Got Smarties? Here's an idea for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Warning: if you are a teacher of one of my children or one that I volunteer for, DO NOT READ THIS POST. Seriously what are you still doing reading?

My favorite week of the school year is coming up in a little over a month. Teacher Appreciation Week- May 2-6 in case you don't  have it on the calendar yet.  This year I get to plan for not a dozen (includes specials teachers), but for about 80!!!

Planning began in January. Shopping began in February. My latest purchase was today at Dollar General. Bags of Smarties for .75! I bought 10 bags. Oh yes, I did.

Now I am not going to give all of my ideas in this post, because I know there are a few of those 80 teachers/staff members that are still reading my blog- they get an F for following instructions today.

I made this printable for my Freshman son's six teachers. I will just take string and attach 3 or 4 rolls of Smarties to it.

 Here is a blank one. You can download at this link.

Need one for a group of teachers...

I can't wait to see all the new ideas this year for TAW week. Remember to thank the Special Teachers and Bus Drivers also!!

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day 5: Spirit FlipFlops

It wouldn't be Teacher Appreciation for my kid's teachers if they didn't get this gift. I have made them every year since Miss K has been in school. My boy has even had me make a few pair for his teachers over the year. I love making beaded Spirit Flip Flops. I make and sell usually for $15 a pair. They began years ago as a football fundraiser and now when I make them they help fund any and all extracurricalar activities my kids participate in. 

I even made a new printable this year. It's simple and says it all. Without great teachers to make the year a success, it really would be a flop! I printed it as a 3x5 and it worked great. 

This concludes Teacher Appreciation Week 2015. Be sure to check every day this week for the gifts that were given to our special teachers this year. 

Teacher Appreciation Week 2015, Day 4: EOS Lip Balm Printable

Day 4 of National Teacher Appreciation week and the teacher deserves an apple, or like the printable below says the entire tree! It never ceases to amaze me that when I need to print something my ink runs out and so does my paper. I guess that is what happens in a crafty household. 

Have you seen all the EOS Lip Balm crafts on Pinterest? They are awesome. I actually had to come up with this gift to replace another gift that did not come in on time. Anyway. my Miss K was very curious as to how I was going to make that "apple" stick to the paper. Here's the trick. Take it out of the original packaging. Once you cut the circle out of the printable, open the lip balm and then close it back between the piece of paper. I promise, the teacher is not going to mind. Just don't use their yummy lip balm. 

This is how the printable is supposed to look. Ignore my terrible ink job. This blog and blogger are real. We are not perfect. Things happen. Thoughts matter the most.

Teacher Appreciation 2015, Day 3: Thanks for Being A Sweet TEAcher

We are on day three of National Teacher Appreciation Week. My daughter's teacher just so happens to love sweet tea! 

You can download the printable here. I printed it as a 4x6. 

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day 2: Pencil Pretzels Rods

Today is the day that all the specials teachers and the bus driver get appreciated. My daughter is also giving one to her teacher and her teacher from last year. 

These are inspired from Parents magazine a few years ago. I love that magazine.  

I will say that theirs are much brighter and better covered than mine (not sure why the first picture isn't very bright, maybe because it is packaged). It must be the candy melts. Mine came from Hobby Lobby along with the tags and bags. They were a lot of fun to make. And to be honest with you very yummy. One thing I do know about teachers, is they like fun food! 

Teacher Appreciation Week 2015: Day 1 #ThankATeacher #TAW2015

It's that time of year again. Time to THANK A TEACHER! If you can read this post, you better be thanking a teacher. If you want, I even have a blank printable of the above picture at this link. Even if you do not have children yet or children who are not old enough to be enrolled in a school district. What? I bet you didn't know you could do that. Yes, you can. If you live in a community that houses a school, join your school's PTA (Parent Teachers Association). At the elementary school where we attend, it's a $8 membership fee. This fee goes to local, state, and federal chapters. Your membership even comes with benefits. You decide how active you want to be. PTA is dedicated to empowering parents to make a difference in the education, health, and safety of America’s children. Since 1984, National PTA has designated the first full week in May as a special time to honor the men and women who lend their passion and skills to educating our children. Our TEACHERS!

This year's National Teacher's Appreciation Week is May 4-8. For those of you rushing around still thinking of ideas of what to get those incredible, hardworking, snot nose wiping, shoe tying, sock finding teachers, I am going to show you daily what I am sending. A few my own ideas, a few Pinterest inspired.

Now keep in mind these are the incredible people that deal with your beautiful and wonderful children that you labored so hard to get into this world only to send off to school for 6-10 hours a day to enrich their minds and nurse their boo boos. You want to make these gifts special. Mine are always on the frugal side, but from the heart. I like to send something every single day with my elementary student because she has only one teacher, then I send one thing to her specials teachers and the bus driver. For my son, he has six teachers so each one of them get a special token of appreciation.

Day 1: Strawberry Pie in Etched Pie Plate with Printable

How yummy is this? Here is the recipe. It's our fave. And  one we have shared several times on the blog! 

And here is the printable that I attached. It is a simple one. Easy as π to make in PicMonkey. I made it more generic for my readers to use. 

The etched pie plate....hmmm who forgets to take a picture of that? Me. Oh well, that's kind of a surprise at the end of eating anyway. 

Tomorrow I will show you day two's gift. What are you giving your children's incredible teachers this year? 

*This post contains an affiliate link

Teacher Appreciation Week #STSMChat with Offers.com

Don't forget to thank a teacher or ten this week. It's National Teacher Appreciation Week. If you missed my twitter chat and then my G+ Hangout with Offers.com, I have embedded it below.

Teacher Appreciation 2014: May 5-9

It's that time of year again. Time to THANK A TEACHER! If you can read this post, you better be thanking a teacher. If you want, I even have a blank printable of the above picture at this link. Even if you do not have children yet or children who are not old enough to be enrolled in a school district. What? I bet you didn't know you could do that. Yes, you can. If you live in a community that houses a school, join your school's PTA (Parent Teachers Association). In my school district it's a $6 membership fee, which goes to local, state, and federal chapters. Your membership even comes with benefits. You decide how active you want to be. PTA is dedicated to empowering parents to make a difference in the education, health, and safety of America’s children. Since 1984, National PTA has designated the first full week in May as a special time to honor the men and women who lend their passion and skills to educating our children. Our TEACHERS!

This year's National Teacher's Appreciation Week is May 5-9. For those of you rushing around still thinking of ideas of what to get those incredible, hardworking, snot nose wiping, shoe tying, sock finding teachers, I am going to show you a few things that my kiddos have sent to the AMAZING teachers in past years. (Sorry, I can't show you 2014 gifts, the teachers stalk my blog like kids on Christmas morning.)

Now keep in mind these are the incredible people that deal with your beautiful and wonderful children that you labored so hard to get into this world only to send off to school for 6-10 hours a day to enrich their minds and nurse their boo boos. You want to make these gifts special. Mine are always on the frugal side, but from the heart. I like to send something every single day with my elementary student because she has only one teacher, then I send one thing to her specials teachers. For my son, he has six teachers so each one of them get a special token of appreciation.

FlipFlops 

What teacher doesn't need a cute pair? I hand sew each bead on with TLC. I found the cute printable at this site. 

This is my go to for the multiple teacher, specials, the Principal, secretaries and the nurse. Who am I kidding, this is my go to for about any gift. I absolutely adore this printable. Super easy and inexpensive. You can get an 18 pack of assorted M&M's at Wal-Mart for $10.98, that averages .61 each.

Clorox Wipes. 

Not exactly personal, but on every teachers wish list and every parents mind. 

Dry Erase markers. Do you know how many of these a teacher uses each year? And on a teacher's salary every gift of these is appreciated. Love this cute printable. Can be used for so many ideas. 

And finally this is my all time favorite gift for my kids to put together. This drink carrier is stuffed with the teacher's favorite snacks & drinks. It is decorated with my child's art/homework from throughout the year.

To see other ideas that I have put together over the year visit me here and here. Also, be sure to follow my Pinterest board. What ideas are you planning this year? 

Valentine's Day Teachers Gift with Printable #GiftsOnABudget

They say the way to every teachers HEART is food, right? 

Okay, it may also be in the form of a gift card, but I can probably count on one hand the times I have purchased a gift card for anyone, for any occasion. 

Miss K is in 1st Grade this year. We adore her teacher.  Actually, I can't think of a single teacher in my eight years of having public education teachers that we haven't adored.

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.- Brad Henry

Here is this year's Valentine's Gift for Mrs. J, hopefully she won't see this post before she gets the gift! 

I picked up a cute jar at Wal-Mart and etched on all four sides- A,B,C & a ♥, used a little bakers twine, attached the following printable that I made using PicMonkey, and filled it with homemade chocolate cake balls!

I have enclosed blank printable at this link that you can save to your computer then edit. Then just open your Word, insert a picture and size it according to your jar. 

Hope you all have a BALL this Valentine's Day!!! Especially you teachers!

It Really is the Quietest Pencil Sharpener Ever!!

I have a lot of teacher friends. I like giving gifts to teachers. Why not? They are the ones who gave me a 17 year education and now educate, nurture and help develop my almost (one more day) 7th grader and 1st grader. I spend my "school" day with a teacher's baby. She told me about these fantastic, wonderful, QUIET, pencil sharpeners. I didn't believe her. A quiet sharpener is a teacher's dream, right my friends? Anything to avoid classroom interruptions. So, like any curious blogger/homeroom mom/PTA member, I set about on some teacher research during teacher appreciation week. I requested to do a review and was approved. The owner of Classroom Friendly Supplies, Troy Decoff,  is an elementary school teacher himself.  He first started selling these sharpeners after realizing that many fellow teachers were also completely fed up with the loud and inefficient pencil sharpeners that they had in their classrooms. Oh I remember those terrible, noisy, messy manual sharpeners, the only ones that truly work when sharpened. I HATE my electric one that we use at home. We have to jab the pencil so far in and it eats half the pencil before it gets sharp. I detest even more when my son tries to do homework in an ink pen. Anyway, Troy responded to my request and told me that I was exactly the type of person they were looking for to review the sharpener.

Guess what? It really is the quietest pencil sharpener ever. Troy sent me the Groovy Green one to try out. Guess what, I don't have to hold the pencil to sharpen it. The sharpener comes apart easily for cleaning, and I don't think I have ever seen a lovelier pencil point. Check out my Vine.
Teachers/PTA Members/Administrators/Schools/Homeschoolers/Parents/Businesses/anyone that needs a fantabulous pencil sharpener. Ages 5 and older can use. I highly recommend that you visit and purchase your quiet sharpener today at Classroom Friendly Supplies. Also, be sure to check them out on Facebook. 

Teacher's Appreciation Week May 6-10

Is it already that week again? The past two years I have shared with you my ideas and gifts for my children's teachers at The RHOK here and here. This year since I am no longer writing there and can't "hide" them as well, I simply can't share all of them in this post- surprises will definitely be ruined. I suppose I will just be posting them each day after school when I know the teacher has received them.

I will however post what my son will be giving to each of his seven teachers as a token of appreciation and what my daughter will be giving to her specials teachers.

Sometimes I think when a child reaches middle school those teachers are forgotten. Not to mention the specials teachers who are only seen an hour or so each week. These were super easy and inexpensive. You can get an 18 pack of assorted M&M's at Wal-Mart for $10.98, that averages .61 each. Then I found the printable, somewhere- I can't remember. Had it saved on my phone and just added the text with PicMonkey. I have lots of great ideas on my Pinterest boards, be sure to check them out for last minute ideas.

Well, I guess I better get off here and continue to prepare for next week. There are rolls to be made, salads to be prepared, and gifts to finish up...

What will your kid's teachers be receiving this week?



Update: I finally found where the printable came from. Check out this site for great ideas!