Teachers are an important part of our children’s lives. A child spends the largest portion of his waking hours at school, so it goes without saying that we should appreciate and get to know the person/people that he will be with during those hours. However, deciding what type of gift to give is not easy! When gifting a teacher, there are many things that you should take into consideration.
Keep in mind that your child is not their only student. What I mean here is that there is a good possibility that the teacher will be receiving quite a few gifts throughout her lifetime. If she or he is not a hoarder they will probably not be able to keep every nick knack they receive. So what do you give a teacher? A handmade gift from your child is a great gift because it is unique and from the heart. Even with giving a handmade gift you will still need to be careful what you gift. Here are some practical and great gifts that your child can make for his teacher!
Photo Album/ Scrap Book – A hand decorated or hand made photo album or scrapbook can serve as a useful gift for a teacher. I don’t mean for you to make a complete scrap book filled from cover to cover. Throughout the school year, teachers will receive numerous amounts of letters and pictures drawn by their students. Have your child decorate the cover of a scrapbook or a photo album. Leave lots of blank pages inside so that the teacher will be able to add some of those pictures and letters. There are many ways that you can decorate the cover. Try a collage of pictures from the school year, a collage of words cut from magazines or books, a laminated flower or leaf, or something as simple as your child’s hand print.
Decorated storage box – Another great gift for teacher because, well, who doesn’t need a storage box?! This too, is a very useful gift for teachers. It can be used to store other small gifts from her students, candy for the classroom, pencils, crayons, pretty much anything that fits. To make this you will need a sturdy box with a lid. You can find them in craft stores or in the craft section of other stores. Have your child decorate it in any way they like. You have a lot of possibilities when it comes to decorating this thoughtful handmade gift. To make the box any color that you want you will just need to spray paint it for your child. Allow them to glue things on, to paint it, or to write a letter to the teacher on it.
Potted plants – Potted plants can make great gifts for teachers because they can remind them of and help them to reflect on the growth of the children in the class room. Have your child decorate a flower pot to hold a long last plant. There are a lot of ways to decorate a flower pot. To help your child decide how to decorate ask your child some questions about his teacher. Do you know what Mr. Edwards favorite color is? Does Mr. Edwards have a pet? These sort of questions should help you decide how to decorate the flower pot for example, if Mr. Edward’s favorite color is red and he has a cat, your child could paint the flower pot red and stencil on kitty paw prints.
Ornament – Christmas ornaments are a great gift for teachers because they have the choice of storing them to use on the classroom Christmas tree or taking them home to use on their own tree! They can be used year after year and stored easily. Try to keep the ornament the small side if you can, this will make it easier to be stored. One of my favorite things to use when making handmade Christmas ornaments is oven bake clay. You can dye it with food coloring and it’s like playing with Play-doh. Use a toothpick to poke a hole all the way through the clay near the top of the ornament, bake according to the package instructions. If you do not want to buy clay you can try a salt dough recipe that you can make using ingredients you have on hand. If you don’t use food coloring to dye the dough, allow the baked ornament to cool completely and let your child paint it.
Before you go out and spend tons of money of tiny treasures, give a gift from your child’s heart and hands. Teachers will love any handmade gift from your child!
