How to Make Homemade Gifts for Elementary Teachers
It's a delicate balance: your child's elementary school teacher has roughly 27 children sitting in her classroom, and every one of them is going to come to school toting a nicely wrapped gift purchased by a parent looking to give something meaningful yet inexpensive to his child's intellectual caretaker. Your style is to be clever and inventive, turning a few bucks and a great concept into a unique present that---in addition to delighting one hard-working, underpaid teacher---won't wind up in the "regifting box."
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Things You'll Need
- Glass jar
- Etching tool and template
- Candy/cookies/coffee
- Socks
- Silk flowers
- School supplies
- Flowerpot
- Popcorn
- Crate
- Cloth napkin
- Magazine
- Gift wrap
- Box
- Ribbon
- Tape
- Scissors
Instructions
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Make a jarring gift. Find a fanciful glass vessel at a thrift shop or discount store. Monogram the jar using a glass etching stencil and tool with your choice of wording ("Teacher of the Year," his name, nickname or something fun yet appropriate). Fill the jar with tea bags, coffee beans, jellybeans or fortune cookies. Hang a card from the jar that wishes the teacher a bountiful new year.
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Sock it to your child's teacher by crafting a dozen long-stem "toeses." Shop at your local dollar store for six pairs of socks and a dozen silk or plastic roses. Roll each sock into a ball and secure it atop a flower. Fan out the leaves and tie a ribbon around the neck of each rose. Pick up a floral box from a local shop, arrange the toeses artfully amid green tissue paper and see if the time you took to make this fun gift isn't rewarded with a special thank-you in return.
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Grow a supply plant (no watering required). Find a large terra-cotta pot and fill the interior with a wedge of green crafting foam. Purchase cheap pens, pencils, scissors and a ruler---all of the items a teacher uses regularly and loses just as regularly---at the dollar store. Poke the tallest item (probably the ruler) into the center of the arrangement. Plant pencils, pens, scissors and other tools around the ruler. Cover the foam with wrapped chocolate candy kisses to suggest soil. Tag the plant with a note, signed by your child, that reads, "Thanks for helping me grow."
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Dare to be corny. Combat teacher spread, a direct result of getting too much candy, by giving a gift of popcorn that can be prepared anytime in the future. Sleuth out a little "farm crate" at your local craft store, line it with a checkered napkin or other down-home print from the dollar store, and fill the crate with a variety of microwave popcorn bags---regular, light, kettle corn, etc. Make the message you include on the attached gift card whimsical and light.
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Give a year's worth of entertainment for less than $15. Gift a magazine subscription so your child's teacher can enjoy reading articles on interesting topics during breaks. Roll up the current issue and wrap it to resemble a symbol of the occasion---large candy cane for Christmas, a birthday candle, 4th of July firecracker for a year-end goodbye or another clever disguise. Appropriate messaging for this gift? Easy. "Hope you think of me in the year ahead!"
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References
- Photo Credit apple for teacher image by max blain from Fotolia.com
