What Teachers Really Want for Teacher Appreciation

May 2, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I’ve recently been looking at teacher appreciation ideas, and the consensus when you ask teachers what they really want as a teacher appreciation gift, they say gift cards.

It makes sense, because any teacher who has been teaching for very long probably has more than their fill of teacher related art and gifts, and gifts of junk food aren’t always appreciated (and with dietary restrictions might not even be something the teacher can eat).

If you can find out their favorite coffee shop or even just give them a gift card to Target or Wal-mart so they can choose to buy something special for themselves where they are already shopping, it’s sure to be appreciated.

That said, you don’t have to just hand them a gift card. You can make it a little more fun with a creative presentation, such as making an origami envelope (here’s a tutorial from Origami Spirit) or another kind of gift card holder like these from Make and Takes. Add some drama by putting it in an origami gift box; find instructions at The Spruce.

You could also have your child make some art to present to the teacher related to something they did in class or just a thank you for being a great teacher.

Another great thing you can do is not just give a gift card but include a note of thanks, sharing what it has meant for your child to have that teacher. A written note is great, but it’s also wonderful to send an email and copy their direct supervisor, especially if you have specific praise about how that teacher went above and beyond for your kid.

These are easy things to do last-minute for teacher appreciation or the last day of school, which is great because who needs more to do this time of year?

[Photo: Make and Takes.]

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Gross Motor Math Ideas

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

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