Gift List: Gifts for Teachers

1. Gift cards are a popular choice, but add a personal touch. Pair a Dunkin Donuts gift card with a hand-decorated tin or gable box of hand-made cookies. Tins and boxes are also available at your local craft or dollar store. Or give a bookstore gift card and attach a bookmark handmade by your child.

2. Compartmentalized container (like this one from Organized Living, but also available at most craft stores), decorated by your child and filled with pens, paper clips, rubber bands, push pins, etc. A lot of teachers will tell you that homemade gifts are the best. Then again, a lot of teachers won’t.

3. A teacher can only have so many shower gels, desk calendars and coffee mugs. And any teacher will tell you that apple-shaped gifts should be outlawed. Why not give the gift of charity? Donate to a charity you think the teacher would appreciate, or donate books or software to the classroom in the teacher’s name. You might also ask the teacher what supplies you can donate to the class, since many teachers spend a lot of money out of their own pockets for classroom supplies.

4. Give a “movie night” theme gift. Pair a theater gift card or a short-term Netflix subscription with some specialty popcorn or candy.

5. If the teacher seems to like plants, buy a small plant and attach a drawing or note from the child telling the teacher what she means to him. At the bottom, write “Thanks for helping me grow.”

Be sure to check our other Gift Lists.