Using What You're Given

For Teacher Appreciation Week, the Room Moms provided us three sample Thank You letter templates and asked that our child write a note to the teacher.

I planned on creating my own template when I came up with the idea to turn the "provided" template into something of our own - especially since I could play off the words and pair it with a Starbucks gift card.

I had Tyler fill out the writing portion and then I took the rest of the "pieces" and created a card, using supplies I already had on hand {yes, I'm a scrapbook supply hoarder}.

I glued the template onto four sheets of Zebra paper {2 sheets of each color glued together so you wouldn't see white/blank sides anywhere} and then used ribbon to close the card. I used stickers and washi to attach the printables and give it a bit of "flair."

Inside I attached a "Star"bucks gift card since Mrs. Palmer is our "Star."

I like how it turned out and rumor is she liked it too!

Letting Go

I learned a few new lessons during Teacher Appreciation Week this year:

1. My days of creating things are limited. My son doesn't want to make anything, and my daughter wants to do it all herself
2. Unless I'm Room Mom, I don't have to do anything for TAW. And since Ashlee leaves preschool this year, this may be my last year of homemade ideas/treats
3. This all makes me sad

As I ran through my idea list of what to do for Teacher Appreciation Week, Ashlee told me that she wanted to give her teachers cookies.

Plain and simple. 

She would not accept any other ideas.

So we made gluten-free Funfetti cookies and packaged them up in cute boxes for her two teachers, Mrs. Sandra and Mrs. Lakeisha.

It doesn't really matter if they like GF cookies, it was what Ashlee wanted to give them.

Digging through my party stash, I found leftover boxes from Tyler's Mario party, and using scrapbook paper and ribbon, we decorated them.

But that's not all.

Ashlee decided they needed a little "something, something" so she colored them with marker, covering the cute paper she helped picked out.

This is where I had to become Elsa and "Let it Go" as she turned something beautiful and Pinterest-worthy into something beautiful and handmade by a 5-year-old.

It's hard to let go, but as I was reminded by friends and family on Facebook, they are preschool teachers and they would much rather have something created by the kid's then the mom's (if it's not a gift card or something of that nature - and we didn't do a gift card because we'll do something in August when she leaves the school).

In the end, her boxes turned out beautifully and she was so happy and excited to give them to them today.

PS - We also surprised the teachers - and Chef Susie - during TAW with a bouquet of flowers. Ashlee picked each of the 3 bouquets out. I forgot to take pictures.

I Mustache...

There is one job I've yet to conquer at school: door decorator for Teacher Appreciation Week.

I think it would be fun, but it seems like a daunting task to come up with something super creative for two teacher doors. The parents who do this are amazingly creative and always come up with the best ideas!

This year, Tyler's classroom was decked out in yellow and white with a mustache theme. The decorator had personalized it with each kid's picture and a questionnaire with them answering "Why do you appreciate Mrs. Palmer?"

Tyler said: She help me with math reading and science and everything like everything.

I had to laugh at his "everything like everything" comment.

He seems to always have the same answers, but I do know he appreciates his teachers a lot! 

Take a look at the other brilliant ideas around the school:

Cheer "Cuties"

When it came to getting Ashlee's cheer coaches Christmas gifts, I was a total slacker.

I planned to do it before Christmas and then the last practice was sooner than I thought.

Then the new year showed up and two practices in, I kept forgetting until just before practice was over.

But this week, I was determined to get my vision out on paper and delivered, tied up with a bow to the three coaches.

My vision: play off the word "cuties" or "QT" and package up cutie oranges and a Quik Trip gift card.

I didn't know what I was going to do with the tags until I sat down and started playing around with PhotoShop, free fonts and free clipart.

I ended up creating a tag ~ with a blue theme, of course, as that's our cheer colors ~ that said:

Coach XYZ,

In 2015, our team will be 

CUTIES

thanks to you! Happy New Year!

ashlee

The banner and cheer girl clip art are from two different sets on Teachers Pay Teachers, a pretty awesome site. I found this site when I had to do the bulletin board for school last year, and it's come in handy whenever I need something for school.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. It's a nice way to welcome in the new year, plus my distribution coordinated with an upcoming competition this weekend, so win-win.

I may have to use these again for a teachers gift, reworking the saying! Or perhaps for the individual girls as a pre-competition gift with just cuties? So many options!

Snowmen & Reindeer

I didn't get the healthy snack!!!

I finally got the "good" snack for Tyler's class party today. I searched Pinterest for various ideas and then worked together with Tyler to figure out what he wanted to bring. We found a version of the reindeer donuts, and we decided to add our own creations - snowmen and Santas - to the mix to spice up his display.

Of course, as we were making the Santas, the chocolate candies that I planned to use as the hats hardened into a giant brick and we were left with large-eyed snowmen instead.

At least we had a fall-back plan!

To make the donuts, I found cookie kits at Walmart and modified them to what I needed. For instance, the snowman pieces are actually from a penguin cookie kit.

I used a plain "eye" kit for the Santas and planned to use candy melts for the hat. All of the pieces were edible. I brought extra donuts so the kids could each have two, but only one decorated.

Ashlee brought pirate's booty again; her choosing.

Since I'm not room mom this year, I didn't have to come up with a gift for the teacher {hooray!}. Ashlee's school collects money and gets the teachers gift cards they actually want/like. That left me with the two Y Care teachers.

Justin and I had decided we wanted to give them movie tickets but those alone are pretty boring, so I added three boxes of movie theatre candy, wrapped up pretty - with a bell, of course - and added a Polar Express ticket.

When Tyler was in kindergarten I had modified some tickets for his teachers, and I still had the file (for when Ashlee is in kindergarten) so I modified it for the 2 teachers, ala personalized gifts!

We dropped them off on the last day before winter break.

"Colorful" Teachers

Ashlee typically handles change fairly well. But this year, when she had to move classrooms, she wasn't a happy camper.

She did not want to leave Mr. Jordan. Or Mr. Dustin, who had kind of stepped up and become a second teacher in the classroom after Ms. Kristen left a few weeks back to take on a para job at a local elementary school.

And when Ashlee saw Tyler take a gift to his teacher, she was NOT going to leave her classroom empty-handed.

Instead of bringing her new teachers gifts, she wanted to make sure she didn't leave Mr. Jordan or Mr. Dustin without giving them treats.

But there was a caveat: she wanted to pick out their treat. Herself, of course.

I let her pick out whatever she wanted, and she decided she wanted to give them new markers for the classroom. I picked up a box of crayons (for each) as well and paired them together for a "colorful" present she could present them on her last/first day.

I made the labels using "manly" colored cards and complimentary chipboard letters. I taped the markers and crayons together and used striped orange washi to tape the label to the package.

Each teacher got his own personalized letter from Ashlee, thanking them for something "colorful."

I think she enjoyed giving them the presents {I was actually in Iowa when she gave them to them}. And I know they probably enjoyed getting something practical and useful for their classroom.

"Popping" In to See the Teacher

This week has been anything but relaxing.

Between trips to Iowa, non-stop phone calls about my dad {where he's at, where he's going and non-stop harrassment from the people who call themselves my family}, it's back to school week!

Monday I spent my lunch hour helping deliver the school supply boxes.

I still think this is the best "invention" ever! I never again will buy school supplies for my children, at least not while they are in elementary school. I simply order them online through the school and they "magically" appear on my son's desk at the Popsicle Pop-In.

Of course, this year, I learned the secret of how they "magically" appear on the desks: the PTO moms. But it still saves me and Justin a ton of headaches, shopping at three stores for the non-purple glue sticks, ugh! Plus, the school gets a kick back for all of the supplies.

Monday night was the new student/parent orientation, which is part of my role on the PTO. Thankfully, the mom who held the position previously agreed to assist me with it so it went off without a hitch.

This afternoon, we learned who our teachers were - and it was all the gossip at the pool. Our principal waits until the absolute last second to send out class lists.

This is so frustrating, but this year, I learned why: Monday night, the second grade "broke through" the class numbers and they had to go from three classes to four. This left the principal scurrying for a new teacher, whom he hired at 1 p.m. today, just three and a half hours before we all showed up to meet her and see the ... empty ... classroom.

Mrs. Palmer will be Tyler's teacher, and although I wasn't happy at first (as we made recommendations for what we wanted at the end of last year - and Mrs. Mettlach was involved in that), she made a great impression at Popsicle Pop-in.

As long as she keeps him in-line, I think we'll have a beautiful relationship, haha!

I sent Tyler with a gift (of course) to welcome her to the school, and he, to her classroom. I got the printable off Pinterest, and found the chalkboard bucket and clips in the Dollar aisle at Target. I whipped this together this morning as I had no other time.

Mrs. Palmer was excited to be welcomed with a gift. I think it was a nice way to say welcome, especially after all of the worry and scurry of the day!

Tyler got rid of all of his supplies and then we headed to the cafeteria for popsicles. Tyler ran around with his friends while we chatted with parents. It was a fun evening.

The best part: Tyler got "lost." He said he couldn't find us so he had to go get Mrs. Palmer, who had to come and "find" us. Of course, we were sitting in the cafeteria where we were the whole time, but it just goes to show you, that even at 7 - and second grade - they still need their parents!

TAW: Friday

And the week ends with notes, cards and poems of appreciation from the students.

Of course, our child waited until 9 p.m. last night to do his "note" of appreciation so it was a bit rushed, but it was still backed by lots of love. He had at least been thinking about what he wanted to do for his appreciation items.

For his teacher, he drew a picture of her teaching a student multiplication. They don't learn this in first-grade, but I think he wants to learn this so maybe that's why he put that on there?

He was supposed to write his note on the top of the sheet, but he forgot and wrote his note on the back (I was going to put them on colored paper; and the ink wouldn't bleed through):  

Thank you for teaching me. you are awesome. Tyler B. 

He did all of the spelling himself, which I was quite proud of him for doing! And the note of thanks was all his own.

For the nurse, he drew a picture of her helping to put a Band-Aid on a student who is hurt. He doesn't have much interaction with the nurse, so he thinks all she does is give out Band-Aids and maybe pull teeth, if she has too because Mrs. Clark is out of the office.

He wrote his note all on the front:

We thank you for helping us. Mrs. Lutz you are awesome

Again, he did all of the spelling himself, and came up with his own thank you items.

It's fun to see my child's creativity come out not only in his drawings but in his words now that he can spell and write. Although rushed, it was a pretty fun activity. I hope the teacher and nurse know how much they are appreciated!

TAW: Thursday

Today's task was to shower the teacher and nurse in gift cards.

While they never tell you "how much," they did put a $5 "suggested" amount on the sheet. Since we collected for Teacher Appreciation Week at the beginning of the year, we had about $100 to spend on this week, which I saved and used today.

Instead of having the kids bring in a bunch of $5 gift cards, I took the collection, divided it in half and purchased two gift cards each for the nurse and our teacher. They got $50 in guaranteed gift cards.

And I took the work off of the parents.

Three stores later, I had my four gift cards, all based on the teachers wants!

And since I can't fathom giving the teacher a stack of gift cards, I created these fun paper owls to house the gift cards. I got the idea from the Target gift cards I purchased for both teachers (you can see it peeking out below).

Using those as inspiration, I free-handed the shape of the owl and created these two fun "ladies" out of miscellaneous scraps of paper. I used brads on the wings so they would move, and googly eyes to give the eyes movement.

On the back, I put the gift cards in a small sealable pouch and stapled it on and attached a handwritten note that says:

You are 'OWL' fically the BEST!
That's why we're showering you today!
Enjoy and Relax!

TAW: Tuesday

Don't take pictures at 10 p.m.

Today is the Teacher Appreciation Day ... as if an entire week isn't confusing enough.

I suppose if you are going to pick one day to celebrate your teacher, today would be that day.

I've read plenty of places that teacher's love letters and hand-drawn pictures the best - even over gift cards. I often wonder how many of those are actually written from a teacher's perspective? I do believe the teacher does NOT want something with an apple on it nor does he/she want something with a pencil, although our teacher did ask for mechanical pencils for today's activity....

Which leads me into Tuesday - the day where parents bring in the teacher's most requested school supplies to help get him or her through the last few weeks of school.

Our teacher asked for mechanical pencils and staples.

The nurse asked for dixie cups, Clorox wipes, hand wipes, chewable Benedryl and chewable ibuprofen {this is where I come in as a parent and say "I had no idea the nurse could even give my kid medicine!?! And that's followed by, why doesn't the school provide this for them?!?}

A quick email to the parents and they graciously provided all of the requested items for the teacher/nurse.

I sent in these two containers with Tyler - one red, one green; both purchased from the Dollar Store - so the teacher could collect the supplies in the respective bin and get them where they needed to go.

I probably should have told her that plan. Whoops.

Regardless, they both got a new bin with their name {yeah for my Cricut and vinyl!} and their supplies.

Now tomorrow, they're going to be celebrated with a surprise gift from the PTO.

I'll be back with my handiwork on Thursday.

At Ashlee's school, I sent in her teacher appreciation gifts today {she actually missed school yesterday so it worked out well}. I gave you a sneak peak on Friday.

She was excited to show Mr. Jordan and Ms. Kristin their gifts, which she happily helped me with {and by happily, I mean, she got me to change around the super heroes so they were on the "wrong" containers but since it was for her teachers, I just went with it}

I made both of them candy jars in the likes of gumball machines. I filled them with their favorite candy, Raisinettes, or non-candy, sunflower seeds. And adorned {mod podge!} them with super heroes, which I got from a blog I follow/love, Kiki & Company, about 2 years ago for free {I've been holding onto them for just the right project; originally, they were Father's Day printables}.

I used what was supposed to be food labels for the "cards" to the teachers. I came up with a super hero saying {one that's somewhat popular on the web} and used baker's twine to attach it to the candy jar.....

I love how they turned out! The super hero theme was great for both teachers, since one was male and one was female. And they seemed genuinely excited to get them - even if Ashlee was so excited to give it to them that she accidentally dropped one of the lids and it shattered on the floor {luckily, she was able to glue it}.

The entire candy jar, including candy, cost me about $5. I used left over spray paint and paint for the containers {I'm a bit of a paint hoarder}.