A thread about sensible gifts for deserving teachers, not mad gifts organised by whackjob meglomaniacs!

[DrSeuss]

There was a thread today about a woman who had been verbally abused by the loon who had placed herself in charge of the "class present". This thread angered and upset me on many levels. Who placed the psycho in charge? Who decreed that there must be an expensive gift? What if your kids hated this teacher or you thought they were a waste of space? How would the teacher feel when given an obviously expensive gift? What would the teacher say if they knew that there had been bullying involved?
I am a parent and a teacher. I would feel embarassed by such a gift. If I knew there was bullying involved, I would return it as part of my role is to model good behaviour for the pupils. I don't want gifts from people who don't like me, just because they think they should.
If you wish to get your kids' teachers a present, please do. But every teacher I know would be upset to receive a present where money had been obtained in this way or an expensive gift from people they knew had very little.

My kids' teachers this year were excellent. To thank them, I am making cupcake bouquets, costing about three pounds each. Previous gifts have been a chocolate pizza and homemade sweets. IMHO, these gifts show that I value the teacher but are not OTT.
Incidentally, one of the gifts that I still have and treasure is a letter written by one of my pupils, telling me I had been a great teacher. If that's what you can run to this year, send a letter, maybe with a picture drawn by your child. I guarantee the teacher will love it! Other suggestions are cookies (if you can't bake, B&M have packs of cookie dough at under a pound) or homemade paper flowers.

Please let's stop the competitive present/bullying crap.

i teach secondary. it is nice when you are given gifts, but the things i have loved best have been the handwritten notes/cards thanking me for my work

My Ds 4 and I made 3 of these for his playschool teacher and two assistants a few weeks ago when he finished school. (In Ireland)

They went down really well, Ds is a different child leaving playschool than when he started and I appricated how much they helped.

They were really easy to make from old pots and paint that were in the house and I spent 9 euro on the flowers. Ds was really proud of them too.

pinterest.com/pin/40391727878341396/

Beautiful, Baby. Exactly what I meant by a sensible present.

I made a reusable grocery bag out of apple-patterned fabric.

www.burdastyle.com/projects/charlie-reusable-grocery-bag

I would love to be given that! And I can think of games to play in class with it if I didn't use it at home.

baby I love your flowers and Kat the bag idea is fantastic, if only I could sew!

I made lemon sugar hand scrub, was very very quick and easy to do and the teachers (said they) loved it, I hope that they did! I bought a lemon flannel to go with it and wrapped it in florists cellophane, probably cost about £4 per (quite large) pot if not less.

Love the bag pattern, nice and simple.

We do mdf letters of the teachers name painted by which ever child is in the class. Costs under a fiver and my Dad loves making the letters. All of the teachers (so fare) have loved and used them. I agree completely it's not about the money and as for the bullying psycho well that's all I can say is poor teacher.

Allice-hand scrub recipe, please? Lots of gardeners I know would love that.
Home Bargains Kilner-type jars to package it?
I was given some sand art bownies which were lovely. Can't make them for DS's teacher as she really can't cook and had to have her mum make fairy cakes fo the class!

brownies
allrecipes.com/recipe/sand-art-brownies/detail.aspx

They are fantastic. I am going to do those too!

Forgot- DD's swimming teacher is getting this

Hands up if the words, "Chase that ducky, reach out long" are familiar to you?!

X post by loads. I meant the flower pots. Going to look at the rest now.

We are giving sunshine cookies in a jar, like your brownies, with m+ms and oats, just need marg, as was driving me mad trying to find a recipie which would fit in the jam jars which didn't need just half an egg! Hope they/ their children enjoy it.

Also main class teachers are getting an old clear plastic video box, with the sleve and video removed, the children have made their own decorations to replace the film cover, which actually look kinda cool in a homemade way. Inside there are teaching supplies (post-it notes, stickers, paper clips etc) and some herbal teas/ hot chocolate. The dd have also written cards. Might put note in suggesting that when emptied they could use them to store thank you cards, not sure on that one though. Hope they like them.

I know ours are some of the few children at school who insist on making their own, as I am rather hypocritically helping to collect donations as I am a class rep. I have told people up front that I personally don't donate, but most parents find it easier to give a tenner than do their own thing. Although I am grateful to the teachers, I think that the main thanks should come from the child, it is their education, not mine.

We are drawing on mugs for each of DS's nursery teachers. There are 6 teachers in total and we will also be making a Thank you card.

I have given teachers homemade candles in cups and re-used IKEA candle glasses.

I went through a 6 month stint of knitting loads of facecloths a couple of years back and still have a few in the stash - so that's a handy backup that I've given a few teachers - nice facecloth with a nice soap wrapped in it.

DD muttered at Christmas about some of my jam for one teacher - apparently she likes a scone at her break - but then changed her mind to a mug (DD likes to buy mugs, as her classroom assistant likes coffee, and her teacher last year also liked her coffee; this year's teacher is "always losing her pen" so a notebook and matching pen were given that I'd gotten in the post Christmas sale for very little but look cool). There is a "class present" (voucher) usually organised too (the office at school usually ends up with envelopes for each teacher and CA that the parents rep for the class have put in for anyone who wants to contribute). Creche minders have usually been chocolates or wine.

I keep planning on making those bags - I have LOADS of fabric but never have the time.

There's some great ideas here - my bf's a teacher and is going on maternity leave soon - I now want to make up a series of jars of cookie/brownie mix for her

drseuss I used this recipe here, www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Hand-Scrub/ but I added vitamin E and used lemon essential oil.

I bought large jars from the pound shop and some small kilner type jars from Ebay, postage doubles the price of them though unfortunately.

Dd1 has made these for her teachers. I'll also do some baking as there are a few teaching assistants.

Last year I bought big jars and filled them with the ingredients to make cookies in layers. Saw that idea on someone's blog and thought it would be easy for dd to do...not sure ours looked very appetising though

Wow, I am spoilt for choice now. No more tatty boxes of chocolates for us! :o

We made fudge one Christmas (I felt like Willy Wonka) and put it in 50p mugs from the cheap shop. Which was nice.

For those of you who have given jars oof cookie mix before, I was wondering whether I should give a few biscuits too made with the same recipe to inspire them to make them. My children gobbled them up, they do taste nice. Either that or maybe a few homemade tissue paper flowers per TA/ teaching assistant (or maybe just the jars if time is short). Which do you think is better, jar and biscuits or jar and flowers?

I like jar and flowers but the jar is a gift in itself. More than adequate.

DS chose to give his teacher last year a charity football present ( so a kid in charity target area gets a ball, you get a card. This was for a teacher who coaches the school football team.

I am a teacher and, with the proviso that nothing is expected in the first place, I reckon the gifts that get consumed or used up are the absolute tops. With a note to keep. But I would hate to think that people were feeling pressure to make something gorgeous. There's nothing quite like a packet of nice biscuits for the staffroom and they keep til September too.