5 Teacher Gift Ideas (That Teachers Actually WANT)

Teachers work hard, and Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7 – May 11, 2018) is a great excuse to show some extra gratitude. A thoughtful teacher gift means the world to your child’s educators, but choosing a gift that your kid’s teachers will want can be overwhelming. Don’t panic, though. This list of teacher gift ideas was vetted by an actual teacher who has been at her school for over 30 years: my mom.

My mother has been a teacher for almost my entire life, so my sister and I are also very familiar with teacher gifts. Every holiday and summer vacation, mom would come home with a mountain of mugs, gift baskets and gift cards. We’d all go through the gifts together and divvy them up. It felt like an extra Christmas!

Before we get to the list, I do want to put your mind at ease: teachers are grateful for any gift of appreciation, no matter what. Even if you’ve gifted something they didn’t end up keeping, the recognition means a lot to them. This list is meant to help you choose a gift, not to make you feel bad about anything you’ve given in the past. At the end of the day, it’s the thought that counts.

1. Gift Cards.

Let’s get real: teachers are not paid enough. Not only are teacher salaries too low, but every teacher I know regularly pays for at least some classroom supplies out of pocket. A gift card to a coffee shop, department store, movie theater, spa or restaurant is a great way to tell the teachers in your life to treat themselves.

2. Homemade Food Gifts.

Food gifts are nice, because there’s nothing to store once they’re eaten. Bonus points if your kids help make these! Cookies, hot cocoa mix, chocolate bark and soup mixes are all great ideas for teachers. My mom’s feedback on this one was, “anything in a mason jar is good!” Even if they’re set for mason jars at home, they can reuse them in the classroom for storage.

5. Cash.

This might feel a little bit lazy or tacky, but a little bit of cash to spend on whatever they want along with a thoughtful note is a great way to thank your kid’s teachers for their hard work. At my son’s preschool, the parents all throw in cash so the teachers can go out for a nice lunch.

 

Copyright © 2015 Care2.com Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.Care2.com

https://test.yourwellness.com/full-text-rss/makefulltextfeed.php?url=feeds.feedburner.com%2Fgreenliving%2Flife&max=10&links=preserve&exc=1&submit=Create+Feed