Teacher Gift Ideas {My Finished Gifts}

I mentioned some cute Teacher Gift ideas awhile back and I finally finished all our gifts.  I thought I would break down for you how my gifts worked out and the prices.

Just a reminder that next week (May 7th) is the start of teacher appreciation week and it is a nice time to get a little something for the hard working teachers out there.

My first project was for my children’s regular preschool teachers- we have 4.  Since I have little ones, I wanted bright and cheerful and fun colors so here is what I did:

I bought (4) reusable water cups from Walmart $4.96 each
Took the premade tags template and ordered a copy from Staples $.56 (see below)
1 bag M&Ms for the bottom of the cups $2.00
(4) Jamba Juice gift cards $5.00 each
and I already had some ribbon on hand

So the grand total for all (4) cups was $42.40 or $10.60 each.

This was such a simple project to do and if you want to give a larger gift card, my Costco has (5) $10 Jamba Juice gift cards for $39.99.

I also bought a picture frame for $2.95 at Walmart.  I used a can of blue paint we already had and ordered the adorable free Subway Art template to be printed for just $.56 from Staples.

That will go to the set of teacher’s for my oldest and for  $3.51, I thought that was really a cute gift.

The idea and the free downloadable template for the water cups is courtesy of Tatertots and Jello.

The idea and the free downloadable template for the Subway art is courtesy of Eighteen25 blog.

I have found ordering color copies from places like Staples or Costco can be a lot cheaper and a lot nicer looking than I can get from my home computer.

The next set of gifts I wanted to give were to the day care providers at our church.  I wanted to just get something small for them and also I wanted to get something small and fun for the Mom’s in my MOPS group.

So I did the same thing for everyone- I bought a box of Mason jars and tied ribbon around the mouth.  I filled the jars with M&Ms and made little tags that said:

“Prescription: The contents of this jar are to be used strictly for the treatment of stress due to teaching. When symptoms arise, wait for recess, lock the door, hide under the nearest desk and consume immediately.”

I did a small variation for the Mom’s in my MOPS group in honor of Mother’s Day:

“Prescription: The contents of this jar are to be used strictly for the treatment of stress due to Motherhood. When symptoms arise, head for the closet, lock the door and consume immediately.”

So I thought these turned out really cute and again they were super simple to do.

12 pint size Mason jars $7.49 at Walmart
54oz bag of M&Ms from Costco $8.89
Small gift bag from Target $.56
3 more bags of M&Ms $2.00 each after coupon
Ribbon, tissue and little note tags I already had on hand

I just typed up the instructions in Word and printed on card stock at home.

This idea is a variation on the way cuter idea from Our Best Bites.  They have a little more complicated option as well as a free printable tag available.  Time was an issue for me so I just did this cheater way.

The final price was $1.87 per jar plus the $.56 for the little pink gift bags.

And the very last thing in my pile, is a note to the head of our school just letting her know how much my children enjoyed their teachers this year.  This idea was courtesy of reader Tanya.

If you were lucky enough to have a fantastic teacher you might consider sending a little note to the principal and/or superintendent of the school.  Everyone likes to be acknowledged for hard work so that is one thing that is completely free to do!

You can see more Teacher Appreciation gift ideas here.

PS: In case you care, the Costco M&Ms worked out to 56oz for $8.89 or .15 per oz.  The price of the M&Ms was $2.50 at CVS and I used a $1/2 coupon, so $2.00 for 14oz.  That is $.14 per oz.  Pretty comparable actually and I recommend buying A LOT more candy then you think you need!