Teacher Gift Idea
December 3, 2009 by Missy
12 Days of Christmas!
We had this idea to give our kids’ teachers a bunch of school supplies that they needed with some treats for a gift for Christmas. My friend Jen took it one step further, and added to it much more fun, by turning it into the 12 Days of Christmas. Each day your kid can sneak in and leave a little goodie on his/her desk. My son is SO EXCITED about this sneaking part! She made up creative little rhymes that go with what is being presented. Some of my favorites are:
For the 2nd day of Christmas,
Your students are busy, little bees…
You can correct their papers
with these 2 red sharpies!
For the 3rd day of Christmas,
I give 3 binder clips,
I’m sure it could be tempting
to use them on my lips!
For the 4th day of Christmas
Dry-eraser markers come in four…
As my 3rd grade teacher,
You really help me soar!
For the 5th day of Christmas,
Some popcorn for a snack,
Sorry, that‘s all the food
I could fit in my backpack!
For the 12th day of Christmas,
12 apples you’ll find in here,
I wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!!
Hurry and get going with this, as there aren’t too many days of school before Christmas break!
OR…
You could just put all the goodies together and give them all at once. If you have a craft cutter, you could use that to personalize the basket and the clipboard like the one shown.
Thanks Jen for letting us share this super fun idea!!!
—
Update
Some of you have requested the rest of the rhymes – here they are…
For the 1st day Christmas,
something for you to use,
I’m giving you this clipboard,
so your papers you won’t lose!
For the 6th day of Christmas,
cold hands, face, and toes,
Warm up with these 6 packs
of cocoa with marshmallows.
For the 7th day of Christmas,
I’ve brought you chewing gum,
It feels like Christmas break
is never going to come!
For the 8th day of Christmas,
here are 8 paperclips multiplied by 10,
Hope you’re enjoying this
’cause tomorrow I’ll do it again!
For the 9th day of Christmas,
9 canes of red and white…
Guess who my favorite teacher is…
if you guessed YOU, you’re right!
For the 10th day of Christmas,
10 magnets I bring to you,
You surprise me every day
with all the fun stuff we do!
For the 11th day of Christmas,
Some pencils I hope you’ll need,
(school name) is so lucky to have you, indeed!
What are you giving your teachers? Let us know in the comments.
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I would LOVE to have all of your cute little poems if you don’t mind sharing! As the PTO President at a middle school – we could totally use this for our hospitality committee! Budget cuts have made simple supplies in high demand! Thanks for sharing!
do you have the rest of the poems that were used? this is way cute and I know my kids’ teachers will love this!!! thanks for sharing!
This really is adorable! Why didn’t I know about this idea?! I admit, its super fun not to know what post is going to pop up!
Great job Missy!
I LOVE this idea. I was just thinking today what I was going to do for my kids teachers. They ALWAYS need these things. Thanks so much. You ladies are AWESOME!
Soooo clever!
Please post the entire poem w/ideas! LOVE YOUR WEBSITE!!
Would LOVE all the poems. Love your website! I’m making 2 laundry room signs for gifts this year. Thanks for all the ideas!
I added the rest of the rymes at the bottom of the post! Jen, thanks again for sharing!
Will you post more ideas for teacher gifts? I really want my daughter to make something for her kindergarten teacher…I do have access to a Cricut.
Hi! I also have a cricut and I wondered what cartridge you used to get that font?? It is adorable and I can’t figure out which one it is?!?
Thanks for your help!
I need to know the cricut cartride for that font too!!!
Hi Leigh
When I made this craft I just had access to my vinyl cutter so I used the font ‘Black Boys on Mopeds.’ With the Cricut I would have used the stone script font or tear drops and it’ll be just as cute!
Send us a pic when you have it done…we’d love to see it!
Alison
I love this idea! Unfortunately, the teacher’s name on the gift in the picture just happens to be my daughter’s teacher! LOL
What a GREAT idea!!
It’s so cute! Thank you for this great idea!
Question for you; does the student reveal their name on the 12th day? I think that would be so fun for the student…
I love this idea and will be doing it for sure!
You could do it either way, but my kids can’t wait to tell their teacher who has been leaving all the gifts!
I was so excited to see this on here!! We made up a few of our own. We shopped at staples, office max and office depot this year and got a lot of 1 cent school supplies that worked perfect for this. We probably spent $4 on this entire gift!! We are so doing it next year too!!
Both of my daughters teach. I may surprise them with mailed packages for the 12 days. What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing!
So stinkin cute! I would have loved to get this when I was a teacher. So practical and thoughtful! Awesome! I wish I had a teacher to give one too.
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing! My girls are in Kindergarten this year so I was trying to figure out something fun and practical to get their teachers.
This is a great idea! My boys love doing 12 days of Christmas. I had never thought of doing it for their teachers.
As a teacher, I totally love this idea!
Hi! I absolutely love this idea! We are doing this for my son’s 1st grade teacher this year…. on the 6th day we are giving a 6 pack of her favorite soda and for the life of me I cannot come up with a cute poem for it. Any ideas? Thanks!!!
On the 6th day of Christmas
I give you this drink with fizz
You’re such a great teacher
you make learning a wizz.
Thanks for the idea of soda. I am going to do that also.
I was the lucky recipient of this terrific teacher gift and I have to admit I was tickled!Way better than antoher teacher mug or ornament!:)
So…What are the 12 aplles? Real apples? Seems big and heavy!
Yes, we gave real apples. Maybe you could bring them instead of sending them with your kid if it is too heavy?
I am going to do this for my kids teachers, but instead of real apples I went to dollar tree and they had apple cut outs there. I am going to put 12 in the basket. I figured she would use them before she ate 12 apples. haha
This is such an AWESOME idea!! I hope you don’t mind, but I shared this with my my readers. I came across your site for pinterest and I cannot wait to see what else you have to offer :]
Love this. Will have to do this for my little girls teachers. I came up with another one.. Make a cinnamon stick votive holder and attach the poem On the ___ day of Christmas I give you this little gift to warm your hearth and home the way you have warmed my heart.
I LOVE this idea!! Totally going to use this idea and mix and match this with some of the homemade gift ideas I have found! Can’t wait, the poems are so helpful!
Love your site!!
Love this idea!! Can you tell me where I can find one of the buckets that you put this in? I’d love to find one and start getting creative! Thanks! I love your site!!
These were just from the dollar store.
Love this idea…can’t wait to give it to the teachers. Instead of giving apples I will be giving a 12 pack of candy to fit in the basket. A dozen homemade cookies would go just at great too (lighter for the kids to carry). =)
what a good idea – cute, creative and useful – something they will actually use!
Fantastic gift idea. I’m always making little teachers gifts for all the holidays. My kids love giving them out. TFS joy4umetoo at hotmail dot com
You could also use this for the 12th day with cookies or candy:
For the 12th day of Christmas,
A special treat just for you!
To let you know I think you’re great,
And ‘Thanks’ for all you do!
Or
On the 12th day of Christmas
Here’s a special treat.
Because you’re the greatest teacher,
And because you are so ‘Sweet’!
Any ideas for the teachers aid if we do this for the teacher?
Absolutely precious!! I love it!
Love the 12 days of christmas!!! We took a wish list that my sons teacher gave us early in the year, we got all of the supplies wanted on the list over the past few months using great deals, clearance, coupons, and made a tower/cake of supplies with cute christmas printables attached (thank you how does she!) and ribbon. We attached a starbucks card to the top since I only spent around $3 for all the supplies (yeah coupons!!!) I had room in my budget for the giftcard…it looks so adorable and my 1st grader is so excited to give this gift:)
Your poem idea is absolutely adorable and I like the other commenters’ ideas to use cookie/candy. As a former teacher, I never really had a need for school supplies and I usually had a lot of extras at the end of the year (every school/teacher is different) but I loved to get unique stationary or pens. Oh the pens! I loved big obnoxious ones so I could one find quickly. I actually found some at Target in the $1 bin yesterday. I also loved getting baked items and once I got a small homeade scrapbook from a parent, which was really unique. Loved it! Just my two cents. Thank for the cute ideas!
oo this is too cute! We love doing the 12 days of Christmas. Never thought of doing it for a teacher as I do them name frames for Christmas but I think we are going to have to do this too but as one big gift as time is running out already for us! Thank you for sharing!
Was wondering if you had any other ideas for On the 3rd day? Also any ideas on the 8th day because I am giving this all at once?
Thanks so much,
My son’s class is going to do a show using the book Twelve days of winter my teacher gave to me so this is perfect
Caterina
I found this last summer while perusing your blog and LOVED the idea. (As a teacher myself I would love to get something like this!) We did it for my son’s 1st grade teacher and my daughter’s preschool teacher. HOW FUN!!! They have loved it. We changed a few of the days around to fit our teacher’s likes. thanks for sharing!!
Love your site, what an absolute blessing!
Love this idea!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Just ordered some vinyl adhesive to try out on my silhouette SD. Was curious as to where you buy your acrylic pieces, ex. clipboards, key chains, etc. Would appreciate any advice you might be able to give.
Thanks!
Hey i’m thinking of something like this for teacher appreciation week. Got any ideas. This was really cute and if i would have seen it before christmas i was have so used it.
Did this for daughters 1st grade teacher. She loved it! Said she has had so much fun opening for Christmas in YEARS! Thanks!!!!
We are doing it for my daughters kindergarten teacher. I plan on sneaking the gift in while they are in their morning assembly with the poem inside a Christmas card and on the 12th day I will add a copy of her school picture with it.
Any rhymes for glue sticks, card stock paper or tissues?? LOVE THIS GIFT IDEA!!!! Thanks!
What do u suggest to put the items in each day if we give one thing each day?
I just wrapped them each in paper or clear plastic bag with a bow
SInce the flu, strep and tummy bug has been rampant at our school, we gave two large tubs of Lysol wipes to each teacher…here is the rhyme I came up with:
For the 2nd day of Christmas,
some Lysol wipes I bring,
to clean all of the dirty germs,
we leave on everything!
I tied a ribbon around them to hold them together. Thanks for the cute idea! Our teachers have loved this!