Back to School Gifts!

Today is the last day of summer break for my kids, which means tomorrow is their first day back at school! This summer has flown by!! I'm usually more than ready to send them back, but it seems like they just got out.
Anyway.....
I usually make back to school gifts for the teachers and the kids. I'll start with the teachers. I was just going to a basket with candy & their favorite drink, but then my niece sent me a picture of the cutest craft, so I just HAD to do that!  

Isn't that adorable?? All it is, is a mason jar that I painted red, the lid painted green, then I painted a wooden bead brown, cut out leaves from scrapbook paper, folded them down the middle to make them "3D", and glued those on to the lid. Then I filled them with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

Zach has two homeroom teachers (they're part time) so that's why there are 4.)

I was already going to fill cups with candy, so I did that too. :0)

I threw those plus their favorite drink in a basket with some white crinkled filler. (basket & filler from dollar tree....and the jars and cups too!)
I added a cute back to school tag to the cup, and I'm going to add a tag that says who it's to and from plus: "Two things you need to get through the first week of school: chocolate and caffeine!"
I hadn't made that yet when I took the picture though. ;0)

On to the kids' gifts! I usually have a few things for the kids when they wake up to greet them on their first day back. This year it is orang Crush pop with a note saying, "You are going to CRUSH this year!"

They are also getting airhead candies with a note:

I have no idea why the word year is highlighted....I just noticed that. Oh well. Maybe the kids wont notice. :0)

We're off to the start a new year!!

Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week! Being a former teacher myself, I like to let my kids' teachers know how much I appreciate all of the hard work I know they do throughout the whole year. While I love to do this, I'm also on a bit of a budget. I've got three kids, so that means three teachers....and that starts to add up fast! The things I do for all the teachers are pretty cheap.
I am also a room parent in Riley's room, so I have a little more money for the gifts that are from the whole class. This money comes from our PTO, but I usually supplement a little. ;0)
Here are some of the things my kids' teachers are getting this week:

Today, the kids brought chocolate chip cookies to each of their teachers with this cute note saying, "Thank you for making me one smart cookie!"

I usually send at least two things from the entire class when I'm the room parent, so the first one for Riley's teacher is a basket full of some of her favorite things!
Sweet tea, Orbit bubblegum, Almond Joys, Burt's Bees lip balm, and she likes the color green, so I threw some green nail polish in there.
I also included some school supplies, because what teacher doesn't like new school supplies? 
Mini highlighters, stickers, colorful paperclips, sticky notes, a notepad, magnetic dry erasers, and a cute notebook.

I added this cute little note to the basket:

 

On Wednesday this week, all three teachers are getting this note along with their favorite drink:

 

Riley's teacher's second gift from the class is this popcorn bowl. I saw the idea on Pinterest. I had each of the students paint their thumbprint on the bowl, then made them look like popcorn kernels with a sharpie & added their names and the words, "Mrs. Matechik's thirds grade. Thanks for helping us "POP" with knowledge!"

Then I filled it with microwave popcorn, "theatre" candy (dollar boxes at Wal-Mart), and a gift card to our local movie theatre.

For the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week, I always have the kids bring fresh flowers that have a note saying, "Thanks for helping me bloom this year!" I haven't gotten the flowers yet though. :0)

This next project isn't for any teachers, but it could be! I'm the room parent that gets to be in charge of the Muffins for Moms that our school does at the end of the year. (There's also a Donuts for Dads!) I'm in charge of getting the muffins, setting up, and making decorations. Since I love to get decorations from Dollar Tree, I headed there first, where I found these cute flower balloons! I got pink cups, "grass", yellow ribbon, and Styrofoam. I found the stickers at Wal-Mart.

I hot glued the ribbon around the cups, then glued one of the stickers on the seam of the ribbon to hide it. I glued the stickers because they were not staying put on their own.

I stuck a small piece of Styrofoam in the bottom of each cup and covered it with grass after poking a hole into it for with the balloon stem.

Then I put some hot glue on the end of the stem and stuck it in the styrafoam and held it a bit to keep it in place.
Aren't these cute?

These would be cute for teachers too! (Or for mom's out there!)

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of you teachers out there!