Teacher Appreciation Gift

With a child now in preschool, and through the benefit of being a “room Mom” I see firsthand how hard our teachers work and how much they care for our kids.  Especially at this young age, they are as much teachers showing students how to read and write as they are caregivers helping kids navigate through emotions toward independence.  
Although National Teacher Appreciation Week is in May, our school is celebrating our teachers this week with a luncheon and small tokens of appreciation from the students.  I know teachers love gift cards and Stella & Dot (judging by the responses on my instagram about the teachers’ Christmas gifts), but for this event, we’re giving notepads and pens.  Maybe I’m biased because I’d love to receive this as a gift, but I think it makes a thoughtful present, especially when you wrap it up with a sweet handwritten sentiment. 

These notepads were found at Homegoods, but I’ve also seen similar ones at craft stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. 

I added decorative ribbon to each set and a little gift tag that I stamped “Thank You” and will write the “to” and “from” on.    These little details are nice!
We have two homeroom teachers and a Spanish teacher to give these gifts to, but I’m always thinking of how all the gifts add up when you have multiple kids with multiple teachers. These notepads were about $5 each. 

If you have posted about a great teacher gift, please leave a link in the comments.  I want to add more pins to my “TEACHER” Pinterest board.  You can follow all of my Pinterest boards HERE.
If you are a teacher, let us know what you like to receive as a token of appreciation. We gave our teacher a little “getting to know you” form to fill out at the beginning of the year so that we’d have an idea of what they like.  Do you teachers like that or just prefer gift cards?  Where do you like gift cards to? 

You Might Also Like

Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

20 Comments

  1. Cute idea with the notepads – I'm sure a teacher can never have enough paper!!

    Last Christmas, I made cute Santa tags with my Cricut and tied them to Scentsy handsoaps for my co-workers. This is something that could be repeated for almost any holiday/event.
    http://ashleysadventures411.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-gifts-for-co-workers-neigbors.html

    For our wedding, we gave Scentsy Travel Tins as favors – tied with a matching ribbon — they were a big hit and something people wouldn't normally buy for themselves.

    http://ashleysadventures411.blogspot.com/2013/08/scentsy-at-wedding.html

    http://www.ashleykidd.scentsy.us

  2. As a teacher, I'm a gift card lover because I can use them things I need. Starbucks, target, loft, and amazon are always practical; nordstrom is a great indulgent one. I think teachers also enjoy monogrammed products they can use in their classrooms: clipboards, hand sanitizer, storage containers, pencil holders, binders, notepads, etc. And, of course, you can never go wrong with some S&D!! 😉

  3. That is a nice gift idea! I teach seventh grade English and at Christmas I got a lot of gift cards to Dunkin Donuts (because my kids know I come in with a dunks coffee everyday) so it was well received! My favorite gift to get is a gift card for a nearby salon for a manicure! For about $15 it is such a nice way to spoil your teacher- maybe because it is pricier it would be a good end of the year gift!

  4. I am a teacher and I think they are cute, it isn't something I personally would want. I like gift cards. One thing I do like, and I teach high school, are classrooms gifts like: pencils, pens, colored paper, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, etc. My school doesn't give us any of that and that is what we need the most. (well….that and coffee…lol)

  5. Hello Megan. I am a teacher, and I absolutely LOVE receiving cute notepads and decorative paper as gifts. If these gifts are monogrammed or have polka dots or one of today's popular patterns like chevron, then I get really excited. Any gift is thoughtful, but some are definitely more practical and useful than others. Of course I enjoy receiving gift cards too. Teachers can always use gift cards from Micheal's, Target, and Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, I have only had 2 parents in 15 years of teaching give me one of those "Getting to Know You" forms, but I was especially impressed by those two who did. I recently had a baby, and I have already decided that I will be giving her future teachers these forms.

  6. Gift cards to Target or Joann's (you can never have enough school supplies or fabric for bulletin boards), pens in fun colors, fun coffee or tea mugs, a monogrammed umbrella, amazon gift cards for books, the list goes on and on! Notepads are always great too because we're always jotting down things quickly. 🙂

  7. I love those notepads! I'm with you – that's a gift I would like to receive!

    Last year was our first time giving a Teacher Appreciation gift, and we gave each of our son's preschool/day care teachers gift cards from the "wish list" they provided us. But I also really wanted to find a way to personalize the gift, so I created cards for my son to color. His classroom was called the Elephants, so I downloaded a Dr. Suess Horton Hear's a Who Coloring page from the internet, added the quote "A person's a person no matter how small" to the top and then wrote a personal thank you note to each teacher at the bottom. I then let my son (who was only 16 months at the time) have fun coloring the card with crayons. I know the teachers really loved the personal touch, and the coloring cards were a great way to let even a really young child be a part of the gift giving process!

    http://blueistyle.blogspot.com/2013/05/TeacherAppreciationColoringCard.html

  8. Hi Megan,

    I appreciate that you asking teachers to tell you what they'd like to receive! I've been a teacher for a long time and always loved it when parents would give the "room" gifts. These are things such as board games for the recess cupboard, science equipment, new books, or magazine subscriptions. This is all stuff that many teacher do buy on their own, so to have them gifted instead is wondrous!

    Thanks! 🙂

    Amy–a grateful Michigan teacher

  9. I teach first grade. Honestly, gift cards are best-Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, The Dollar Tree, or restaurants. I also ask in lieu of Christmas gifts for myself, to donate to our classroom rather it be new books, board games for indoor recess, construction paper, glitter, glue, Kleenex, pencils, crayons, markers, etc….you get the idea. Those are things that I would buy anyway so that saves me a trip to the store to load up on supplies and it makes the kids happy.

  10. these are really cute! i'm a teacher & i love getting gift cards to starbucks or other coffee places,
    candles, hand lotion. for Christmas and end of year gifts, i like mani and/or pedi gift cards! we are very lucky at my school as the parents are quite generous with us all through the year….and we're well fed at all times! there's definitely no shortage of treats from parents in our faculty room.

  11. Thank you so much for recognizing teachers! If parents never step foot in the class during the day, they have no idea how hard our job is! I'm a first grade teacher! I love just about anything! Gift cards, money, pens, scarves, hats, pedicures, etc…. What fills my heart the most though is when parents write me thank you notes telling me how much I am appreciated! I keep them and read them when I have a bad year and want to walk out!!!!

  12. Cute gifts Megan! I taught for six years before I had kids and I would have loved these! I think anything you would love yourself (girly stuff) or anything you can use in the classroom is a great gift. Of course sweet hand written notes from the kids and parents mean the world. The only thing I didn't love was anything to do with apples. 🙂

    Here are some fun things we've done in the past:

    http://www.thesunnysideupblog.com/2011/06/teacher-gift.html (I know you'll appreciate this one because you love shoes as much as I do!) 🙂

    http://www.thesunnysideupblog.com/2013/06/last-day-of-school.html

    Have a good weekend cutie!

  13. Very cute! I am a 3rd grade teacher and I personally love gift cards. It is nice to receive one gift card from a class too instead of 30 little gift cards. My class last year got my one large gift card to Nordstrom and then I could finally buy my dream bag I had been eyeing. SO nice to be able to get something nice that I would not be able to buy on my own. Our school also does the forms, which is really nice. For teacher appreciation week, our parents provide meals for the teachers. Someone brings you lunch everyday and then another family brings you dinner. Amazing to get home from work and not have to worry about cooking! Of course we appreciate any and all gifts or tokens of appreciation though 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *