Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at our school, and I was in charge of coordinating everything (just like last year). Luckily for me, we have a bunch of really great parents at our school, many who were once teachers themselves, who really appreciate everything our teachers do!

I couldn't decide on a theme this year, so I decided to just go with a bunch of themes and tie them all up under a shared phrase. The phrase was "Our Teachers Are...", and here are the way the days played out...

Monday: (individual chips)

Tuesday: (pack of gum)

Wednesday: (cookies)

Thursday: (apple wall hangings)

Okay, I totally get that this phrase isn't grammatically correct -- but I did it for the sake of the pun. :)  To go along with this day, I made 39 apple wall hangings -- a ridiculous amount, but I'll explain in a second. Here's what 35 of them looked like:

They're covering my ENTIRE design wall -- it's 4' x 6'!!

 

Friday was our luncheon, so we went with "OUR TEACHERS ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD!"  We served Italian sodas, American sandwiches, English chips (okay, I realize these aren't authentic English chips, but we're going with the theme here... :)), Swedish fish, and French pastries, all with similar signs to link everything together. As always, it went off so well -- even though I had the flu and couldn't help out with the luncheon like I usually do.

I also had a couple of PTA ladies prepare little booklets for the teachers' helpers (usually room moms) who take over the class for about 30 minutes, to give the teachers a little longer lunch the day of the luncheon. The booklets were 1/4 sheets of paper, one for each child in the class plus a few extras, that said things like "I love it when Mrs. Wimmer..." and "My favorite thing about Mr. Fox is...", with a 1/4 sheet of cardstock for the front and one for the back, and a ribbon to tie the whole thing together. The idea is that the teachers' helpers will help the kids make this book, and then they present it to the teacher at the end of the luncheon.

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This year I've been struggling a little with anxiety, so I decided to try and simplify some things in my life. As a result, this is the last year I'll do Teacher Appreciation Week -- at least for a while. Hence the 39 apple wall hangings. :) I really do appreciate teachers, but I've started embracing the fact that party planning is not my favorite thing, and I'll leave it to someone else next year.