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? 

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Back to School Teacher Gift with Printable

It's Meet the Teacher day at my daughter's school. We are so excited about her teacher this year. Actually, the entire second grade team at her school is awesome so we would have been happy with any of the teachers. I seem pretty stuck this year on chalkboards, having a ball in class, and cake balls so I messaged her teacher on FB to be sure that there were no allergies or hating on chocolate.

As I suspected, chocolate is one of her faves. So of course, I etched a glass container with ABC & a ♥- oh how I love me some contact paper, my Cricut and some Armor Etch. I then filled the container with chocolate cake balls, added some bakers twine, and the printable below.

I made the printable in PicMonkey. I even included the blank copy above so that you can download and add your child's name and year. I saved mine to my iPhone and sent to Walgreens to print off as a 4x6 picture. If you do this, be sure to hit crop and look at your aspect ratio in 4x6 to be sure you don't cut anything off.

This will also be a great Teacher Appreciation Gift, so get it pinned now. Have a wonderful 2014-15 school year. Don't forget to volunteer and join your local PTA chapter (of course I had to get that plug in).

 

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!

A Very Pinteresting Christmas Day 15: For the Teachers

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I can't believe today is the last day of 2013's A Very Pinteresting Christmas. I have had so much fun bringing you all the food, fun and crafts that I have found on Pinterest this year. If you missed any of my days, be sure to go back and check them out. Today is for the Teachers in my life, I mean my children's lives. I love those special people.

I made Peppermint Puppy Chow and Crow Bars for B's teachers and found these cute little Chevron bag toppers to go on the snack size baggies. How cute are these?  Perfect for a 13 year old boy to give to his Middle School techers, not too babyish, but then again the teachers still know his Moma made the treats so they are safe to eat. They even had guides to help me cut them perfectly. KUDOS to balancinghome.com! 

Miss K's teacher gets this:

I'm pretty pumped about this one. If you recall on Day 7, I told you about the craft we made during the Pinterest Party. It was these chalkboard clipboards. I followed the same exact steps but made my own template with her name and stick figure. I figure she can use it as a decoration outside her door or actually use it to take notes on. 

I prepared the clipboards ahead of time. I really do like the spray chalkboard paint.

Then I used wax paper, wax side down. The direction called for transfer paper. I still do not have a clue what transfer paper is. Then I centered the design sheet over the wax paper/clipboard and begin tracing over the letters with a pencil. 

 The wax left an impression like this.

I took a fine point white paint pen and when over where I had traced. Once dry, I lightly sanded over the letters to give it more of the chalk effect. 

Thank you for tuning in each day this week as I brought you "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" Linkup and if you have any Pinterest inspired activities throughout the week, be sure to grab the above button and linkup your ideas! "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" was 15 days of Pinterest inspired food, fun, crafty days of linkups that all can be used during this wonderful season of joy. It ran from December 2-20 here at The 4-Crow's.

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!