Just a little Thank You

It's that time of year! The end of another school year is just around the corner. With these last weeks, we all face the inevitable Teacher Appreciation Week, what do we do to say Thank You?

Being a teacher myself, I know the importance of telling my own children's teachers how much we appreciate their efforts. I realized as I was planning out my thank you goodies for this year's appreciation week that this could make an excellent blog post!

(Thank You picture drawn by my youngest drew today. She insisted that I write out the message though.)

After 21 yrs in the classroom, I do have some very useful ideas that some of you could find helpful.

First and foremost, AVOID APPLE themed items! Unless you know that your teacher collects traditional teacher apple related stuff, almost all veteran teachers are completely over them. We see it in all aspects of our work, on memos, our t-shirts, on book bags, etc. If you know your teacher would appreciate a fruit basket, then real apples would be acceptable, but please refrain from apple decorated items.

And now, about food...

I swear I don't think there is another profession, with the exception of people in the restaurant industry, who is fed as often as educators. The PTA, local churches, Ruritan, Booster clubs, all of them bring in food. The amount of food brought in to feed the staff and faculty is HUGE. For example, we start the year off with a breakfast. There's a PTA snack bar (i.e. dessert buffet) during both parent teacher conference weeks. There's a luncheon at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, there are random visits from various business who will set up shop in our mail room who bribe us with more treats while they attempt to talk us into signing up for Costco, their insurance/union, or chiropractic services. At the end of the year, there's also some sort of lunch or breakfast.

If you want to make an edible gift for your teacher, my advice is to make it something that can be eaten later. When you have 8 students bring you cupcakes, you can get a bad sugar rush as almost every kid wants to see you take a bite, especially if they made it themselves. We don't want to make them feel like we don't like their gift. We will take a bite, time and time again.


So what kind of items could you make that are just as easy and can be enjoyed at a later date?

Home made granola bars like the ones found at Positively Splendid are easy and super tasty! I usually make 2 batches of granola bars because my kidlets want a bar as soon as they are cool enough to eat.We wrap them individually in wax paper, put them in a decorated paper bag and add a copy of the recipe just so that we don't have any allergy scares. :)

Here's the batch that I made today...chocolate coconut cranberry! YUMMY! :D

15 hour apple butter like this tutorial on Craftster is another easy option. Most of the work is done by your crock pot overnight so all you need after that is some cool resealable jars or you can  do some hot water canning. (Do you want to try a different fruit? Pears and peaches would work just as well! :) )  Any other type of preserve or jelly would be a treat also.


Sugared and Spiced Nuts are tasty too! One batch of this recipe would make enough for a couple of gifts which is always a plus.

Keep your eyes open for my next blog post for more Teacher Appreciation ideas!