I felt like now would be the perfect time to share some of my favorite student and teacher made gifts and keepsake idea. (Some of them may look familiar as I have posted them on the Considerate Classroom Facebook page at one point or another but this will serve as a one stop shop for creative ideas rather than searching through hours and hours of photos on Facebook.)
1. A Vase of Yummy Candies and Clever Sayings. This gift was given to my paras for our districts para week a few years back.
Below are photos of the sayings that are taped to the back of each candy. Feel free to print them by clicking this link!
This gift was given to all the Buddy Bear staff on my last day as the Buddy Bear with this special note.
4. 'Tee'rific T-shirts For our school district's para week last year, I designed this t-shirt for my staff. This image was in the front upper left corner.
And this image was on the back. "If you think our hands are full, you should see our hearts." SO TRUE!
I wrapped the t-shirts with this t-shirt shaped card that all the students signed.
5. Para Trophies Also during para week last year, I had trophies of appreciation made from Crown Awards. Each one was personalized with something unique that each para offered to the team.
The paras were presented their trophies during a red carpet ceremony complete with flowers, princess crowns, and beautiful beads (each student had something to present to one of these amazing ladies to be a part of the cermony!)
6. Oh, the Place You Will Go This gift was inspired by Pinterest! Instead of using Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Place You Will Go for a student graduation gift, we gave it to our speech pathology practicum students at the end of their internship. The children signed the book and predicted where they thought the practicum students would go throughout life. They choose everything from Mars, to the circus, to Kansas City. (Note: I used an aided language board for my students who are nonverbal to predict a place too.)
7. A Thumbprint Tree This gift was originally created for a student teacher, I had several years back. You have to use your imagination a bit as it is not the best photo, but what I did was frame this document after having each student put a thumbprint on it. I then included a green ink pad with the gift for our student teacher to add her future students' thumbprints as an on going tradition!
8. A Quote Plaque This plaque was made for the amazing secretaries that I have worked with. As those of you who know me know, I love quotes! I find them inspiring and motivating so what better way to support the core of our schools than with a quote board for staff to drop off quotes and give some inspiration in the school office. (It was made out of a simple plaque from the craft section at Wal-Mart. I stained it and then painted it with clear chalkboard paint.)
9. Candle Plaque This gift was given as a birthday gift to EJ's kindergarten teacher. Yet another quote inspired creation:) Pretty simple I just painted a wooden plaque from the craft section at Wal-Mart and tacky glued candles to the bottom for a 3D look. Then EJ and I used paint pens to decorate it.
11. A Keepsake Plate This keepsake was painted with love for a special educator to let her know we were thinking of her during a hard time. Special thank you to our Pam at Pottery Works for conveniently allowing us to borrow paint from the pottery store and firing it after creating it at school.
12. Memory Blocks I have made this simple gift for several co-workers and friends who have lost love ones. They can put photos in the wire paperclips to remember their special loved one in the many roles they hold within their family. This gift as well as the next one were inspired by Miss Karlie and her mom's students. 
13. Class Memory Block This gift was created by and for each of the Buddy Bears last year. They each painted their own two by four then we modge podged scrapbook paper with the words Buddy Bears Forever on the front and drilled a hole in the top for a spiral paperclip to hold a class photo.
14. Retirement Magnets These magnets were created from the inspiration of Hobby Lobby's Spare Parts Collection. I simply printed the phrases below, punched them out and placed them in spare parts' bottle cap with the self-adhesive bubbles shown in the top right picture below. Note the bottom pictures were specific to the amount of time the special education teacher who was retiring has served our district and our school.
15. Dry Erase To Do List This gift was made for our Speech Language Pathologist during Better Speech and Hearing in May. All it is, is a frame that has a clipart of a notebook page inside and a dry erase marker velcroed to the side of it.
16. Dry Erase To Do List and Inspiring Quote Board This gift was created for some special friends at the end of last school year. I purchased the 3 picture frame at Hobby Lobby and then added my own words as described below, to transform it into a dry erase board/frame!
17. Home Sweet Home Painting This gift was created for my mom and mother in law for mother's day last year with the help of my little artists. Using a photograph of each of their homes, EJ drew their houses with a pencil. Then I traced them with permanent marker, he colored them with crayon, and Payton covered them with blue and green watercolor.
And there you have it, 18 creative gifts and keepsakes for any occasion! Giving thoughtful and personalized gifts can be a very powerful thing. I like to think, it is a wonderful trait that I learned from my mom. She has always been a loving, caring person who would give the shirt off her back to show her love, appreciation and gratitude for others so I write this post in honor of her! Love you MOM!
Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but what we give. -Ben Carson
Your blog is unquestionably informative. It will gain people for make their profile impressive. Quality of Resume should be professional. Here is some substitute nurses graduation speeches
ReplyDelete