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It’s hard to believe, but my oldest will be done with preschool in only 3 weeks. I really appreciate all the hard work that his teachers have done throughout the year, so I would like to give them each a small thank you gift. The problem is, he has teacher(s), as in 3 of them, so I have to be pretty creative in order to save my budget.
A year ago for Christmas, I purchased a really cute Christmas mug and made up a hot chocolate gift pack, complete with a homemade bag for the marshmallows. I thought it was really cute…but when I made a joke about having lots of mugs, one of the other moms made a comment that when she was a teacher she had MANY mugs. So, my goal is to not only give a frugal gift…but one that does not create (too) much clutter for the teacher.
The best idea would be a gift card, since it doesn’t create any clutter, but it’s hard to save any money on gift cards and they’re not very personal. I’ve done some research to try to find a better gift, and here are some of the results:
- “Thanks for Helping Me Grow” potted plant – I thought this was a great idea, and if you could find an inexpensive outdoor plant for a deck or porch, it would be even better.
- Homemade Card with a sincere letter of thanks for all they’ve done for your child
- Bake cookies – but you might want to make sure your teacher is not on a diet or diabetic first
- Homemade laminated bookmark – it would be really cute to add a picture of your child and a note that they’ve written to their teacher.
- Teacher Survival Kit
- Create homemade note cards and envelopes for the teachers to use when they send notes
- Stock up on school supplies throughout the year when you find great sales and give a school supply kit to the teacher for the classroom
- Purchase your child’s favorite book and donate it to the teacher’s classroom library (or the school library in the teacher’s name) if they don’t already have the book
- Have all/some of the parents from the class pool together to purchase a gift card for something practical like a nearby restaurant, an office supply store, or a book store.
The Verdict – I think I’m going to create a homemade laminated bookmark with a photo of my son and also create a card where I can write a personalized note of thanks and how much I appreciate all they’ve done over the past year. I will probably have my son draw some pictures of his “famous robots” (he’s obsessed) for the teachers too. Here’s what I ultimately ended up giving his teachers.
What about you? Do you have any great ideas for teacher’s gifts? Do you even give your child’s teacher a gift? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
These are great ideas! One year I collected pages for a scrap book for the teacher -the kids wrote a favorite memory of their kindergarten year, drew a picture and included their own photo on the page. All I had to do was add finishing touches (not too many) and put them in an album. It was a BIG hit with the teacher and the kids!
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Thanks for the great ideas! I need to tackle this shortly too.
~Liz
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Kelly – I remember those…great idea!
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All of these are great ideas. I really like the “Thanks for helping me grow” plant!
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I am loving the teacher survival kit!
Cuteness!
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