide water to one person for 20 years!

To find out more information you can visit www.water4christmas.com

I know from teaching that many times you get gifts that you do not need. This gift will continue giving for many years to come! Make an ornament with the name of the organization or simply have your daughter make a card telling the teacher how much you donated and a link to the website so she can learn more about the organization.

There are MANY local charities that you can donate to as well, we just chose this one. You may want to pick your own. When my son's teacher thanked us she commented that the gift was "perfect" and much appreciated!

My son has three teachers at his pre-school... one lead teacher and two assistants. I am giving the lead teacher cash ($100) because I think she is fantastic. I know one of the assistants likes Mac makeup so I am getting her one of their Christmas gift sets and the other assistant is pretty new so I don't know much about her. I will probably give her a $25 gift card to Target or something.

I have my daughter make bracelets, buy a gift card to target or one of the many places teachers go to since they buy so much with their own money. I also make up a beauty packages of marykay products. I know several teachers get SO much bakegoods I dont send them any. At my daughters school they have the teacher wish tree which helps a ton because the teachers put excatly what they want. Maybe ask if your school has one or could start it.

I don't have a lot of money to spend, but I usually give a $10 gift card to Michael's or Target or Wal-Mart or JoAnn's so the teacher can use it towards supplies. It's not a lot but if several parents gave the same then it would all add up. Here we just got a huge budget cut and the supplies that were purchased by the school will now need to be purchased by either the teacher or the students' parents.

I think they get a lot of candy and goodies, and even though those are yummy, if I were a teacher, as much as I'd like to eat them, I'd be worried about my waistline.

I'm sure whatever you come up with will be appreciated.

Bake. It's the easiest, cheapest and most appreciated gift there is. HOmemade cookies, fudge or other treats are the way to go. I package them up in decorative cellophane bags and keep them handy when I need a quick gift.

when my kids were little and we had to get the teacher a present I opted a few things--- the teachers my kids had told the kids a few times that she had to take mints to be able to continue to talk so I thought to myself she has to buy these mints so why not buy them for her.

Teachers do not need anymore knick knacks I am sure they have so many of them.

Remember this teacher probably uses her money for lots of classroom items maybe a gift certificate to a department store so she can buy the stuff easier or even you pay attention to things she might buy and buy it yourself.

I make little "Snowman Soup" gifts for the teachers... it has a mug, gourmet cocoa packet, marshmallows, candy cane, a MK hand cream, and a cute little poem. I also try to find out what they like and include a $10 gift card to Starbucks or Paradise Bakery in the "Snowman Soup" gift. I know that a lot of my friends who are teachers really love getting gift cards. They are easy to take home after the school Christmas party (or whatever the occasion) and easy to carry around. One of my friends last year got from a student a gift card for Starbucks and a gift card for Staples (she had been buying a lot of stuff for the classroom out of her own pocket)... I think all of the parents had pooled together for the Staples gift card though... 'cause it was a pretty good amount.