End of the Year Teacher Gift Ideas

We haven’t done end of the year gifts for my daughter’s teachers in a long time, but I remember it being important when she was in lower grades and had the same teacher for most of the day.

Most teachers will tell you the thing they want most is a personalized and heartfelt thank you, from the parents and/or the kids. If you know enough about what went on to share a story about what the teacher did for your child or how they felt about that teacher, so much the better.

Of course you can also throw in a gift card (teachers pretty much universally appreciate cards from Amazon, Target or Walmart). If you know the teacher’s favorite coffee place or fast food, a gift card for those places would be great too.

Make a gift card a little more special with a printable gift card holder like these from Kids Activities Blog.

Another great idea is to give them a gift of school supplies they can use in the classroom next year. I think every teacher would love some extra glue sticks, pencils or art supplies, and if you can present them in a cute way so much the better. Add the supplies to a basket or Mason jar, or use some of the ideas from Hands on as We Grow for inspiration.

That post also has a collection of cards that kids can make for their teacher, which is always a good addition to any of these gifts. My Little Moppet has another roundup of cards. I love this superhero one from Artsy Mama, which is meant to go with a candy bar but it doesn’t have to.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I also loved to give gifts of papering like foot scrub. This recipe comes with a summer themed printable to thank teachers for a great year.

What do you like to do or get for end of the year gifts? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Artsy Mama]

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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