Looking for Unique Teacher Appreciation Ideas

As a teacher....a book, age appropriate, to share in the classroom w/ students is always appreciated. Books or a gift certificate to a book store (Half Price books is my favorite to receive.)

I like to get either a bucket of popcorn or small basket and put like a gift card for movies with chocolates chips and soda or water, etc.

Lunch is a given or breakfast! Food is always a plus...then how about planting a rose bush or something in their honor? Then you could give everyone some flower seeds or something saying remember today is the day that we said thank you with planting a XXX in the front of the school...a nursery may donate one. Thank you for stopping and smelling the roses with your dedication to our youth. Something like this. Maybe even a florist would donate or give a rose discount for each person to have a rose? Also giving to a charity is kind of cool in their honor...most are very aware of the economy and maybe a small gesture to homeless youth? I know you are working probably with little to no cash though. Maybe kids could write poems as a thank you for the teachers and volunteers and you could put them in a book, and you could present to each person attending. Good luck with whatever you do!!!

I own a party favor/gift company and we make beautiful candy bar bouquets. I have adorable teacher appreciation bouquets. I use a ceramic pencil holder in the shape of a pencil for the base and then create a bouquet with the candy bars! its origonal and cute. The bouquet is then wrapped in a clear cello bag and tied with curly ribbons and topped off with a custom tag from your child.

I have bouquets for birthdays in mugs and graduation as well. Check out my website. The bouquets start at $12.00. The pencil holder one will be 12.00.

My company also does printing- note cards, thank you notes, key chains, t-shirts... & more.

You could create a key chain for the teachers with THANK YOU and the school name and year...

Hope that gives you an idea or 2.
A. J
www.celebritypartyfavors.com

I have taught for 16 years and one of the best school-wide things we have had is a real lunch hour! Parents volunteered to watch the classes after lunch one day so that the teachers could go somewhere for a real lunch. To make it easy, we put all the kindergarten classes together for recess or a video with several parents to monitor.

Gift cards are always a good thing: Target, Jason's Deli, bookstores, etc.

Good luck!

We used to do a week long teacher appreciation at our school that had totally gotten out of hand. Over the past few years we have gotten input from teachers and the principal and really scaled back. Our principal did not want the massage stuff because she said that everyone just wanted to take a nap after that. Car washes are nice, but very labor intensive. They do love food. But it can all be too much, if you schedule something every day. You will overwhelm the teachers and your volunteers. What our teachers appreciate the most, is the opportunity for them to all have lunch together in a relaxed manner. We have volunteers to come and watch the classrooms for about two hours and have a lunch in the library for all of the teachers. This can be catered, if you have the funds or a pot luck donated by parents. The food is not as important as the relaxed time together. Many of the parents that watch the classes have brought stickers, paper, etc and had the kids make a card for their teacher during the luncheon. The other thing that the teachers have appreciated is when we get the kids involved. We send out a list encouraging the kids to do something nice for their teacher - write a poem, make a card, bring a flower, candy, fruit - anything simple that shows the kids care. For a couple of years we tried to have a different idea for each day - Monday bring a flower, Tuesday write a poem, etc. But this became overwhelming, because some of the kids and parents felt they had to do something every day. Now we just encourage the kids to do one or two things anytime during the week. We usually just do the luncheon one day and maybe make them a small goody bag with office supplies, candy, gum, lotion, etc, whatever people donated. We have also had a simple breakfast or brought in gourmet coffee one day.

a girl in our moms group at church started making these paper bag brag books and they are so neat! I'm not crafty at all and even I was impressed!
http://www.scrapbook-crazy.com/paper-bag-album-instructio...

As the wife of a teacher/now administrator, can I just say I have a ton of handmade "stuff" lying around (mugs, ornaments, christmas stockings) but he ALWAYS appreciates gift cards to go out to eat, or best buy, or just a really nice card/letter. (his love language is words) Be sure to think about the guys!!!!

Here are some cute gifts...

http://burbmom.net/teacher-gifts-asap/

The tea cup plant pots are really big and adorable in person. If you added a plant or made a "basket" of garden tools or tea-related items it would be super cute.

For anyone looking for unique teacher gifts... try to think of a very specific event and make a basket/bag for that event. For example: A "first morning to sleep in" bag, with a mug, coffee (sample size), muffin mix, a jazz CD, and some slipper socks; A "day at the pool" bag, with snacks, a sun visor, sun screen, and flip flops; A "traveling/vacation" bag, with cross-words, ear plugs, a travel mug, a change purse, and a fun book or CD. None of these bags has to be expensive - ROSS is a great place to find almost everything, and Half-Price-Books is awesome too.

If you are still looking for ideas, try www.uncommongoods.com - they have really interesting and fun gifts for teachers, including one of my favorite games: Table Topics.

And just FYI - I am a teacher, and I love my students, but there are only so many "teacher" gifts I can keep. After so many years of teaching, I would rather have a picture of the class, matted with their sweet messages than another "World's Best Teacher" paperweight. The practical and less space-consuming gifts are great.

Hope this helps!

Did you find a therapist? I have a couple contacts if you need them, just email me: ____@____.com.

I'm a teacher, and our parents sometimes provide luncheons and once re-vamped (cleaned, reorganized, and bought a few new things for) our staff room. Both were appreciated!

Some of the favorite ones I got as a teacher were gift cards to Starbucks or gift cards to restaurants.

If you would like the perfect gift that more than likely no one else will give I have the answer. Tastefully Simple offers gourmet foods that are simple to make, requiring only ONE or TWO ingredients to prepare. I have given gifts in a couple ways. A beer bread mix with a loaf pan, also I have done a basket with the Nana's Apple cake mix along with a jar of our scumptious Creamy Caramel Sauce (to drizzle over the apple cake). Teachers really appreciate the 'SIMPLE' part of serving something that is gourmet. There are too many ideas to mention here. You can check out my website at www.tastefullysimple.com/web/cbywater. And there is a discount if you tell me you read this on mamasource.
Best of luck finding your gifts.

Beauti Control will come and do not only the nstant manicure on the teachers hands with our wonderful instant manicure and hand cream but will do some relaxation with arm and hand massage and cooling eye pads etc. a mini spa for them. Let me know if you are interested.

P.

One of the things we are doing at my kiddos's school is making a memeory book. The kids are given a 81/2 by 11 paper to take home. They are to write, draw or do whatever tell that teacher what she means to the student or a favorite memory. We are collecting all papers and then binding them together and giving it to the teacher on one of the days of Teacher Appreciation week.

Hey J..
This may sound silly? I don't even know if it would work? But maybe you could have little index cards where students could write one or two sentences about a teacher, then all the cards could get a hold punched in the corner and be put together on a ring (like a keyring). Not all students would have to participate, only the ones who have something to say, like "Hey Mr. Smith I really enjoyed that science experiment about crystals!" or "Mrs. Jones, thank you for always smiling at me every day." or "Miss Taylor, I wish you were my teacher every year!" Kids wouldn't even have to sign their names. I think it would be really personal, and not expensive at all! Well, it's just a thought. Good luck and you sure are dedicated!

I happen to have the perfect gift for teachers! It is Scentsy Wickless Candles! Scentsy is the hottest new thing in candles! The Plug-Ins are great for classrooms & my kids teachers have looooved them! Even the male teachers love them! I have had lots of other teachers call & order one for their classrooms after smelling the one's that I gave as gifts to my kids teachers.

Scentsy Wickless Candles are flameless, wickless, smokeless & leadless so they are very safe to use in classrooms around children! Warmed safely by a low voltage light bulb instead of a flame, Scentsy's exclusive wax bar melts down to release its fantastic fragrance over and over again. It will outlast your most fragrant and expensive flamed candle. Since there is no flame, they pose no danger to children or property. Scentsy is stronger smelling, longer lasting & safer than traditional candles. Scentsy has over 80 scentsational scents available so there is something for everyone!

Gift wrapping is available & I always include a card telling the recipient that the un-used Scentsy Bar is exchangable for a different scents if they happen to recieve a scent that they do not care for.

I would love to help you in anyway I can! Please check out my website www.Got2HaveScents.com or give me a call anytime ###-###-#### if you have any questions.

You'd have to clear this with the principal, but what about parent volunteers taking over recess duty, bus duty, whatever other little duty teachers do? This would free teachers up for just a few minutes here or there, but I think every little minute would be appreciated!!

http://www.gourmetapples.com/ They do large quantity gifts...they usually have a lot of orders for teacher appreciation, so if you are interested, call ASAP.

As far as the massages are concerned try Carrollton Family Chriopractic (http://www.chiroforyou.com/), they sometimes donate their services. The massage therapist is Anibal Ramos.

Our school did a Cookie Walk for the holidays. Parents made cookies, and the staff and teachers went around with a platter and filled it up to take home. We had waaaaaay more than we needed, and ended up donating to a nursing home.

At my old school, we came up on the weekend and painted the Teacher's Lounge area. Hung a few pictures and 'prettied it up'.

Good luck!