gifts for teachers 7+5yr old can help to make

[3duracellbunnies]

Thought I would try to get organised early as it always takes so long, and they lose enthusiasm if we have a production line. I need 3 gifts for teachers and 5TAs, so about 8 in total, all female, the TAs don't specifically support my girls - i.e. In teacher's small group etc, but would like to give them all something.

Needs to be ready for July, but thought could start over Easter if we need to. They have been great so would like to give them something special. Thoughts so far are fairy house/ garden (the teachers I think would like them, not so sure about TAs- does it matter if they get different gifts?), also not sure how to do cheaply, or to keep plants alive- I tend to neglect things! Other thoughts were some sort of clothes peg magnets(any ideas?); or something we could do with the old vhs plastic boxes we have cluttering up our shed ? Oh, also I hoard jam jars 'just in case'. Or any other fab ideas you might have.

They both enjoy craft but needs to be fairly closely directed to get 'good' results.

As a teacher myself I would suggest something that they can use or consume. There is nothing worse than recieving 30 trinkets at the end of the year, especially if you have a small house. Why don't you use your jam jars to make some home made jam and then label them with a thoughful thankyou poem.

How about buying up some cheap white mugs and painting them with ceramic paint... I did a tuteback in December which might help.

You could directly paint or sponge over a stencil for a really naive Emma Bridgewater look... Then pop in some home made biscuits... Can never be enough mugs in the staff room :)

We made tie dyed silk scarves as an after school craft to make gifts for mother's day and they were lovely.

Doing lemon or clementine curd is good because the temperatures are very low for cooking and so the kids can do all the stirring and be really involved. Good recipe for clementine curd from Jamie Oliver online.
I found cheapest way to buy jam jars was to buy value lemon curd from Sainsbury's and empty!

I have a friend who was a teacher and she was given so many mugs over the years that they just ended up in her loft. I agree that gifts that can be consumed, or even just a home made card tend to be appreciated more.