Teacher Gifts for the Last-Minute Parent

 Show your child’s teacher just how much they’re appreciated with a quick and inexpensive DIY pencil holder! Elementary students will love decorating these practical gifts with paint, some scrabble tiles (or other alphabet letters you might have) creating a colorful and personalized keepsake. Perfect for the end of the school year, these handmade pencil holders are both thoughtful and functional!

The most wonderful time of the whole kid year, second only to Christmas morning, is the last bell on the last day of school! But before your kids bust out of those school doors and head into Glorious Summer, have them take time to give their teachers a token of their appreciation for all the time, energy and love they pour into teaching.

Before the Last Bell Rings

Inspired by our Teacher Appreciation Gifts post, we made some pretty cool pencil holders this year and they turned out really awesome.

Simple. And so cute.

For this teacher gift, you’ll need:

• A wooden pencil holder— you can go simple or more elaborate, it doesn’t matter. Or go for a wooden desk organizer or super-fancy Lazy Susan organizer
• Scrabble letter tiles
• Hot glue gun
• Acrylic paint and brushes if your pencil holder is unfinished

Here’s how to make it:

1. Choose the word(s) you want displayed on the pencil holder.

We chose things like school, teach, learn, listen, math, read.

2. Glue the words onto the gift. Easy!

We used our hot glue gun, and though it wasn’t perfect, it did the job. With younger kids, a parent or older sibling may need to do the actually hot glueing or they could use a low temperature glue gun.

 3. Write a nice little thank you note:

Write a note thanking the teacher for all her hard work this year. Recount something about her (or him) from the year that you will always remember or something special you really appreciated that she (or he) did. Be sure to wish them a wonderful summer break because they really need it! Roll up the note and put a ribbon around it and slip it in one of the compartments. Voila! The perfect quick end of year thanks for being my teacher gift!

Hey Dads!

Homeschool teacher/moms need love and appreciation too! I can’t begin to tell you what it will mean to her if you and the kids do this for her. She pours the same amount of time and energy and tons of love into what she does, but unlike other teachers, she does it all for free! Your thoughtfulness will be SO appreciated! I promise.

If you really want to level up your gift here are some ideas.

• Add a nice gift card to a great local store, coffee shop or restaurant
• Include some cool framed teacher appreciation quotes (you can totally grab these as cards, too!);
• Give her a copy of Jessica Turner’s Fringe Hours book and notepads;
• Wrap it all in a nice gift bag.

And that’s it–a quick gift for teachers that the kids helped create and that took not a whole lot of time.

It’s a win!

More fun ideas for teacher gifts

• Thumbprint note cards
• Flower pens
• Butterfly pens
• Quick, cool teacher appreciation gifts
• Quick and easy thank you teacher gifts

 PIN THIS FOR LATER