Inexpensive and Easy Teacher Appreciation Gifts

 

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. And even though SweetPea and Boogey are only in pre-school, I genuinely appreciate all of the love, guidance and education given to them by their many teachers. However, {MANY} is the optimal word here. There are so many folks who help care for my children throughout the day that it can make holidays and appreciation week a tough one to afford. Especially when I genuinely want to express our gratitude to each and every one of them.

So, this is one of those times that I try to subscribe to the notion that "it is the thought that counts" and "less is more". So while I can't spend a lot of money on gifts for the 10+ treachers, I try to make the gifts somewhat personal and always get the kids involved in pulling it all together. In the past I've made Hand Sanitizer Snowmen, "Fortunate" Cookie Packs, and 'Going Green' Gifts. They were all successful regardless of how much money we spent (or didn't spend for that matter).

This year, I added a few fun ideas to my Pinterest Board. But, in the end, decided to do my own simple little gift. I remembered that we had a TON of fun-colored chocolate Sixlets left over from SweetPea's ROCKSTAR Birthday party .

Leftover Sixlets

I figured they were probably starting to approach the end of their shelf life and that we would NEVER eat them all in the next few months, so why not try and use them somehow? So I bought some cute little bags at Michaels (using a 40% off coupon, of course!), had the kiddos help me fill them with some sixlets, tied them up with some ribbon from my 'stash' and attached a little tag that I designed in Powerpoint. For the tag, I tried to come up with a saying that played in to the round shape of the sixlets... "Thanks for helping me become so well-rounded". A little corny? Yes. Cute? Hope so! ;)

DIY Gift Tags

The girls wrote their names on the back of the tags so the teachers would remember who they were from. Although they are just a small token, I hope they get the message across.

Cheap and Easy Teacher Appreciation Gift 

I also brought in homemade cookies for the teachers' appreciation luncheon today. SweetPea voted for me to make THESE cake mix cookies which are always a BIG hit! YUM!

Do you have any inexpensive but crafty Teacher Appreciation Ideas?

Hand Sanitizer Snowman

Every year I am faced with the challenge of figuring out what to give my daughters' daycare teachers as a gift for the holidays. They've got several women who come in and out of their classrooms each day, plus the teachers for their extra tutorial sessions. Needless to say, it can really add up when you start buying gifts for everyone. While I want to show our gratitude for the care they give to our girls all year, I need to try and keep my costs to a minimum. Last year I did THIS and it was a big hit.

This year I decided to mimic an idea I had in my Pinterest files from last year. It was originally posted on Crafts and Crap and I thought it was so clever, cute and wonderfully cheap frugal! YAY!

It starts off with a bottle of hand sanitzer from the Dollar Tree. I forgot to take a picture of the 'before' but I simply peeled the back label off the bottle removing any lingering adhesive with some olive oil (I use this in place of goo gone). I left the front label (making it the back) on so the teachers would know what was in the bottle.

Next I gathered up my supplies... A large selection of ribbon, some self-stick buttons left over from my scrapbooking days and some foam stickers from the snowman craft kit I coincidentally bought last week at Michaels (using a 40% off coupon, of course!). We used the stickers from the project pack for the eyes, noses, and mouths of our snowmen.

Foam snowman project pack used for eyes, mouths and noses

Then I called in SweetPea and Boogey and let them "have at it"! They selected which ribbon they wanted to use for each teacher and I tied it on for them. They then added the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons themselves. Here they are all lined up ready to go...

Hand Sanitizer Snowmen

You can tell which ones were made by Boogey because she always puts her snowman noses straight up and down. LOL

Whose nose is whose? :)

Since the girls were very particular about which snowman was for which teacher, I added name tags on the back using my label maker.

Label Maker label identifies who it is for.

There is another label along the bottom that says who it is from. The girls did all the typing themselves (with some spelling help from mom). They love that label maker almost as much as I do!

One more pic...

Super Cute Hand Sanitizer Snowman

My only out-of-pocket cost was the $1 each for the bottle of sanitizer ($10 total for 10 teachers) since I had all of the other supplies already. Lovin' that!! And they are super cute and great for the classrooms!! And I love that my girls were able to decorate them themselves!!

What are your frugal teacher gift ideas???




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Teacher Appreciation Gifts

If you have kids, you probably know that this was Teacher Appreciation Week (and if you didn't know... then "FYI!" ;)

And, to be totally honest, I can't even remember what I've done for this in the past but I know I did something relatively small. With a 3-yr old and a 4-yr old in preschool, we have a lot of teachers to appreciate and I just can't afford to buy everyone gift cards to Starbucks or wherever. I mean, we're talking about 9 women that provide care throughout the day to my girls!

But we do really appreciate the love, care and guidance they give to SweetPea and Boogey so I wanted to do something. But I am so busy these days that I knew it would have to be quick and easy. And, of course, CHEAP FRUGAL! :)

As I was "surfing the net" (does anyone even say that anymore? Or am I aging myself??) on my lunch break yesterday I came across this idea from Itsy Bitsy Paper and decided it would fit the bill perfectly!

Image Courtesy of Itsy Bitsy Paper

I downloaded the FREE bag toppers found HERE, printed them off on regular printer paper, cut to size and then stapled onto a snack-size bag. The girls wrote their names on the tags for each teacher. Here is my version...

Teacher Appreciation Day "gifts" (Note: the big smudge at the bottom is hiding Boogey's name)

They don't look quite as good as the original, but, heck, these are preschool teachers... they aren't used to perfection! LOL


I only put 2 fortune cookies in each bag (and only 1 in some!) since we had to make so many and there were only 15 cookies in the box, but I think the message still gets across. The girls had fun helping me put them all together and writing their name on the tags. 

Boogey puts the cookies in bags

My only cost out-of-pocket was for the box of fortune cookies which was $2.39 - not too shabby, huh? However, next time, I'll make a point to hoard the fortune cookies from our Chinese Food take out orders!! :)

Quick and Easy Teacher Gifts

My girls go to daycare - all day - every day. Needless to say, their teachers are saints! So we always try to give a nice little token of appreciation at the holidays. But, there are a lot of them and we just can't afford to do anything "big" when you have to multiply it by 8. (can you beleive some websites suggest one week's tuition?? Um, yeah, I don't think so!!!). So I try to think of frugal ideas every year that are thoughtful but won't break the bank.

Last year, I used coupons to score big Glade candles for $1 a piece. They were a huge hit, but were still nice to my pocketbook. ;)

This year, I happened upon some great aluminum water bottles on clearance at Michaels and scooped up a whole bunch of them. At only $1.50 a piece (50% off from $3), I thought they were a good deal. And I especially like the fact that they are "green". 

Shortly after I found the water bottles, I happened across these re-usable bags at Kohls - in the clearance section. They were marked down from $1.99 to only 79 cents! I grabbed every one they had. I really like the fact that they have snaps to hold them together when not in use.

The girls helped decide which teacher got which color bottle and SweetPea wrote each teacher's name on a circle we punched out of card stock and then taped to the bottom of the bottle.

 





Then we tucked the water bottle into a bag. Easy-peasy! :) I might tie a piece of ribbon to the top of the water bottle, but otherwise, we won't be wrapping them. I think they look fine just the way they are. :)

A Rainbow of gifts!

Not bad for less than $2.50 a piece total. And I am really pleased that it is a 100% "GREEN" gift!


What are some of your thrifty teacher gift ideas?