Teacher Appreciation

I just found out this morning that this week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Nolan's school.  I had his teacher fill out a questionnaire at the beginning of the year, but she didn't give us a whole lot to go on.  She loves to exercise, only drinks water, and her favorite color is red.

After we dropped Nolan off at school and Griffin off at preschool, Nora and I ventured out to our new Target.  We perused the dollar spot for some gift ideas.  Luckily, I've been pinning teacher appreciation ideas on Pinterest to help me with ideas for end-of-the-year teacher gifts.  I just had to use some of the ideas a little early!

Here's what we bought and how I used it.  I spent about $20 total, and I wanted to give Nolan's teacher one gift per day (for the remaining four days this week).

Apple spatula $3, reusable produce bag $, apple scrubbing brush $1, and fruit coupon organizer $1

I generally don't do traditional apple stuff for my kids' teachers, but I thought I could pull together these few apple items just for one day.  I paired them with a free printable apple thank-you card from Dimple Prints.

I just slipped the other items into the produce bag along with the thank-you card.

  

Weekly to-do list notepad $1, weekly schedule notepad $1, pretty mechanical pencils $1

I put these items in a red gift bag (red is the teacher's favorite color) and added a free printable bookmark from Positively Splendid via Tater Tots & Jello that says "Thank you for helping me write a chapter in my story."

Tote bag $1 and reusable sandwich bags $1

This one isn't terribly exciting, but that's what happens when I'm putting together four gifts on a budget.  I put the plastic sandwich bags inside the tote bag and added a cute tag from Uncommon Designs that says "You're a tote-lly terrific teacher!"

Pedicure set $1, nail polish $3.59, set of nail files $2.89

I put these items in an organza bag that I already had.  I tied on a cute tag from She's Kinda Crafty that says "I'd file you under 'A' for Awesome." 

Tonight I'll have Nolan write on all the cards and tags, and he'll take one gift to school each day this week.  Perhaps his teacher would rather have one $20 gift card than $20 worth of little things, but I love the idea of giving her little surprises each day.

I have leftovers of all the free printables because they all printed with several on a page.  I decided to save them for end-of-the-year gifts for Griffin's preschool teachers and Nora's teachers at TLC (her Wednesday morning church preschool-type group).

We sure do appreciate all the work that teachers put into helping our kids learn and grow!

Jessica