Teacher Gifts

Tomorrow is Peeper's last day of Mother's Day Out, and I'm pretty proud of myself for having our teacher gifts together last night! A whole day in advance!

I would've preferred to have given them something like a Starbucks gift card, but there are eight that she wants to give gifts to, so that's not happening! She has four regular teachers (three at a time), plus the director. Then, she also wants to give gifts to three others who've subbed in her class quite a bit. So, I knew I'd better do something cheap.

Their end-of-year program and party tomorrow are pirate themed (she gets to wear her costume!), so I thought I'd go with that, and after going a few different directions with it in my mind, I came up with this.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this awesome print/cut/foldable treasure chest.

In Photoshop, I colored it and added personalized labels for each teacher, then printed them on heavy paper. Actually, it was greeting card paper. I was a little concerned about the crease, but would you believe (I couldn't!) that it ended up right where I needed to fold anyway - the "hinge" of the lid!

Then we filled them with treasure!

On the bottom we were able to just perfectly fit some "silver" (Hershey nuggets) and "gold" (Rolos).

It was Peeper's idea to use M & Ms for "jewels." I wasn't sure the teachers would get it, so I found a graphic and made a label for them.

Of course, we only needed some of the colors, so Peeper helped me sort them (she did most of it, actually) and we got to eat the leftovers.

We had just enough room to fit them on top.

A few days ago, I "interviewed" Peeper about school and her teacher, then I put her answers together in letters to each teacher. They were all the same except for the first and last lines, where I put what she told me each teacher (she stuck with the "treasure" theme) and what she says they "always say." I printed them on an off-white paper, roughed up the edges, and had her sign them all.

Guess who?

A sample letter (the font is Treasure Map Dead Hand.)

Dear Miss S,

I loved being in your class. You are a diamond!

Thank you for helping me learn how to share toys and how to be careful.

My favorite thing about MDO is the toys. My favorite things to play with are the magnifying glasses, and my favorite books are the ones about Clifford. My favorite thing we do is going to the gym and running around. My favorite songs that we have sung are Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Happy Birthday, Jesus.

I have also learned that I should have “Helping hands, looking eyes, a quiet mouth, listening ears and wiggly toes,” we should walk “Straight like a pencil, not like spaghetti,” and in the elevator, we should “Zip it, lock it and put it in our pockets.”
I will always remember the way you tell us, “Hands in your laps.”

Have a great summer!
Your Student, Peeper

She described the others as "a ruby," "gold," "a necklace," "an emerald," and "jewelry," and remembers them saying "Be quiet when somebody is reading a story," and "Mrs. D. can hear you," and rocking the babies to sleep, coming into her class, and being "sometimes in the kitchen."

Then I printed name tags for each, rolled them up and tied the tags on with twine.

I found a basket just the right size, and they're all packed up ready to take to school in the morning.