Teacher Gifts

In spite of the fact that this topic will be boring to approximately 98% of you, I'm going to write about it anyway because, well, it's my blog and I get to write what I want. :) But also because we have years of teacher gifts ahead of us and I'd like a bunch of ideas in one place to refer back to.

Four years ago, when Lauren was in her first preschool class and I was still a relatively new mom, I totally forgot about the whole teacher gift thing. The last day of school before winter vacation rolled around and all the other moms showed up with cute Christmas gifts for the teacher. I quickly ran home, grabbed a See's candy gift certificate that someone else had given us (but thankfully didn't write our names on) and brought it back for the teacher. True story. Since then, I have gotten much better at remembering and creating teacher gifts, whether it's for Christmas, Teacher Appreciation Week (which is apparently a very real thing that happens every May), or the end of the school year.

One of the first gifts I made was inspired when I discovered these travel mugs from Starbucks. You can create your own insert for the mug, and since I like using Photoshop, I could make personalized mugs for each teacher using a class photo. (Apparently I never took a picture of the actual mugs, but here's what some of the inserts looked like...)

Adding a Starbucks giftcard to the personalized travel mugs made for a fun gift. (And as a bonus for the grandmas, here's a picture of cutie 3-year-old Lauren bringing her gifts for her teachers on the last day of school in June 2009.)

We continued the drink theme with giftcards to Jamba Juice--simple but always appreciated. And we made them extra fun by wrapping the cards up in cups and adding "berry" cute tags. :)

Another favorite gift to give is a potted plant, especially when accompanied by a pretty pot. I love to add a little personalized tag to these, too. For Lauren's teachers, they generally say, "Thank you for helping Lauren bloom!" while Jon's say, "Thanks for helping Jonathan grow!"

One of my favorite gifts ever was the one we created for Lauren's beloved kindergarten teacher at the end of last year. We made a "teacher kit" using a divided plastic box from Michael's. We decorated the top with her teacher's name using scrapbook supplies. On the inside, we put a picture of Lauren and her teacher along with a special drawing and note from Lauren. Then we included all kinds of clips, pins, stamps, magnets, pens, and other color-coordinated teacher necessities. I think it was more fun to make than to give!

And one more gift to share: although we haven't actually made these yet, I found the idea online and thought it would be so cute. Lauren's first grade teachers and Jon's preschool teachers will all be getting gifts from Bath and Body Works, put together in a cute little package something like this:

How cute is that?! :) Well, if you have any teacher gifts to give this year, I hope this has inspired you. I know looking back through our photos to find these pictures certainly inspired me and reminded me of some great memories. And that's why I love my blog. :)