Holiday Favors & Teacher Appreciation

one of my clients does this for her teachers. She buys $1 scratch off lottery tickets for each of them. It might be fun for a month that you don't have any cute ideas.

I agree with the first poster. Wanted to add that our school does a cool thing. We pool funds together for Christmas & end of school year gifts. Everyone gives $5 and the room moms pick out something really cool, that way they don't get a ton of little things but rather something they really want. One year we got one of the young teachers a designer purse as she really, really wanted it but couldn't afford it on her pay as a Catholic school teacher.

I know it's not what you asked for, but it really works nicely and parents are relieved not to have to buy ornaments or other trinkets for the teacher. The school caught on and asked us to please donate to the school's holiday bonus fund in lieu of the gifts, of course we do both because the teachers rock but it's nice to know they actually get a bonus and a nice gift from the class.

If you still want ideas for crafts this blog: http://thelongthread.com/ is loaded with great ideas.

Have fun.
D.

If you're going to do $1 crafty cutesy things...you may wish to, instead, do a hand-written personalized note thanking the teachers for what they do. Trust me, knowing how a teacher has positively influenced your child, helped them through a rough situation, put a smile on a child's face, or just touched them in a special way is WAY more valuable than any other gift you could give a teacher. So many teachers retain letters and notes like this in a file and pull them out and read them often.

As a teacher, I can tell you I would love things like magnets (Oriental trading has so many holiday craft ones for cheap), bookmarks, use crystal light containers to decorate for pencil holders for our desks, paper weights, decorated boxes to store things like stickers or paper clips in.... Those are all fun practical ideas for teachers, as least stuff teachers in my building like

Along with the first poster, a written note is much appreciated by teachers. One year my kids made a book mark for their teacher (same class) and we got it laminated, then put a string laced with some beads from the top. One d drew a picture of a dog, the other wrote the words and my son put little math problems. On the other side of it, we put a picture we had from earlier in the year of the teacher and the kids.