88 replies to this topic

[crazymommy17801]

I stocked up on Longaberger jar candles in pumpkin spice and cinnamon clove for this reason and this reason only. I have over three cases of them coming. Teachers just love the candles.

[copados1993]

i have been a teacher for about 7 years. i have seen all of these gifts. yes teacher love the creativity, and appreciate everything. BUT what do they really use? well i love when the kids try to find out stuff about you, and go off of that. favorite food, color, place to eat, place to shop, ect. Also being a new mom, i have been reading some past copies of parents and parenting, they recommend spending $50 per teacher for kids in daycare, and $30 for a school teacher. Remember that these teachers give up so much to be a good teacher. I can personally say as a daycare teacher, that i spend about $50 to $100 a month on classroom items.

This just seems WAY to expensive for the average person to give. As much as I appreciate what my teacher does for my child, I just think that is way to much to spend. My mother is a preschool teacher for an expensive school in an expensive area, and even she does not get gifts in that price range. She has gotten wonderful things, but would never expect something to cost that.I know what my mother spends in her classroom out of pocket, but she doesn't expect the parents to make up the difference in her paycheck. Maybe that's just me though. I'd like to thik I could do something still very nice and tastefull for much less.

[JanaBanana]

I was thinking of sending my 4th grader and Kindergartner to school with a little questionare:giggle: like Favorite place to eat, favorite place to shop, favorite smell, color ect ect to get an idea and then maybe get them stuff from Bath and Body and a gift certificate to another place.

[threelittlecupcakes]

Gift cards are the way to go! They can use it for whatever they might need and don't have to worry about a place to display whatever "teacher" related item you bought them.

[elena_398]

Gift cards, School supplies, Bath and Body if woman teacher. Coffe mug w/ some flavored coffees

[berry]

We do a gift card from Starbucks at Thanksgiving.

[elena_398]

Coffee Mug w/ packets of tea and coffees. You can get the flavored packs very cheap and also the tea. Put it in a small basket w/ a GC. Very inexpensive and nice

[AMYpw]

Let me say to those teachers who are saying they love the less expensive gifts ...the ones that the kids have made themselves ... speaks volumes about yourself. Your the kind of teacher that makes us parents glad that your there. Your the type of teacher that when those kids get older they remember YOU not just for what you taught them but the love that came with the teaching. Thank you for caring about the kids. You are doing an amazing job!!!

[AMYpw]

Originally Posted by sarahjlowe
i have been a teacher for about 7 years. i have seen all of these gifts. yes teacher love the creativity, and appreciate everything. BUT what do they really use? well i love when the kids try to find out stuff about you, and go off of that. favorite food, color, place to eat, place to shop, ect. Also being a new mom, i have been reading some past copies of parents and parenting, they recommend spending $50 per teacher for kids in daycare, and $30 for a school teacher. Remember that these teachers give up so much to be a good teacher. I can personally say as a daycare teacher, that i spend about $50 to $100 a month on classroom items.

This just seems WAY to expensive for the average person to give. As much as I appreciate what my teacher does for my child, I just think that is way to much to spend. My mother is a preschool teacher for an expensive school in an expensive area, and even she does not get gifts in that price range. She has gotten wonderful things, but would never expect something to cost that.I know what my mother spends in her classroom out of pocket, but she doesn't expect the parents to make up the difference in her paycheck. Maybe that's just me though. I'd like to thik I could do something still very nice and tastefull for much less.

Just wanted to chime in with an agreement to this. The majority of teachers don't feel this way .... or at least I hope they don't. Thank God mine don't. My kids wouldn't have a christmas if I did this for my 3 girls teachers.
It's about the heart of giving not the money. *sigh*

[Boilerhoss]

This year I have planned to have my son help make each of his 6 teachers a Tie Blanket that has apples, buses, the alphabet on the material. My son is in special education program and has a lot of people helping him everyday. We just took him off the bus last week because he is the first one on in the morning and has to get up way to early. We gave the bus driver and the assisant a blanket last week and they loved them. These blankets are easy to make and dont cost to much either. They are very warm and cozy!! If you want to learn how to make them just pm me or email me and I will explain how to do it.

[turtle_elf]

At the beginning of the year, most teacher's send home a questionaire for you to fill out, so they can get to know your child. I also send one to the teacher, to get to know the teacher! This helps when you want to send something in for the teacher for a gift, it also helps to get to know him or her. I have never had a teacher not respond, and I got great feed back from them because they loved the idea! I have never gone wrong with doing this, and it helps soooo much when you want to give a nice gift that was thought out! That also gets rid of the problem of allergies, scents they don't like, etc. If the teachers like candies and cookies from scratch, I always include those with their gift! We have 5 children, and there have been some years that we didn't have much money left when it came to teacher's gifts. We still wanted to let them know we appreciated them, so we would do something fun up. I love working in hand made crafts, as well as doing things on the computer, such as graphics. One year we made up gift baskets (the baskets purchased at Dollar Tree, cute metal ones). Using some really nice graphics, I made some cute notecards on the computer for them to use (thank you, birthday, and multi-purpose) and a couple of bookmarkers and lamenated them. Then I printed up some things to do notes and shopping lists. I tied each bundle with cute ribbons for the ladies, and with twine for the guys. Ran some colored paper through a shredder and crinkled it up, put it in the bottom of the baskets and arranged the little bundles in it with homemade cookies and candies in cute little wrapped packages. Put basket wrap around it, tied it up and added a cute little craft my child made for them to decorate it. The teachers all loved them, even the guys! I even had one of the male teachers offer to pay me to make some up for his wife's stocking, because she loved that kind of stuff, and another teacher tell me she hoped she got one of my kids the next year, because she loved these type gifts the best.

[copados1993]

Originally Posted by sarahjlowe
i have been a teacher for about 7 years. i have seen all of these gifts. yes teacher love the creativity, and appreciate everything. BUT what do they really use? well i love when the kids try to find out stuff about you, and go off of that. favorite food, color, place to eat, place to shop, ect. Also being a new mom, i have been reading some past copies of parents and parenting, they recommend spending $50 per teacher for kids in daycare, and $30 for a school teacher. Remember that these teachers give up so much to be a good teacher. I can personally say as a daycare teacher, that i spend about $50 to $100 a month on classroom items.





Just wanted to chime in with an agreement to this. The majority of teachers don't feel this way .... or at least I hope they don't. Thank God mine don't. My kids wouldn't have a christmas if I did this for my 3 girls teachers.
It's about the heart of giving not the money. *sigh*

It's nice knowing I'm not the only one to feel this way. I really appreciate what teachers do and give. I just can't afford to give something so expensive.

[LisaShef]

From preschool to elementary age it is common practice for parents to combine money and give one gift certificate from the class. It is usually sent by the class mom and is open to the dollar amount you want to give. Although you can call room mom and between 5 and 10 is the recommended amount. The gift certificate is for their favorite place to shop or just an American Express gift certificate. I've also seen money trees or wreaths. The crisp bills are tied in red ribbon and place on a live tree or wreath. The teacher usually gets between 100-200. Not as personal but I'm sure they appreciate it! The present is presented at the class party and is always from the class whether a parent choose to give or not.

[heavenlysshine]

I'm a teacher and I love it when I get Gift Certificates to go OUT to the movies. But then, I am a theatre-movie lover. Just an idea. ~H~

[BrandyJervas]

I don't have teachers yet but I've done this for bosses. I get a little gift basket, cello wrap, ribbon, candy canes, kisses, and Avon naturals foam bath, body spray, shower gel, hand sanitizer, chap stick and I do a nice little gift basket. But I'm real good at the artsy craftsy sort of thing so this is the kind of thing I love to do.

[Gloey]

I have given silver jewelry in the past, chains, etc. They can be very inexpensive on sale and they make a nice presentation.

[Gporter34]

I have five kids in school. 2nd grader has 4 teachers, 4th grader has 4 teachers, 6th and 7th graders each have about 8 teachers, and 11th grader has about 10 teachers. Give me a break!!!LMAO! If they do not appreciate the gift they get from my kids, I'm sorry, but I can NOT spend $50-$100 on each teacher! I make sure that they know throughout the year how much they are appreciated by me and my kids. I hope that they know that it is the thought that counts and that when you have more than one child in school, not everyone can afford expensive gifts. I would like to think that they appreciate what every child brings and that there are alot of kids/parents who could care less when it comes time to give gifts to the teacher.

[noaimhere]

Last year I made 3 different pasta dishes, salad and bread for the entire staff of our school and gave the teachers all a small gift card to the icecream/sandwich shop across from the school with a bbw soap.

[aolson]

I would say a nice box of chocolates or something. Maybe a little variety chocolate box from See's? Andrea

[wright1baby]

I have 3 children DD is in K she has 2 teachers DS is in 3rd (but is in 2/3 classroom) he switches between 3 classrooms, DS is in 5th and is in Special Ed for many classes, 5 teachers that would be 10 teachers! "$30 for a school teacher" That does seem a bit pricey, I do donate classroom items throughout the year, especially to the Special Ed teachers because they do not have "homeroom" students and don't get the benefit of the beginning of the school year blitz of supplies brought in. ALOT of my children's teachers seem very young (under 30) and I have been buying Clearance christmas items after christmas and save them for the next year to give. It takes many years to accumulate many Christmas items for decoration. Alot of the teachers have commented on how they were never able to afford to buy decorations and gifts at the holidays and were very appreciative!

[keyancody]

I have a good friend who is a teacher and I asked her one year what she would love to get. She replied that she was burned out on candles and all the "Worlds Best Teacher" items. What would be great for her is some packages of pencils, pens, craft supplies, etc. Things that she could use for the classroom. Kids are always asking her for pencils or there erasers are gone on there pencils and they use hers and sometimes her supplies just come up missing. A teachers classroom budget only gives so much. I have done this for the past couple of years and it seems to be a welcoming suprise!

[Kathyh]

I am a teacher and must tell you that we LOVE supplies for our classrooms. Pencils, pens, cute shaped post-it notes, index cards....anything along that line saves me $$$, is an asset to the classroom and does not get Re-gifted!! If you want to through in a non-school treat--add a dunkin'd's gift certificate or a pack of altoids!!

[copados1993]

I am a teacher and must tell you that we LOVE supplies for our classrooms. Pencils, pens, cute shaped post-it notes, index cards....anything along that line saves me $$$, is an asset to the classroom and does not get Re-gifted!! If you want to through in a non-school treat--add a dunkin'd's gift certificate or a pack of altoids!!

I think this is what I'm leaning to do this year. I would rather give a teacher something they would really like to have, but something that is in my small budget.

[love2beurwifey]

A gift basket or a gift bag of some sort

[cpartri4]

Fifty dollars? That sounds a little steep to me....I appreciate all they/you do but with 3 kids in day care, 2 teachers a piece that's 300 bucks.... Honestly with having to pay for daycare for 3 kids I'm not able to spend that much a piece on half my family members (brothers sisters etc)

I agree w/ you on this one. We spend $1400 per month now at daycare for one preschooler and one infant. Between the multi teachers due to shifts and moving up to the next class room, I would go broke if I had to spend $50 per teacher. Parents magazine often lives in fantasyland. It is the thought that counts and I will spend no more than $15 per teacher :-)

[coldweatherdadiam]

I give my kids teachers a gift card to their local teacher supply store. I figure they can really use it.

[Vickis3js]

Thanks so much to the OP for posting this!! And to all those who responded! I have a ton of ideas now! I have kids in school 1 in kindergarten she has a teacher and full time aide, one in pre-k (at the same school) who has a teacher and 2 aides and then my youngest is in a special services school in an autism preschool class with a teacher, aide, case manager, speech therapist, OT, PT, and a sensory manager. So I am at a loss! I don't know who to buy for and what to even get so you guys have helped a lot!!!! Vicki

[melandchris]

I am a teacher and last year I got gift cards to the mall and the movies, they are the best gifts!

[WELUVKDS79]

Gift Basket from Grocery Store!! Fruit or Crackers...