Hellobee Boards

I am going to the school on Thurs for Mothers Day Tea, so I'll bring a bunch of giftcards with me, probably DD or Starbucks.

We don't have to do anything, it's all being organized for us by some of the PTO moms.

One thing that I saw that was super cute is a $5 lottery scratch off ticket, packaged up with some gold foil wrapped candy, a bit of green shredded paper and a rainbow ribbon with a hang tag that said something like "I'm so lucky to have you as a teacher."

They ask each kid to write a note about why they love their teacher (er, the parents write it I guess), and they post them all up on the hallways of the school.

They also ask for a collection from parents and then they divide the money into a gift card of some kind for the teachers.

The board members sponsor a lunch for the teachers as well.

I usually also write a nice card, bring a bouquet of flowers, and make a healthier treat (because they get completely slammed with brownies and cookies and donuts all week).

LO has two teachers at the moment.. I’m giving them $20 cash and will write in the margins why I appreciate them. The daycare suggests theme gifts throughout the week, which after doing it last year is too much work!

Ugh I've kind of blanked out on this. My older son's school did a lunch today that I forgot to give money in for. Oops. So I'll give that and then probably get them a gift card so they can get coffee on me one day. Probably do the same for my little son's school as well. Sigh...I always feel like such a fail at this stuff!

@MrsADS: Last year I made fruit kabobs using fruits of all colors and put them on bamboo skewers and I made enough so every staff member and front office person could have at least 1 skewer. I did blueberries, green grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I don't think I spent more than $20-25 on the fruit and it took me under an hour to make. I was repeatedly told for weeks after how good they were and how refreshing they were because they were SO tired of all the junk food they got. They were so popular, I made them for DS2's birthday the following week and got raves on them too. Who knew fruit salad on a stick would be so popular??

They sent home little notecards for the kids to write or draw things they liked about their teachers so we did that. Then the school hosts a lunch and a breakfast for the teachers and parents were asked to sign up to bring something in. I brought in a lunch entree, which feels like more than day, plates and napkins, so I think that’s enough? And no judgment on the parents bringing the napkins either- I purposely took the more involved option because this week I didn’t mind doing it and other weeks t would have put me over the edge. I’ll give an extra end of the year gift but that’s about it.

I'm on the parent-staff advisory committee and organizing a catered lunch for all the teachers in the center. Our center is also tied to a grad school and one of our teachers is graduating, so getting flowers and a card for her too

@math.nerd: No, that's super annoying.

@math.nerd: Yikes. I don’t think I’d be able to not address that with the director.

@Ajsmommy: These are good ideas! We have FIVE teachers so we got each one a gourmet cupcake from a local bakery and a note that my two year old "decorated" with stickers. Not much, but a token of appreciation!

Our school sent out a notice that they were holding a breakfast for the teachers Wednesday of this week and to let the director know if you'd like to contribute anything. I was out of town working, so ahead of me leaving I wrote a nice note in a card, left space for DH to write some too, and set it aside to give to my daughter's teacher that day.
He also volunteered to bring fruit to the breakfast, and grabbed a Target gift card for the card to LO's teacher.

It was low-key but special, and left it up to the parents to decide if/what they wanted to do for their individual teachers as well as if/how they wanted to contribute to the breakfaast.

I'd be SUPER annoyed to get a list of things to do or buy each day.

@Mamaof2: love it!

@tlynne: we are in the same state. So, were the daycare teachers supposed to give me back my GC?

@math.nerd: if you skip the GC section at Target where they have all kinds of stores and brands to choose you can get a Target GC and put any denomination you want on it. Those cards are at checkout and near greeting cards. I almost picked up a Target GC with the other brands and saw that it costs $5 to activate in addition to the GC amount.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: daycares are usually considered private entities, I think...and I know daycare employees are not under the same code of ethics as public school teachers. Still, I feel funny about "large" gifts because of this. Our daycare just leaves out bags with each teacher's name for people to drop goodies in if they want to.