My goal in finding End-of-Year teacher gifts is to buy early and find something that is useful. I once asked Sam's former teacher about gifts and she said, "I have a a closet full of lotion and candles." I don't want to give gifts that will end up in a closet.
This is a big undertaking for me since I have so many teachers to buy for. I think I have about 30 teachers between both of my kids. I know, I know, I am over-doing it but I feel that if they take part in my kids' education, I can give them a little something to say thanks.
For the kids in their classes, I found this little tag on a
blog. I didn't have a big enough circle punch so I just left it as it was and glued it to the bubbles.
Here's the entirety of my preparation...
When shopping for gifts, when I find something that would be fun and useful, I buy as many as are available. I saw these cute little swimsuit bags at Ross for $2.99 and they are so cute!
For the beach bums, these are beach mats that were on clearance for $1.99 at Ross. Have I mentioned that I love Ross?
For the main teachers for both Sam & Abby, I found these cute canvas picnic basket at Big Lots for $8.00. It's a bit higher than I normally go but they were so cute. I just added a bow and a tag.
Inevitably, there will someone who needs a "thank you" and we handed these out to the janitors. All the cafeteria staff were gone on the last day of school so we didn't get to give them anything. These are yummy treats from Big Lots for $2.00.
The majority of the teachers & support staff are women but there are about 5 men to buy for and sometimes that gets a bit tricky. I did find 2 of the clear cups w/straws and below are water bottles and I used my Silhouette machine and cut their names out of vinyl. I also did the little frame thing and that was a challenge to put on so I think next time I'll stick with just the letters.
I found some additional "girly" cups in a pack of 3 for $9.99 at Ross (sigh!) and had a few of those to hand out as well. They are next to the water bottle. I cut the tag with my awesome machine. Seriously, how can one live without the Silhouette?!
The biggest number of gifts were these cute designer cutting boards. I just loved them! There were 2 different shapes...a rectangle and a circle and with different patterns. They were $3.99 at Marshall's and I ended up going to a couple stores to get enough. I added a ribbon with a cute tag that I cut with my Silhouette that said: "You are a "cut" above the rest!" Super cute and useful!
It took a wheeled cart to get all the stuff into the school and I pretty much let the staff choose which gift they wanted. It was a fun way to end the year. My kids have the best schools and the best teachers and these are just a small token of our appreciation for all they do.
As it turns out, I already found a gift that I will be giving to the teachers for next year.
Planning ahead!
