Apparently, I jumped the gun on summer vacation.
According to readers in New York, the academic year is not over. In fact, students enrolled in Brooklyn public schools don’t start summer break until the last week in June.
Thanks for setting the record straight, ladies, and I feel your pain about having to deal with the chaos of end-of-the-school-year activities, including finding appropriate thank you gifts for teachers.
As room mom for my daughter’s second grade class, I was responsible for soliciting monetary donations from parents, and then purchasing a birthday and end-of-the-year gift for the kids’ beloved teacher.
Believe me; being in charge of buying a class gift for a teacher is no picnic, especially if you don’t have a wish list to work off of. Fortunately, the job doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, it can be downright fun once you get your creative juices flowing. Here are some ideas:
Beach Bag: Fill a tote with a gift card to a local book store to buy reading materials, a photo album or journal, travel-sized body products, a beach towel, and a disposable camera.
Scrapbook: Send home a large manila envelope containing one piece of colored card stock paper and written instructions that direct each student to include a favorite memory of the teacher on the page with some photos. Once each child has decorated his or her page, she/he returns the finished project to the room mom, who then places the works of art in an empty memory book and presents it to the teacher.
Favorite Things: Rather than waiting until the last day of school to gift your child’s teacher with a single present, why not honor him or her for an entire week? During the last week of school, bring the teacher one of his/her favorite things each day, such as flowers, dessert, lunch, a book, coffee, craft materials, or movie passes.
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