We all want to celebrate the teacher who guides, encourages, motivates, shepherds, and influences our favorite students. There's no scarcity of occasions -- end of school, the holidays, Teacher Appreciation Week, welcome back, get well soon -- but some of us could sure use a little inspiration. Not to worry: These ideas, from folks like you, worked so well they were shared on our message boards. There's bound to be something here that your own teacher -- and student -- will take great pleasure in receiving and experience deep pride in creating.

When everyone contributes, the results are wonderful -- as these suggestions from folks like you indicate!

1. Camping or Beach Chair
This year, we gave the teacher a fold-up camping chair with the name of each child in her class written on it with fabric paint. She loved it! Practical, memorable, and inexpensive.
Variation: My child's class contributed toward a nice canvas beach chair. A parent came in and took each child outside with fabric paint and had them each place their handprint and their names on the chair.

2. Clasroom Cookbook
The students will each have a page with their picture and recipe on it. Then we'll laminate the page and put it in book form with round metal hoops.

3. Custom T-Shirts
On the front we put the class picture and the school year, and on the back we wrote all of the student names. On the last day students put their handprint above their names with the colored dye for clothes.
Variation: I bought a dark T-shirt and got all the children to to put their handprint on it in neon paint. (Parents helped me on a day that we knew the teacher would not be there.) Parents then helped add the names to all the handprints once they had dried. All the children loved it -- and so did the teacher.

4. Flowerpots, Planters, Garden Joys
Ceramic Flowerpot with Fingerprint Flowers: I bought a large flowerpot from a ceramics store, brought it to class, and had all the kids put their fingerprints on it and sign their names with pencil (it burns off). Then I took it to the store and turned all their fingerprints into flowers, bees, bugs, etc. with paint, painted the kids' names on over the pencil, and added the teacher's name and year at the top. When it was glazed and finished, I put gardening gloves, forget-me-not seeds, and a gardening tool in the pot. I had all the kids sign one side of the tool, then on the other I wrote "Thank you for helping us grow." She loved it. She even cried!

Handprints of Love: I bought a large terra-cotta pot and had my son's class put their handprints with paint all over it. On the brim of the pot we lettered "Handprints of Love." We placed pretty flowers in the pot for the teacher to enjoy all summer. (NOTE: We did not plant the flowers in the pot, because it would have been too heavy to carry. We delivered bags of dirt to the teacher's house.)

Fingerprints on Clay Pot: At the end of the year I had each of the children place several fingerprints on a large clay pot with different-colored paints. With paint markers I took the fingerprints and made
* ladybugs out of red prints
* caterpillars & dragonflies, green
* bumblebees, yellow
* butterflies & flowers, assorted colors
I sprayed it with a clay pot sealer and wrote all the children's names on the rim of the pot with different-colored paint markers. To finish it off, I planted forget-me-nots in the pot.

Watering Can: Our teacher had a passion for gardening. I picked up an inexpensive watering can, a few colors of acrylic craft paint, clear (high gloss) acrylic spray, and a black permanent marker. When the kids were in for lunch, each one picked a color, lightly dipped a finger-pad into the paint, and made a paint fingerprint. We then wrote the child's name below each print, and when the paint dried created a fingerprint person. Then I took the can outside and sprayed it with several coats of the acrylic spray. Along the top we wrote "To a Great Teacher," plus her name and the school-year dates. We included a garden stone, a handheld shovel and hoe, and a birdhouse. That was four years ago, and she stills talks about it!

5. Recipes in a Basket
The year that my daughter was in kindergarten, the parents pooled their funds for a handmade Longaberger recipe basket and let the children decorate the wooden lid with paint. Then each family contributed one favorite recipe to put in it.

6. Quilts
I came to the class one day when I knew the teacher was going to be out. I took the students in small groups and had them draw their "best" picture with iron-on fabric crayons. I wrote their names in reverse on their masterpieces and then ironed them on squares of fabric. I stitched the squares together and then put them together to make a small, throw-sized quilt.
Variation: Each child drew a quilt block for the teacher with fabric markers. We stitched it together and presented it to her on the last day. She was thrilled.
Variation: We made each child's handprint on a square of muslin with fabric paint. We then made it into a quilt, alternating handprints with a school-themed fabric. On the back of the quilt we put a photo of the whole class.
Variation: Each child traced their hand on a piece of material and signed their name in the middle of it. The room mom quilted them into a beautiful wall-hanging quilt.

7. Video with Songs & Messages
My students gave me a precious end-of-the-year/going-away gift of a videotape that included them singing farewell and good-luck songs, along with footage of each child sharing a favorite memory from our time together and what they liked most about me as a teacher. The videotape is about 45 minutes long and will be cherished by me for all time.

The most appreciated gifts are often made by hand, as these ideas from people like you attest.

1. Birdhouse
Last spring my husband and daughter made a wooden birdhouse for the teacher. They spent hours on this project. Lily helped cut the wood, hammer the nails, and painted different scenes on each side. One side had a spring scene where Lily used her thumbs to make bushes. Her teacher proudly displayed the birdhouse on her desk until the end of the year. When we went back to visit the first day of school this year, she still had the birdhouse sitting on her desk.

2. Book Bag with Iron-on Transfers
I scanned the group photo of her class, then used an iron-on transfer to put it on a book bag. I titled it "Ms. Renea's First Grade Class 2001/2002." On the back of the bag I used another iron-on transfer to list every child's name. I also added some clip art (books, globe, school, etc.) In her thank-you note the teacher told me how much the bag would be cherished.

3. Button Bracelet
A single child or each one in class can contribute to this gift by bringing in one shank-style button. String 50 small safety pins onto two pieces of elastic string, one through the loop on the end, the other through the hole at the top. Open a safety pin and place one button on it, then close and move to another safety pin. When all buttons are strung on the pins, tie the ends of the elastic together, forming two loops that will fit over your wrist. A dab of hot glue secures the knot. This is an easy, no-sew project!

4. Decoupaged Tray Table
My twins and I decorated tray tables for their preschool teachers. We selected photos of all the kids in the class from field trips, parties, and during class. We cut them out and decorated the border of a wooden tray table with the photos. We secured them to the table by using Mod Podge (decoupage) glue and then painted the year and class on the tables. To make them water-resistant, I applied waterproof clear stain after everything was dried.

5. Stationery with Artwork
My 4th-grader brought home some beautiful, bright watercolor paintings of flowers from art class. We scanned the pictures onto our computer, cropped them, and printed them on vellum. We then mounted the vellum onto some buttery yellow card stock that had matching envelopes. We had the coolest set of note cards for the teacher using artwork from class!

6. Teddy Bears
My son's teacher collected teddy bears. I purchased a small T-shirt to fit a bear, took it to school, and had his 3rd-grade class sign their names. I then took the shirt home and fabric-painted over the names to bring them out more. When she opened the box and saw the bear she was thrilled, and when she saw all the names on the shirt she started to cry.
Variation: I went to a local pottery store, found the cutest little teddy bear, and painted it bright pink and yellow. I then put all of the kids' names on it (along with Ms. Jordan's). On the front of the teddy bear's T-shirt I wrote "Class of 2002." It resides in her classroom to this day.

Treat your teacher to an indulgence or a collection of favorite things. These ideas worked so well, folks like you shared them with us.

1. Beach Basket Bonanza
The best teacher or school-bus-driver end-of-the-year gift was a beach bag with beach towels, flip-flops, sunglasses, citronella candles, paperback books, an insulated water bottle holder, plastic tablecloths, paper plates, napkins, cups, sunscreen, moisturizer, bug spray, red nail polish (for summer toes!), and coupons for Italian ice at a local shop.

2. Books, Classroom Materials
We gave a much-appreciated gift certificate from a local book store accompanied by a handmade bookmark from my son.
Variation: A great idea is a gift certificate to a teachers' supply store. Teachers often spend their own money on items for school, and this makes it a little easier!

3. Ice Cream Basket
We included two ice-cream parfait glasses with colored tissue paper inside, an ice cream scooper tied with multi-colored ribbons, hot fudge topping, caramel topping, colored sprinkles, nuts, a jar of cherries, and a certificate to an ice cream parlor -- all in a small basket with a "You're the Tops" card.

4. Maid Service
As a teacher the sweetest gift I ever received was four hours of maid service. The reason behind the gift is what made it so special. Whenever a child was picked up late I would tease them about coming home with me and washing my floor or doing my laundry. A few Christmases ago my 2nd-grade class sat me in front of the room and each child stood up and said, "I could wash your floor ..." "I could do your laundry ..." etc. The last student said, "But our moms wouldn't let us, so we got you this!" Then the whole class came up and handed me a card with a gift certificate for four hours of a cleaning service. I was never so touched by another gift. The class incorporated a joke I had with them and made it personal and memorable. I will never forget that class or that moment.

5. Movie Night
I am a teacher as well as a mom. I receive wonderful gifts from my students each year, but one of the most creative gifts I received was a "movie night" kit wrapped in a popcorn box (from the theater). Inside were several packages of microwave popcorn, Twizzlers, Junior Mints, and Dots, and gift cards to a local video store! It was a gift that my family enjoyed as much as I did.

6. Spas & Spoiling
Before school ended we gave our teacher a $100 gift certificate to a local day spa where she could induldge in a facial, manicure, pedicure, massage -- whatever she chose. We included a brochure listing their services along with the gift certificate. Each family was asked to contribute $5 -- an easy way to give a nice gift. Variation: We purchased a gift certificate for a manicure, and on the card we wrote "This is for you -- after all, your hands are molding the future. Enjoy!" She loved it. We have talked about maybe switching it to a pedicure this year and including this note: "Please enjoy this gift for you. After all, you are busy changing lives ... let someone else change your polish."

7. Welcome Basket
To welcome a new teacher to her school, my daughter and I made a gift basket. We baked zucchini bread so she would have something special for dinner. We made her some bath salts (3/4 cup epsom salts, 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 1/2 cups coarse sea salts, 10 drops of essential oils, and 2-3 drops of vegetable food coloring) placed in a canning jar and covered with fabric. We also included bead magnets made from a bead kit (arrange beads in a design, then iron into place and apply a magnet), themed note pads, and stickers. The teacher was quite pleased!

Gifts for the classroom keep on giving, even when your child has moved up and on. These ideas worked so well, folks like you shared them with us.

1. Books in the Teacher's Honor
My children decided to each give a donation to the school library for new books in honor of their teachers. We gave each teacher a small token gift (so my children each had a gift to give) and a card explaining that we had made a donation to the library.
Variation: I had my kids pick out a favorite book they read this summer and then one they thought they would like to read. We made stickers for the inside that say "For Mrs.____'s Library, Love, ____." The kids included a note explaining their choices. I know that teachers spend a great deal of their own money building up their classroom library. For holidays or other special occasions my children continue adding to their teacher's library collection.

2. Pencil Sharpener, Pens & Other Supplies
Many teachers appreciate gifts for the classroom. In the past, we have given a pencil sharpener to replace a broken one. As a teacher, there is one thing I know for sure: TEACHERS LOVE PENS! If you think your kids are sick of seeing red all over their papers, send in some new colors to that teacher. We love pens for checking papers, Sharpie pens for making posters and other things that decorate classrooms, pens for the overhead projectors, pens for the dry-erase boards -- you name a pen, we love it! Also, WE LOVE COLOR -- yellow and orange and let's not forget purple! Kids love crayons that come in hundreds of colors, and teachers only wish that Crayola made packs of pens to match! (P.S. You might want to throw in a cute little pad of paper to match!)

3. Ping-Pong Table
My daughter's 6th-grade class was always doing some big project, but the room was small so they were limited on work space and a display area for their projects. After getting permission from the teacher and principal, the parents got together and bought a ping-pong table for the classroom. Not only was the table great for workspace, the kids also had fun playing Ping-Pong on rainy days and at class parties. This was a unique and useful gift that future classes would also be able to use.

4. Volunteering
Probably the most appreciated gift you can give a teacher is time. Though I work full time, I save vacation days so I can volunteer for field trips or holiday parties. I also work in the library one hour a week by arranging my lunch schedule accordingly.
Variation: Teachers work so hard and rarely get a break. I sometimes substitute teach at the school, so I know how hectic a day can be. One year I sent a note to my child's teacher and told her she was going to have lunch away from class one day the following week, including a restaurant list to choose from with a space to write what she'd like to eat. I told the principal I'd be watching the class at lunch, and on that day I brought hand-picked flowers in a vase, some magazines, and the requested food. The teacher got to sit outside in the courtyard for a leisurely lunch. I gave her an additional 20-30 minutes to read her magazines while I let the class make her thank-you cards for teaching them. The other teachers in the school were saying, "I want your child in my class next year!"

Small indulgences and meals one does not have to cook are always savored. These ideas worked so well, folks like you shared them with us.

1. Home-Delivered Food
Last Christmas, I made several batches of our family's secret recipe for cinnamon rolls in disposable cook-and-serve trays with lids. I put the icing in a Ziploc bag on top of the rolls, wrapped a large bow around the tray, and enclosed a card with instructions for heating. I also wrote that they could request one additional batch at any time in the future. The teachers later told me they began their Christmas with my family in mind and the rolls in their stomachs. The other batches were requested for Easter celebrations!
Variation: We coordinated two meal nights for my son's teacher. Different parents were assigned the main dish, salad, side dish, and dessert. Yet another family delivered it to the teacher. It was a fun thing to do, and our son's teacher and her family loved the idea (and not having to cook for two nights during the schoolweek)!
Variation: My best gift was actually for the end of the year when teachers are extra busy with report cards, programs, and packing up classrooms for the summer, but it would work for any season. I prepared a full meal in foil baking dishes complete with entree, veggie, salad, homebaked bread, and even a bottle of wine. At the teacher's convenience, I delivered the meal to her home with directions on baking time. She was thrilled to have one less meal to worry about preparing for her family during such a busy time.

2. Lunch Delivered to School
Just before Christmas break, we send a card to the teachers telling them that our gift to them will be lunch in January. They pick out what they'd like to eat from a short menu of my best recipes. Then we choose a school day in January to deliver a home-cooked lunch. My kids help make the dessert and take it to their teachers that morning. Then I deliver the rest of the lunch at noon. The response from the teachers is always wonderful. After months of brown-bag lunches and cafeteria food, they are delighted to have some home cooking!

3. Luncheon in Your Home
At the end of each school year we have a luncheon at our home for all my children's teachers/principals. My oldest child, in 8th grade, still enjoys talking with his kindergarten teacher. The teachers really enjoy this time spent with our family outside of the school environment. Not all of the teachers can attend every year, but we always have a good turnout. We have done this for eight years now, and my children look forward to it every year.

4. Pasta Bowl with Recipe and Fixings
For a teacher who loves to cook, my daughter and I went to a paint-your-own-pottery place and chose a large bowl. My daughter put her handprints on it and painted the rest of it. Then we filled it with a recipe for a delicious lemon pasta and added a pasta server, pasta, and some lemons. Her teacher really liked the present and said in a thank-you that she leaves the bowl out on her counter and thinks of my daughter whenever she sees it.

5. Sun Tea Jar with Iced-Tea Mixes
A great end-of-the-year teacher gift is a sun tea jar (the ones with a spout). I put colored tissue paper inside the jar and fill the jar with a variety of iced-tea and lemonade mixes and add a little raffia tie to the lid with a homemade tag. Cute, easy, and a great way to kick off the summer.

6. Teapot with Teas and Cookies
As a small indulgence for my child's teacher, we purchased a small teapot, the kind with the mug on the bottom and the teapot that fits on top, with a small dish for the used teabag. We included a box of special cookies and an assortment of herbal teas.

These simple gestures from the heart were a big hit -- so much so that folks like you shared them with us.

1. Bottle of Bubbles
For several teachers we had to come up with an inexpensive and fun idea, so we gave each teacher a bottle of bubbles with the message "Thanks for making our days fun." The teachers loved the gifts and had fun using them.

2. Calendar
For Christmas my son made his teacher a wall calendar. We printed the months and days of the year off the computer. He drew pictures (on separate sheets) associated with each month for the top of the calendar. January was a snowman, February was hearts of various sizes and colors, and so on. He wrote special days in the daily squares -- his birthday, last day of school, outings, her birthday, school holidays, and so on. We took it to a copy store and had a cover put on and had it bound for about $1.50. It was a great success. She loved it so much that her class is doing it as an end-of-year present for parents. It was so easy and a wonderful experience for us.

2. Candle with "You Lit Up My Year"
My daughter gave her teachers each a candle to which we attached a note that read "[teacher's name], Thank you for lighting up [grade] for me this year! Signed, ___." It was a great way to end the year.

3. Clip Board
We created a picture collage glued to a transparent clipboard and then covered it with clear Con-Tact paper.

4. "The Giving Tree" with a Sapling
My favorite gift for a teacher is the book "The Giving Tree," by Shel Silverstein, along with a small tree for the teacher to plant.

5. Notepads
If your child is just beginning to write, this teacher gift is very special. Have your child write out "From the Desk of" at the top of a sheet of paper and the teacher's name at the bottom. Then ask him to draw something simple like the sun or a flower next to the teacher's name. Use a black felt-tip pen and a plain sheet of white paper. Then take the masterpiece to a copy shop and have it made into note pads! If it doesn't all fit on two lines, just make copies and cut and paste in place. We had ours reduced so that the pads were smaller and less expensive. The copy shop can help you with this. The teachers loved it!
Variation: As an early-childhood educator, my all-time favorite gift was a notepad from a student. Her mother had encouraged her to draw a picture of herself and me, then took the drawing to a local copy shop and had it reduced in size and placed in the corner of a 5x7 notepad. Along the bottom, the pad was inscribed with "A note from Mrs. Murphy ..." I've already told the mom that I hope her son (who is in my class this year) will draw me another picture for a new notepad!

6. Personalized Stamp
As a kindergarten teacher I have received so many gifts over the years. The most useful would have to be the stamp with my name on it. I use it to stamp everything possible.

7. Personal Interests
As a room mother, I have gotten to know teachers fairly well and have been able to tailor the end-of-the-year presents to them. One, the mother of two young children, had a crazy schedule, so we got her a cookbook of easy-to-make dinners. Another teacher was always sending home notes on beautiful note paper, so we got her a gift certificate to a local stationery store.

8. Phone Cards
I have bought packs of pre-paid phone cards from a large warehouse/discount store. Each phone card can be put into a card your child makes or along with a drawing from your child. Teachers have commented that this is a unique and thoughtful gift.

9. Photos
I took photos at a field trip and presented a collage of the day to the teacher. Since I have a digital camera, I was able to send it in the very next day.

10. Poem
My son's class studied different poetry styles, so with his end-of-year gift we included a poem he had written about his teacher.

11. Seed-Planting Kit
The best gift we ever gave a teacher was a seed-planting kit. It had everything in it from the pot to the seeds that the teachers needed to grow a plant. This way they could either keep it at home or use it with their next group of children in the classroom. It's also a great learning experience for the next group if it is kept in the classroom. The teachers loved it!

12. Special Letters
One year I wanted to give a special gift to the teacher who had helped my son dramatically improve a significant speech impediment. After trying to think of the perfect "gift" for a long time, I finally settled on what turned out to be the most meaningful one: a personal letter to her saying how much her work had improved life for my son and our family. I told her how it used to break my heart to hear my son's peers make fun of his speech and how she had taken an enormous worry from my mind and made things so much better for our family. She was very touched by it, and sent me a card saying my letter had made her day and that she would always keep it.
Variation: Last year my daughter had a wonderful 4th-grade teacher whose favorite gift was 51 (the age she was turning) construction-paper apples with messages from students, staff, and parents. Many kids told her she was their favorite, but there were some amusing messages like "Your hair is the bomb!" She said she planned on keeping them so that she could read them on those tough days!

13. Special Reminders
We came up with a list of items to give the teacher that had a special meaning. The kids and I had a great time thinking these up, and their teachers said they had never gotten a more thoughtful gift:

Sponge - to soak up the overflow when your brain is too full
Candle - to light a small mind
Modeling Clay - for being a great model
Smarties Candy - to help stay smart
Highlighter Pen - for being a big highlight of my life
Glue - for holding everything together
Bubbles - to keep a bubbly personality
Cup - when yours is overflowing
Marbles - to replace those lost from time to time
Crayon - to color your day
Hanger - to hang in there -- summer vacation is almost here!

14. Thank-You Notes
We gave the teacher a box of thank-you notes, a package of stamps, and return-address labels. Real handy for quick notes for holiday gifts.

15. Tickets & Subscriptions
Tickets to a minor league baseball game -- the teachers loved it! Also, I like to give a subscription to a magazine that either caters to a teacher's interest (the outdoors, fashion, the news, etc.) or can be helpful in the classroom (a crafts magazine -- even FamilyFun!).

These mementos are among the most treasured end-of-the-year gifts a class can give to a teacher. Here are some ideas to get you going, suggested by folks like you.

1. Photo Albums
We started with a standard photo album that holds 4x6 photos and took a photo of each student in the same location at school (in our case with a handprint flag as our background). Then each student wrote a personal thank-you note with a special memory to the teacher on a colored 4x6 index card and dressed it up with school stickers. We slid the child's photo in the top slot of the page and the card in the slot beneath it. For the cover we used a class photo copied on the computer. We also added field-trip and class-parties photos. The teacher just cried when she saw it. (Choose the album first so you can take the photos in the right direction. No reason you can't use pretty stationery for the messages; we chose the index cards because they had lines and matched the photo size.)
Variation: I purchased a three-ring photo album and additional sheets and gave each student a page with instructions. Each child drew a picture of a favorite activity/song/craft for one side and included a picture of themselves (photo or handrawn) for the other. They decorated the pages with stickers, pictures, poems, whatever they wanted. I put the finished pages back in the book, along with a poem about teachers and a cover page. The teacher LOVED it. Cried all over the place!

2. Scrapbooks with Questions
I sent home an empty page and about 25 questions for each child to answer and return to me. What did you like best about your teacher? What do you want to be when you grow up? What would you buy if you had $5 to spend today? What was your favorite subject? What did you learn this year? How would you change the world? What would you like to invent? What animal would you like to be? Is there anything that you would like to tell Ms. Williams about being in her class?

Students included their name and a picture if possible. I typed all the questions and answers and added some scrapbook touches. Each child had a two-page spread: the left side was what I scrapped for them, including their name and eight of the questions specifically about them. The right side was the page they did themselves.

I then combined the answers from all the kids and scrapped 13 more pages. The question was at the top, then all the kids' answers below. We also included a few pages of school parties and Halloween costumes. The final page was all of their signatures.

The teacher cried and said she would never forget this class. Nearly all the parents ended up with a copy of some sort ... we made color copies, black-and-white copies, or scanned images on a CD of the whole book to keep for themselves. Two years later, my daughter and I still read it and laugh at all the answers.

Variation: I gave each child some starter sentences, like "What I like about Miss X is ...," or "My teacher loves it when I ...," or "The funniest thing that happened in class was ..." If there was time they colored or drew on it too. I then took all of the sheets and laminated them.
Variation: I divided the book into sections: "Laughter," "Learning," "Life Lessons," "Love," and told the children they could choose one or more of these topics to write about. This worked really well for a teacher who was retiring, and we got kids from different years to contribute.