Student gift ideas

[Zydebearsmom]

Teachers what are you getting your students for Christmas? I am a new teacher this year and I am teaching Prek, I have 20 students. I am trying to find inexpensive gift ideas.

 

[dzorn]

Teachers what are you getting your students for Christmas? I am a new teacher this year and I am teaching Prek, I have 20 students. I am trying to find inexpensive gift ideas.

Not a teacher but DDs always enjoyed when their teacher got them a book. Do you participate in the scholastic program?

Denise in MI

 

[Zydebearsmom]

Not a teacher but DDs always enjoyed when their teacher got them a book. Do you participate in the scholastic program?

Denise in MI

Yes I do, but I just started so I do not have enough points yet. Books sound like a good idea. Thanks

 

[southern_redhead]

I'm not a teacher but I can tell you what my kids teachers have done. Typically, teachers at our school have each kid bring a small stocking stuffer for each kid in their class (so you, for instance, would have each child bring 20 small items) and the teacher takes the items and fills a stocking for each kid then gives them out during the party. Usually, the teacher's gift is the stocking itself. Many of them use glitter paint and put the child's name on the stocking. Some of them give coloring books and a couple have taken an ornament and written "From Ms. XX Christmas 20XX" on them. One teacher gives Barbies to girls and Hotwheels sets to boys ($5 each) but that can add up to serious money (and did for her last year...) I think it would be cute to make little Christmas-y foam magnet frames and put in a picture of you and the child.

 

[mommyof2princesses]

I work in a preschool and we just discussed this. We have decided to give all the kids the same thing - we have one 3 year old class and 3 4year old classes. WE are going to make playdough. Each kid will get some in a Christmas ziploc bag, with 2 cookie cutters and a little tag that tells how to make it. This is REALLY cheap and easy! We make play dough for our class each month and they love it. We will probably dye it in red or green for Christmas. We thought about doing books, but they did that last year and it was suggested we do something different.

 

[spaceacewannabe]

I teach middle school, so I have lots of them, but I usually give them festive pens or pencils (usually bought on clearance the year before). By that point in the year, they're usually running low!
I'm also one of the naughty ones who still does candy...

 

[clh2]

Does Scholastic still offer a really inexpensive book or two? (DD is now 16, so it has been a while since I've seen an order form.) IIRC, the cheap books were about $1 each.

If that is out of your budget, what about getting some Christmas stickers or pencils?

(Not a paid teacher...just a mom.)

 

[DZNEE4US]

When I taught kindergarten, I gave them school supplies like crayons, pencils, or erasers at Christmas (usually a coloring book too). By that point in the year they needed them, and I sent their old ones home. That way they got something they needed and could use. We had a high poverty rating, so whatever I ever gave those kids, they always appreciated.

 

[Mom2SamandJames]

I teach 4-K, and this year, I am giving my kids books from Scholastic. I have been purchasing the $1 and $2 books for a while so I have enough. I will probably get each of my kids a Christmas coloring book and a box of crayons too.

 

[torinsmom]

I think Scholastic has a buy 20 books for $10 deal going on. And if you order from most of the catalogs, you get $10 of books free.

I plan on getting my kids a book. I also buy the small stockings after Christmas each year for 75-90% off(10 to 25 cents each) for the next year. We put the kids names on them with glitter glue and put in a pencil and some candy.

 

[taylor3297]

I teach middle school, so I have lots of them, but I usually give them festive pens or pencils (usually bought on clearance the year before). By that point in the year, they're usually running low!
I'm also one of the naughty ones who still does candy...

I taught middle school math so I had to buy for 135 kids. So, I used to make a goodie bag with pencils, erasers, and candy in each bag. The dollar store had cute erasers and pencils. The kids loved it. I would allow them to eat the candy in my class and then they would use the pencil and erasers during math class.

 

[RangerPooh]

I taught Pre-K last year and we used our Scholastic book points to purchase a bunch of the $1 holiday themed books for our students. We then wrapped them and handed them out on our last day of class for Decemeber. For those who do not celebrate holidays for religious reasons we selected a neutral book so that they would receive something too. However with them being that cheap, paying out of pocket is still a great deal, especially as you don't have to pay for shipping.

You can take it one step farther and print out lables (return address size) that says to ----- from ------, 2010.

 

[karliebug]

Last year I bought some ball type ornaments from the dollar store and used a glitter pen to print each child's name on the ornament. i also gave them a holiday pencil.

 

[scrapquitler]

I still remember back in third grade my teacher gave us each a set of pens, a blue one, a black one and a red one in a plastic pouch and on the side of the pen it was engraved "Happy Holidays from Mrs. Simmons" I loved that gift!

You could do something similar by ordering personalized pencils from Oriental Trading (I've given them as birthday presents for all my nieces and nephews and for DD's Friends over the years). A set of 24 is $5.99 or a set of 72 is $14.99

On a related note: I can see some value of a teacher buying personalized pens like this: http://www.motivators.com/Promotional-Custom-BelfastBallpointPens-46604.html and having them engraved with something like "This pen was stolen from Mrs. Smith's Classroom"

 

[torinsmom]

I still remember back in third grade my teacher gave us each a set of pens, a blue one, a black one and a red one in a plastic pouch and on the side of the pen it was engraved "Happy Holidays from Mrs. Simmons" I loved that gift!

You could do something similar by ordering personalized pencils from Oriental Trading (I've given them as birthday presents for all my nieces and nephews and for DD's Friends over the years). A set of 24 is $5.99 or a set of 72 is $14.99

On a related note: I can see some value of a teacher buying personalized pens like this: http://www.motivators.com/Promotional-Custom-BelfastBallpointPens-46604.html and having them engraved with something like "This pen was stolen from Mrs. Smith's Classroom"

My dad got a sample pen like that in the mail and we got a big kick out of it. I am bad for "stealing" pens myself. I like it when companies attach artifical flowers or something like that to the end of pens. No way can I think that's my personal pen, you know?