Teacher Appreciation Ideas

As my daughter has gotten older it feels like teacher appreciation has become less of a thing. I don’t know if that’s because the school makes less of a deal about it (they do snacks and drinks and things for the teachers, so it’s not like there’s nothing, it’s just not coming from individual parents) or because it’s too overwhelming to give gifts when your kid has six or seven teachers.

If your school does theme days and you need some ideas, check out my post on teacher appreciation themes for the school.

Maybe it’s a little bit about teachers not wanting all those gifts, and I have written before about what teachers really want for teacher appreciation (spoiler alert: it’s gift cards).

But I also feel like there can be a middle ground, if you truly want to give a teacher something to acknowledge their hard work (and goodness knows they need all the acknowledgement we can give them).

The solution might be consumables, especially if you know things the teacher likes and uses like lotion or their favorite kind of coffee. Everything Pretty has some ideas for practical gifts you can give for teacher appreciation, some of which are consumables, and all of which sound thoughtful and nice, and not an apple shaped doodad among them.

The Applicious Teacher has another list of things teachers will actually appreciate, and it starts with a personalized note. If you know the teacher enough to get specific about something they’ve done for your child, or your child has said something nice about them, that’s great to include. Even better: get the kid to write or draw something special for that teacher.

I also love the idea that’s in both of these posts to get teachers personalized school supplies, whether that be a notebook, pens, sticky notes, etc. This personalized notepad that looks like notebook paper from Sophias Things on Etsy is super cute and every teacher is sure to love it. I’m not even a teacher and I always want more places to take notes!

If you’re a teacher I’d love to hear what you really like to receive for teacher appreciation gifts!

[Photo: Sophias Things]

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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