Teacher Appreciation Week: Luncheon and Gifts

The final day of teacher appreciation week, we did a luncheon. Honestly, feeding 50 some-odd people was an intimidating thing for me. One friend told me to just cater it--which is a viable option. Before I went with that, I talked with another friend who told me no way to cater! She would help me out.

She made some BBQ pork meat. She spent $50 on meat and rolls for sandwiches--incredible right? Then I ordered a couple of sheets of fresh brownies from a local bakery and we had the room moms each bring a side dish. I didn't assign what type of dish--just something to go on the side. We had a variety of green salads, pasta salads, fruit salads, fruit dishes, vegetable trays...plenty of variety. We did it open house style so they could come eat when it worked with their schedule.

Another gift we did was we had volunteers take over bus duty for the teachers that week. I had five moms a day sign up to relieve bus duty for the teachers--the gift of time.

I had a lot of money left over. I first got a gift card to a store for each teacher.

I also wanted to do a gift for the teacher break room. I went in one day and snooped around. I took pictures of the room so I could remember what they had and what they needed. As I was in there, I was HOT. I don't get hot, even as a pregnant lady it is rare for me to be hot. I visited with the principle and asked if they had any sort of fan they used in the room. They did not. So I went and got a nice fan for the room. It even has a timer so they can set it and it will turn off automatically (no fans going all weekend).

I also got a hot chocolate machine. Most of the school year is cold here, so I thought that would be a fun one for them.

The teachers seemed to love teacher appreciation week! I got great feedback and some nice thank-you notes. Now to start planning it for next year...

Teacher Appreciation Week: Seed Packs

I forgot to take a picture of this, so I am using a picture off the web.

Another gift for Teacher Appreciation Week I did to go along with the theme of "Nurturing Gardens" was a couple of seed packs. I did one vegetable or herb pack (most people around here garden) and one perennial flower pack. In picking vegetables, I was sure to only do packs of things that could still be planted in this growing season.

 I then tied the two packs together using Rafia (as seen above--Rafia can be found in the floral section of any craft store). I also included the quote: "Without hard work, nothing grows but seeds" by Gordon B. Hinckley.I put all of the packets in a basket and dropped the basket off in the office. The teachers and staff could then go at their leisure (ha! leisure for teachers) and peruse the seeds and choose what interested them.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Subway Art

Subway art is very popular right now. For one of the teacher's gifts during teacher appreciation week, I decided to make a subway art piece for each teacher.

Several weeks before the big week, I went to the school during lunch. I had written each teacher's name at the top of a piece of paper. I then walked around from table to table and asked the kids to list of adjectives they liked about their teacher. 

I then took these lists of words and made the subway art in Photoshop Elements using the words from the children. I have pictured here three examples.

There are several teachers and specialists that it is hard to get personalized words for--the resource teacher, the literacy specialist, etc. For them, I did this:

For the PE teacher, I did words like "jump" and "persevere." For the music teacher, I did musical words like "allegro" and "forte."

Teacher Appreciation Week: Gift of Flowers

Way back last August when I started planning teacher appreciation week, I asked Raegan for ideas. One she gave me that fit perfectly with the theme of "Nurturing Gardens" was to have the children each bring a flower to the teachers. I sent this note home:

Hi Parents and Students!

Next week (May 7-11) is Teacher Appreciation Week at OUR Elementary. This is a great chance to show our teachers and staff how much we appreciate all they do for our children.

Our theme this year is “Nurturing Gardens.” For one of the gifts, we will be providing a vase for each teacher. We ask that each student bring a flower to give to his/her teacher(s). It can be a flower from your yard, a flower from the store,  paper flower, a synthetic flower…whatever your child would like to do. The idea is when the teacher has the flowers, she will have a beautiful bouquet that is unique—just like her group of students.

We will give the vase Monday. You are welcome to bring the flower any day that week. Thanks so much!

-Valerie Plowman
PTO rep over Teacher Appreciation

As promised, Monday I gave each teacher a vase. With it, I gave this poem I wrote (not the best poem ever written--please don't analyze it):

You love, teach, and nurture each day.
As the year passes, we bloom in our way.
We’ve grown to be so beautiful and grand,
In this growth, you’ve had an important hand.

We give you this vase to fill with a bouquet
of flowers that represent each of us, and say,
“We thank you, we love you. And please keep in mind
your effort has helped us to be one of a kind.”

I was concerned about students remembering to bring flowers in. Tuesday, I gave each teacher a beautiful yellow rose as pictured above. I attached a note that said "Thank you for helping our children to bloom." I knew this way there would be at least one flower in the vase that could remind students about bringing a flower. 

The teachers loved getting all of their flowers. My son gave his flowers out and was a bit surprised at the reaction he got from the various teachers. They all gushed and thanked. It made him feel happy they were happy, but he was confused why it made them so happy. I laughed and explained that if he ever wanted to make a woman happy, he just needed to give her a flower :). It was fun to see the variety and creativity of the flowers. There were all kinds. 

Teacher Appreciation Week: Door Decorations

The first week in May is traditionally Teacher appreciation week. I was the PTO rep over this week. I choose a theme of "Nurturing Gardens." 

For Monday, all of the room moms plus some extra volunteers decorated doors for the teachers, principal, secretary, librarian, various specialists, and aides in the school. Here is what everyone came up with! They are so cute!

I will be sharing everything else we did this week in later posts.