teacher gifts

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day…do you celebrate at your school? Even when I was teaching (I taught elementary aged kiddos in East Los Angeles for nearly 8 years prior to being a stay at home mommy) I thought it was odd that there was an appreciation day well before the end of school. Most parents liked to show their appreciation the last week of school. Oh well.

The school my kiddos attend is celebrating it this week. So I decided to whip up a cute little wall hanging for them using stuff I had on hand.

Cosmo Cricket goodies that I picked up at Green Tangerines before they closed. The Boyfriend line has some cute school-themed papers that I knew I’d put to good use.

I pulled out the ones that I was most interested in. Sorry about the blurry photo…not sure what I did there.

I pulled some chipboard out of my stash…first initial of the teachers’ last names. I spread some glue on the front of the chipboard letter, adhered the patterned paper, then used a craft knife to trim around the end. Finally I took an emery board and distressed the edges for fun.

Then I pulled it all together…adding a cute phrase with the letter stickers. When I was teaching one of my cutie students brought me a plaque that said “Home Sweet Classroom”. Her dad had carved it out and then she helped paint it and her mom sealed it. It held a prominent place in my classroom and is now packed away. I should pull it out and post it here so you can see how darn cute it was.

Originally I was going to get a little frame to distress for this 6x6 gift…but then I passed 6x6 canvas and I liked that idea better. So I ModPodged the paper to the canvas and painted the edges in a coordinating color. I figure they can hang it on the wall or prop it up on their desk.

The boys helped with little thank you cards that I attached to the top of the cellophane bag.

They are all slightly different. I love how they turned out!

Want some other ideas? Here are some links I found while looking for inspiration. Any of them would be super cute and easy…

Wooden Monograms

Crayon Jars (I’ve done this before and filled it with jelly beans and a gift card)

Note Card Sets (from Valentine’s day this year)

Soup in a Jar (a Christmas idea)

Note Pads (pricier, but just a click away….I did these one year in a time crunch)

Colored Pencil Monograms (this has been in my idea file for a while…some day I’ll do it!)

Pencil Sharpeners (just found this a few weeks ago…so cute!)

Fun website with tutorials…givers log (you will not be disappointed in this site, I promise!)

 

So…what did you do for your teachers this year? Quite honestly, as a teacher I can say that the things that have meant the most to me over the years cost the least.

…Hand written, thoughtful thank you notes

…Drawings from my students…my favorite have been portraits of me…so fun to see how they see me. :)

…An invitation to lunch in their home, or an offer to bring me lunch at school. A home made meal during the school day was awesome!

 

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!

Kristen