Are you freaking out this weekend because you've realized (like me) that unless you have Amazon Prime or pay extra for shipping, anything you need to buy for students will not be getting to you in time for the last day before break and who has time to go to an actual store and wrap 30+ items to make them look cute, plus you have so many other things to do this week anyway . . . like finding a reindeer headband, a tacky sweater, holiday PJs, and red tights for holiday dress up days not to mention Secret Santa, which in a moment of weakness I signed up for. Gah!
If this is the holiday boat you are in, here are a few simple ideas for student holiday gifts you can make this week and have ready by Friday. You will need ink, a printer, and a laminator (optional), but hopefully you have full access (or sneaky secret access) to something that prints at your school and don't have to do your own printing at home. Ink gets expensive!!
Top Ten Lists are FREE, personalized, easy, and the kids love them. These are, very simply, a list of 10 things you (or classmates) like about them. Since you'll need to make one for every student they are more time consuming, but you can knock them out in a night. Use the editable freebiehere and customize one for every student. If you have time in class you can have other students brainstorm character traits or interview classmates to see what others like about said students, but if you're in a time crunch you can just do these on your own. Print on cardstock, laminate, give to students. Holiday gift complete!
Classmate compliments are FREE, don't require color printing or laminating, and give students an extra something to do during that last week before break. You can even use them as a writing center! Have students decorate paper bags (we call them RACK sacks - ONE because I find the word "sack" funny, and TWO because it rhymes with RACK/Random Acts of Classroom Kindness) and put them somewhere safe in the room. Throughout the week students are assigned or can draw names of classmates to write a sincere compliment to. I have the kids turn these in and pass them out to RACK sacks myself to avoid any weird anonymous compliment mayhem. At the end of the week students have a number of nice things others have written about them to take home and cherish. :) Holiday gift done! These are included with the freebie above. If you haven't already downloaded it, click here for the freebie.
If you have Amazon Prime or don't mind paying for shipping, these are my cheap go to supply gifts. At my school last year students were in desperate need of school supplies so they received new crayons for Christmas and at the end of the year. I am also a big fan of buying Composition Notebooks at the Back to School Sales and saving them to give as New Writer's Notebooks for the new year. I also love the personalized pencil sets from For Teachers Only, but you do have to order those in advance. If you are going to order them though, make sure you click on their site through Ebates and get cash back.
I am also a big believer in gifts for the whole class. A new class game or PE equipment (I love having a few sets of Speed Stacks in the classroom), noise muffling headphones(my students are obsessed with these at the moment), chapter books for the classroom library, new pillows or lamps for your reading corner, or a class picture book are great gifts for the kids and for you.
I hope one of these gift ideas will work for you if you're in a bind and save you some valuable holiday teacher time.
GO, FIGHT, WIN!
We're almost there!
I hope one of these gift ideas will work for you if you're in a bind and save you some valuable holiday teacher time.
GO, FIGHT, WIN!
We're almost there!
