Teacher gifts.

[nothing2lose]

Ok, skim reading these and totally read this as "made reefer biccies"

No. We made them for Santa.

[Beach Mama]

I agree with others as far as food, chocolates etc goes although having said that I only ever seem to get crappy chocolates (mmmm might be saying something about my teaching skills ) I have appreciated bottles of wine in the past but not all schools/teachers/parents approve! Desk or wall calendars are good too!

[peanutter]

I like Rouge's idea.

I suggest that you "level up" though, and make them their very own report cards. One page for handwriting, one for exhortation, one for ... you get the drift.

Or, you could give them a framed photo of your child. Cause everyone *loves* those.

[onthefly]

Ha. DS gave me an oral report on his teachers in the first term:

Mrs C just always does the same things and puts the kids in timeout. She just doesn't know how to make things istering to keep the kids attention.
Mrs H is much more funer. And she always does lots of different things and the kids are never in timeout. She knows how to make the kids keep their attention.

[Astrolady]

One year I did get Lachlan's teacher a Christmas decoration for her tree that said #1 teacher. I wonder how many of them she has hanging on her tree LOL

[wysiwyg]

Ha. DS gave me an oral report on his teachers in the first term:

So cute!

Totally honest question here - Is it common to give teachers a gift at Christmas? I grew up in UK and I never remember giving teachers a gift at Christmas and I think it would have been considered a bit strange - but my family have never been that into gifts full stop so perhaps it was just us? Christmas cards I do remember doing.

Does it extend to kinder/daycare teachers or is it just a school thing?

I do remember gifts occasionally for any teachers outside of school like piano teachers etc.

[Trillian]

I have always gotten my kids teachers a present and a thank you note at the end of each year - including preschool. They do an amazing job in some pretty tough circumstances at times and giving them a small token of my appreciation for the work they do with a nice note saying as much is the least I can do. I always bake a big cake for the staff room too and they love it and they get a kick out of it that someone takes the time to do something like that for them.

[feeb]

Last year for CC staff I made some chocs with the boys and we wraped them up in cellophane and tied a card to it that the boys had decorated.

[peanutter]

Wow - never thought about it for CC ... makes sense, though. Would be tricky for us, as there's 4 main carers in DS1's room, but another 4-6 who regularly help out, plus the manager ...

I like the idea of a nice big cake for the staff room, though. I might do that

[BlackCat]

I love the idea of doing something for our carers, just not sure what. Like pp our room often has floats helping. Anything food is out as it's a strict no no, can't complain about that though as my child is one of the reasons for the blanket rule lol. Best get thinking.

[Artechim]

Wysiwyg, it might be an Australian thing? I haven't heard of people doing it in NZ - it surely didn't happen when I was a kid. Perhaps times have changed...I will ask some teacher friends next time I see them.

I was planning to get DS's kindy teachers something because they have been his teachers for two years and he is leaving for school at the end of the year. They have put in so much effort and they genuinely care about him.

[wysiwyg]

I wonder if it is also because school year ends at Christmas here, in UK ends in July - so if ever giving a present was more likely to be at end of school year when moving class - that is probably it, here prob happens more because two reasons Christmas and end of year.

[Phteven]

Judging by the number of gifts that appear on the teacher's desks in the last days of the year it's quite common. I'm sure that if you don't have much of a bent towards gift giving they don't care.
I figure that they do such a great job they deserve a little something at the end of the year. Not sure what I would do if one of my kids had a crappy teacher. I might skip the gift for them that year.

[Rouge]

Absolutely! And in the past we've pretty much always done Champagne, or baked gifts (with the letter) except for the year DS's teacher left to have a baby. She got a baby pack.