Gifts for All Teachers?

Neither. I leave it up to the kids if they want to give a teacher a gift. Gift giving shouldn't be obligatory.

I only do gifts for the teachers in the valentine cards (lip balm). I have 4 kids at 3 schools and two have 4 teachers each (plus specials) one switches with one other teacher plus specials-and my youngest has parapros plus specials. I can honestly say I feel bad-but wonder how other parents do it.
I am going to pitch the idea of providing breakfast in the teachers lounge at tge pto meeting next week.
Because I volunteer often I can honestly say that more parent involvement would be much appreciated at many schools. The school begs for parent volunteers and very few ever show. :(

Hi. My kids are in 1st, 6th and 10th grades. My 1st grader only has one teacher and one helper, so that's easy enough. However, my daughters have multiple teachers at two different schools. I'm going to donate a basket of school supplies to their homeroom classes and cards for all the teachers, wishing them happy holidays and hope that the supplies will come in use during the new year.

As a side note: Teachers these days spend a lot of their own money for supplies and in middle school and high school, teachers aren't really considered for gifts. I think that's kind of sad, personally.

Mine are in grade school, after school, Sunday school and my youngest has special needs and I really want to be able to do something for the staff that works so hard to help him ... so Christmas can get a bit pricey.

I do want to give each of them a little something. I usually do gift cards to Barnes and Noble. I was thinking of gift cards to the movie theater this year to do something different, but I guess since we change teachers every year that wouldn't really matter :-)

I think even a $5 gift card lets a teacher know you appreciate them. I don't think this should in any way be a burden, but it is nice to let them know that you recognize all they do.

But I agree, just while they have the one teacher. Once they start changing classes I think we'll be done ... except for those aids who work with my youngest. They work hard, and I want them to know they are appreciated!

I have a middle schooler and a high schooler and we still give all their teachers a small gift. Usually some homemade toffee, a $5 gift card to Starbucks and a note/card from my kids. It's not much but since these teachers don't receive many gifts, they really appreciate it.

I work in a middle school.
The teachers still very much appreciate gifts :)

My oldest just started middle school and we allowed her to pick one teacher to gift. She didn't want to get her a gift card, so she made her own gift (a tumbler with pencils) and a nice note. Her PE teacher is also getting a gift since she's a friend of mine I have known longer than my husband...so that's a big out of obligation.

The two still in elementary are giving $10 gift cards to their teachers. One picked Starbucks and one picked Target.

I honestly can't afford to give all of them. I have in the past done bus drivers, the nurse, etc. It just really depends on the year and our finances.

Below is part of my response to a similar question yesterday. As an additional note, today in our teacher lounge we had breakfast pizzas that a family bought for our entire staff. This is the 2nd year they have done it. Very much appreciated by the entire staff.

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I'm a teacher and in our district, we cannot accept a gift valued over $25. We are public employees and big gifts could be seen as "bribes" I guess. And personally, I've always felt uncomfortable with any gift more than that.

You don't need to buy for all of the special area teachers (art, music, etc.). I'm a reading specialist and I rarely get gifts from kids. Doesn't bother me at all. What some families at our school do is bring in treats for the teachers' lounge that everyone can enjoy. We really appreciate something that isn't sweet. Breads, fruit, veggie trays, or meat and cheese trays. But if that is more than you can afford, no one will think any less of you.

My kids have always had a para or teacher's aide in the classroom. I've never given anything to them because they have usually been 1-1 staff for a specific student (not my child). The one year my daughter rode the bus, I didn't give the driver anything.

I'm planning to give each of my kids' teachers a $20-25 gift card to Barnes and Noble. And maybe a loaf of bread if I get it made. For gymnastics coaches we spent about $5 a piece on fun socks. (They both wear fun socks around the gym.) For Sunday School teachers we will probably give $5 gift cards to our local bakery and maybe an ornament.

I would limit the gift for the teacher to $20-25 at the most. If you do want to give to the teacher's aide, I would give half that amount. Personally a gift card for cosmetics would go unused by me. I don't wear much makeup and don't buy expensive makeup ever. I would stick to book stores, craft stores, teacher supply stores, coffee shops, Target, etc. Definitely don't give the teacher coffee mugs, apple decorations, etc. We get tons of it and mine usually ends up in the garage sale box.

Teachers never expect gifts from any of their students. The thought is nice, but I've never felt any less for a child who didn't bring me a gift or any more for a student who brought a huge gift.

We did something for each last year, but a little more for the ones that see her daily. I know the Specials teachers sometimes get missed. We also took time to write notes to each of them and thank them for their hard work. By HS, we let the kids figure out who got what, if at all. (I personally wanted to give a particular Calculus teacher a sack of coal...)

mine are in fifth grade. they have two main teachers, one latin teacher, and one gym teacher. i have gotten gifts for all of them. i thin i will continue getting teachers gifts for as long as i can afford it. i know a lot of parents stop giving gifts by 6th grade, which surprises me. middle school must be toughest to teach, with hormones and estrogen and what not.
if i can afford it, i usually get kindles or nooks (sale price). if i can't find them on a good sale, then gift cards to restaurants in the area.

I teach in a k-8 school and I know that teachers never expect gifts but it is always nice to feel appreciated for all the love, time, energy and money we put into our classes. The k-4th teachers literally have to make a few trips out to their cars on the day before Christmas to haul all their gifts, whereas the middle school teachers can fit all their gifts in one bag. Hmmmm? Less appreciated for teaching hormonal preteens? A nice handwritten card is plenty.

I stopped in middle school, when they were on teams of 5 or more teachers. If one of my kids really, really loved a teacher I'd help them provide a gift, and always did something for my oldest son's special-ed teachers. I usually still make homemade treat boxes for some folks on my list so normally, it was just including them in that recipient list and customizing something for them. One year, my son really clicked with his zombie-loving history teacher so we make her some zombie snowman cookies that were a big hit and gave those to her along with a gift card.

No, none at all. If I give away the money set aside for the kids Christmas it's not much of a Christmas at that point.

If your child wants to give this or that teacher a gift then let it be their choice. They can also do extra chores and stuff to earn money to pay for it.

We give the classroom teacher a gift in elementary school only. No gifts to middle school teachers, except maybe the choir teacher.

My oldest is in HS (11th grade) and we give all the teachers she likes, which is most of her teachers, a box of truffles. ($3.28 at Walmart). My 6th grader gives to all of her teachers since the teachers are all on a team and I wouldn't leave someone out. I bought 20 boxes this year. (Between, gym, art, music, library etc there are a lot of teachers to buy for.).

In elementary school I used to give the main teacher and bus drivers $25 cash and all other teachers candy.

Yep, by middle school this pretty much ends as a semi-obligatory "teacher gifts at the holidays and year end" thing. Talking to other MS parents, I think none of us does it any more except to give things to individual teachers who have had special relationships with our kids or gone the extra mile with them, etc.

I would ask your kids if they would like to make something fast but nice. Base any gifts on the people your MS child really deals with the most and/or the best. We will make candy (simple melt-and-mold candy, takes moments--no fillings, nothing fancy) and will give it to the three librarians at our MS because my kid is in the library every single day so they know her very well and are really nice to her. She wants to give her French teacher a card she found that is humorous in French and she might decide she wants to give candy to the orchestra teacher to whom she feels close. But the universal gifts-to-all-teachers thing is done by middle school.

I think MS teachers truly would value a handwritten note from a kid just saying what the student liked best and had fun doing in the first part of the year. That and not a gift would be fine.

In elementary we gave a small gift to the homeroom teacher but in our case she also was the math and language arts teacher, AND she was our kid's coach for an academic event, so we knew this teacher well. Didn't give gifts to all four of her ES teachers though at the end of the year we did make cards for them all.

If your kids take any music lessons outside school or other types of lessons or activities, consider remembering those teachers. We give Starbucks gift cards in some kind of fun packaging to both the violin and piano teachers because those are really direct, personal relationships (and we know they both love Starbucks). I sometimes do something small like a gift card or ballet store gift certificate for each of my daughter's ballet teachers, though that often happens just at the end of the teaching year and not at Christmas.

This has work for me for years...I send them Personalize Greeting Cards with brownies every year and the office staff too. They love it!! Let me know and I will give you the information.

We do a box of chocolates for all the teachers. That or we will buy them a mug and put a few chocolates in it with a gift card to Starbucks.

send in a big basket of homemade (well, could be store-bought too!) treats for the teachers' lounge and call it a day.
:) khairete
S.

Just the main teacher an only if we like her very much.
By middle school, most don't bother with teacher gifts anymore.