Any Ideas for Teacher Presents?

M.,

I'm getting my daughter's kindergarten teacher a $50 Visa gift card. I look at it that she takes care of one of my most prized possessions and I want to give her something nice.

We are not getting the art/PE/librarian, etc. anything. I honestly don't think they would make it to their respective teachers as it's too much for my daughter to keep up with.

I've also heard of people getting gift baskets from Bath & Body Works, spa gift cards, etc.

Good luck!
T.

I am a preschool teacher and my favorite gifts are gift cards to local coffee shop or bookstore. I can choose to buy books for my classroom and/or myself. I know the expenses add up when you have multiple teachers, music, spanish, etc. I spent $10 on my sons music and spanish teacher and several parents went in together giving $5 each to contribute to a gift card to the main teacher.

Hi M.,

I always type out a question form for each of my kids teachers and have them fill it out and return it to me. I ask questions like:
Do you like to receive seasonal gifts for your home or class room? Do you like to rent movies? What is your favorite bath and body scent? What is your favorite kind of flowers? What is your favorite places to shop/eat? Do you like candles/what scents? Favorite snack and drink? What gift cards do you enjoy recieving? ECT. We also let them know that we pray for them and our child every morning while on our way to school and ask if they have any specific prayer needs.
As for music, we give gift of flowers at their music programs.
P.E. we have not done.
Principal and office: End of year gifts. I did small bags of yummy smelling body wash (2.50 at Big Lots) and wrote a letter thanking them for all of their patience and hard work.
We just do what we can at the time. If you feel like you should get these other educators and helpers something, a baked container of goodies is always nice.

Merry Christmas
W.

I think gift cards are a great idea and always appreciated. For my daughter's pre-k teachers, I bought canvas bags and monogrammed them myself. Michael's has a $1 bin - from there, I got them a candle, notecards, bath stuff. I also put in some socks, and ornament, and will bake cookies for them. I bought holiday themed take-out boxes that I will put the cookies in. I figure these bags of things cost about $15, but she only has 2 teachers.

This year for my daughter's pre-k teachers, I put together a rubbermaid container with attached lid filled with things for the class. I put a little kit for 30 kids to make "puppets", hand sanitzer, crayons, paper towels, wipe-off markers, stickers and things like that. The teachers wrote a note asking for things for the classroom instead of gifts for themselves. I think that was a wonderful idea! That way the items will be sure to get used and the teachers won't have to spend their own money buying supplies! :)

First couple of years I did but now I do nothing. To much junk for them and I just think if every child from every class did it I would be tossing thing. Once I got a cute little school book holder from Hobby Lobby and it had a pencil holder. Had a apple theme with a bite out of it. But not now my kiddo is 10. G. W

I always do gifts for teachers and faculty. They are so unappreciated and work so hard for our kids.

I usually do $10 giftcards to someplace for my kid's main teacher and then I make homemade goodies for faculty. Librarian, PE, Music, secretary, etc. It doesnt take me much more time to make brownies, breads or cookies for everyone than it does for one. And not many people think about them, so they love it!

My children (2 - 17) and I make cookies for their teachers - every teacher gets a tin of cookies, and it costs me about $2.00 per teacher including the tin.

S.

I like to give gift cards and the one I have found that works best is a Visa gift card. This gives them the option to use it anywhere they like. you can usually get them at your bank.

I have a 7th grader. I usually give out $10 Starbucks cards, or Cinemark gift cards. This year, I found some neat foil wrapped Santa's at Godiva for $6.50 and I am sending those to all of the 10 teachers. For her 2 favorite teachers, I am adding a Starbucks $10 in their little bag.

Not everybody likes Starbucks, I don't drink coffee myself so the other alternatives can be book stores, movies, etc. I spend $10-$20 depending on the teacher.

Susan

For my 2nd grade son's main teacher, I got her a gift card. In fact, the class is doing a gift card tree for her.

For the rest of the teachers (music, PE, Art, etc), we baked mini chocolate chip bundt cakes and wrapped them in cling wrap and put clear celophane over them. We then tied them with a ribbon. My son then signed Christmas cards (I had purchased these on sale) and put the cards and cakes together.

The biggest expense was the mini bundt cake pans. However, I figured this was an investment, and we could do it again and again. Since I have two kiddos, we'll be able to use these again and again.

What about Poinsettias or another seasonal flower like Amaryllis bulbs? They are non-denominational, so you don't have to stress about whether the teacher is also Christian, they aren't going to mess up anyone's diet plans, and you can find a really nice looking plant for much less than you'd spend on another quality presents. My sister found some nice 6 inch Poinsettias in red foil at Lowes for $1.99 a piece. Not too bad, especially once you get something for all of the "other" teachers, aides, etc.

As a retired First Grade teacher, a few thoughts on gifts, jewlery,if the teacher is seen wearing same, a nice candle, if you choose scented, cinnamon or vanilla might be best because of allergies, I have allergies and preferred not to receive perfumes, scented soaps etc. because I was unable to use most of them. A great gift for this time of the year is a nice basket or tub of fresh homemade goodies, or purchased crackers, snack foods, etc. always enjoyed and with teaching never enough time to make much of our own. Perhaps coasters, or place mats, or a nice throw to cuddle up with while grading the numerous papers. If your teacher enjoys crafts, needle point, scrap booking, or such, perhaps an inexpensive kit of this type. Three of the most treasured gifts I received during my twenty years as a First Grade Teacher was a beautiful store purchased crocheted vest, a nice throw for my sofa and a beautiful picture frame (I placed a picture of my two children in it), I still use them all and enjoy them imensely. Depending on your price range perhaps a gift certificate to a local restaurant, movie tickets, etc.. Perhaps a nice Christmas ornament with your child's name and year engraved on it, I still use the ornaments that my children's teachers gave them. Perhaps a nice potted plant or Christmas bouquet or wreath. So much of the time many of the items received were actually dust collectors. But all gifts were appreciated by me and I always loved the thoughts and appreciation that went with each one I received over the years. Hopefully this will give you some choices, and be of some help from a teacher who received many different gifts over the years. Your choice on giving to P.E. Art etc.nice to remember them too, they often get forgotten since they aren't the home room teacher. God Bless all and Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Hey there--
As a former teacher, I would recommend giving gift cards. If you know a favorite restaurant or store that is great. I always enjoyed either Starbucks or Target ones. You can only get so many coffee mugs, boxes of chocolate, etc. That is why the GC is great!! And, it really doesn't have to be for that much...to me, $5 to starbucks was a real treat!
It is also nice to do a little something for the art, pe, music teachers. They are often overlooked, but are a part of your child's education too.
Looking back, those personal, hand-written notes were always to appreciated too. It is just nice to be remembered at this time of year.
Good luck!!

I'm a teacher and gift cards are always appreciated for coffee or food. I love to get treats too, but where I teach, it isn't safe to accept homemade gifts. I ususally don't get many gifts (very poor kiddos), but many of them will write a little card or make me something.
My only suggestion, is to NOT get "teachery" stuff (like ABC's and 123's and "Worlds Best Teacher", etc!).

M.,
My son is in First grade also. Our room mom sent home a paper at the first of the year with things that his Teacher liked. We are doing a Starbucks gift card in a mug. I make fudge to give to the p.e., art and other teachers.
L.

I found a great teacher poem on the internet and printed it out. I'm putting it in a nice frame for my daughter's pre k teacher. It's his very first year teaching. My daughter also picked out a Spurs coffee mug we will fill with candy.

For my other daughter's first grade teacher, I am doing a class gift and it will be a gift card along with the same framed teacher poem.

I love the idea of the gift card tree. I'm going to use that next year.

I'm doing combinations of things ....ornaments, pretty packaged flavored pecans (homemade).

My daughter is in first grade and my sister-in-law is a teacher in Klein. So with advice from my sil--we buy gift cards. This year we got her main teacher a GC from Chilis and all the supporting teachers (pe, music, etc) we did $5.00 GCs to Starbucks. I picked Starbucks, for several reasons, they are everywhere, and they have more than just coffee, since I'm not a coffee drinker, I was very surprised to find out they had bakery items, salads and sandwiches.
Good luck!

What about a "cofee and cream" gift set. Purchase a cute Christmas mug at a dollar store, add tissue paper, a good hand cream, candy cane and some yummy coffee.

I went to SAM MOON off of 45 going towards the Woodlands and found the preetiest bracelts for only $5.00. They have a HUGE assortment of jewlery. They even had adorable christmas braclets if you want to keep with the season but if not they had MANY others. Its well worth the drive out there if you dont live close. I was able to buy for all my neices, mom, and teachers!