Affordable presents for 50+ children!! Aargh!

[makemineapinot]

I'm a primary teacher and teach in 2 classes 50/50 - one class of y4/p5 and one y1/p2 but in total have over 50 children to buy for this Christmas!! Anyone gave any ideas? Tried ordering finger lasers but they won't be delivered in time! Have bought mini packs of Haribo and Tesco value 10 for £1 crackers but want to give them something nice!! Problem is I'm a lone parent with NO financial help from elsewhere and also want to give my own dc a good Christmas. I work in a very deprived area and my present might be the only one some children get so want to make it special but am skint! Any ideas/links very much appreciated - and £1 per child impacts significantly on my finances

At my dc school they have got presents most Christmases from the teachers. Its normally something like a wee bag of haribo and mini pack of pencils or a fancy pencil or a pack of stickers or something else about that value. The children enjoyed the excitement of getting a gift from the teacher and unwrapping it rather than what was actually in it. The gifts probably cost about 30p per child, nothing expensive.

I was going to suggest the bookmark too. My daughter received one from her teacher one year, with her name on and loved it. It's especially cool if you personalise to include each child's favourite thing (spurs for the spurs fan, ballet shoes for the dancer etc...)

If you really want to give something with it, then a book would be cheap. I've just done my daughter's birthday party (60 kids) and most of them got a book. If you split sets most will be under £1, and some only 50p. I got a mixture of joke books for the boys, rainbow fairy books, the cute animal stories from battersea dogs home etc. of course, a book and bookmark goes great together and is an appropriate gift for a teacher to give .

Bookpeople for the books obviously

I love the idea of personalised laminated bookmarks! It would be quite a bit of work with 50 children, but what a great idea. My dds would be delighted with something like that.

Wow, really love Woolgars toys! I remember some of them from my childhood :)

Also: You are a lovely teacher.

you are lovely - i really hope Santa brings you a lottery win, or failing that a large amount of chocolate.

when my ds was in year 1 his teacher gave everyone everyone a very small notebook with their initial in glitter on the cover. He's still got it and he's in yr 7 now.

Thank you for all the kind comments - been without Internet at home all week!! I really like the bookmark idea so think I'll go with that plus some home bargains Haribo, a Tesco value cracker (10 for £1), Amazon bouncy ball and a pencil cos no one ever has a pencil! And I like giving them a wee something on the last day of term, as a send off for Christmas and then at least some children have a present to open and there's no pressure on parents as its too late to buy a gift if they hadn't already wanted to do so