A Gift For The Perfect Teacher

What do you give the perfect teacher? 

Okay—this is my first year at home.  Prior to the glorious (and don’t forget glamorous) stay at home gig ,I was an art teacher at the local middle school.  I received my share of gifts(thank you parents and students! *hugs*) some of which were great and others…

Ha ha ha!  Just kiddin’.

But-- I find that this is a conundrum a lot of parents/kids face---What do I get my teacher? 

Well,you really don’t have to get us anything.  We do, what we do, cause we really love it.  Honestly.  Buuuuuuuuuuuut if I had to pick out my favorite teacher gifts (cause who doesn’t like a present?) —I have narrowed it down to two things.

1. The Starbucks gift card.  So simple and so easy.  $5 on a card and you have purchased a drink for your favorite teacher and honestly probably made his/her morning.  With a classroom full of 8th graders… before 8am—coffee is a must.
2. The gift of time.  When a parent can come in and be an extra pair of hands-wow!  What a treat.  Even parents who feel shy about helping in the room would still do great things by helping with  a spreadsheet on the computer or cutting out laminate.  All wonderful, cause the gift of time really is priceless.

Lillie’s preschool teacher is just so amazing and I feel blessed that Lil got to have her as part of her school experience.  So I thought what could I do that would be “a good” teacher gift. 

How ‘bout another Pink and Green Mama idea?  Yes.  That is what I will do.

Lil and her classmates start every morning with centers.  The centers change and rotate throughout the year and I thought—why not make a new center to add to the mix? 

The Goose and I got busy making a sensory box—we did a little each night and I am really proud of our first time results.

First we made some rainbow rice.  I highly recommend that you get your rice at Costco as this will probably be the most pricy part of your box.

A little food coloring and a little rubbing alcohol and shake up in a zip lock—voila some amazing results.

Miss MaryLea said she once used hand sanitizer in a pinch—wouldn’t it be great to use some vanilla or lavender scented sanitizer?  The alcohol smell took some time to evaporate but we just let the rice dry outside on cookie sheets and it was humid…

      Glass Globs for our Glass Glob Lake

 Fairies –another ideas from P and G Mama.  I have also made these for a playdate and it was well received by all the little ones.

12 little polymer clay ladybugs to represent the kids in the class and 3 to represent the teachers.

   

    A unicorn (okay really it is just a horse spray painted from the dollar store) and a Styrofoam dot pathway.

    The dinosaurs were guarding the evil rat king—rocks,beans and dinosaurs all from the $ store. 

The kids will have playing with this—rice will get mixed up and they will have fun making the box their own.  And Lil’s teacher was tickled pink with her new center for next school year.  xoxo

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