We had a rainy Memorial Day weekend - and it’s STILL raining and supposed to be raining all week. We did squeeze in some pickup baseball and barbecues between the rain showers and had a blast!
In between the breaks in the rain, the kiddos and I got busy making gifts for their teachers. They each had 2 teachers in their classrooms this year - all 4 of them were AWESOME - we totally loved them. We had to come up with 4 of something that weren’t too expensive, but still said a huge Thank You from the heart. We decided on foam flower bouquets (a big thanks to my friend, Gail, for the idea!).
The kids spent quite a bit of time cutting out flower petals and leaves while I got my fingers all sticky and full of splinters putting floral tape and foam petals on bamboo skewers. But, I think they turned out well! (excuse the poor photo quality - in my infinite wisdom, I set the bouquets in front of a window!)
Princess chose some shorter metal buckets for her teachers. This one and a pink one just like it. It took her and her little kindergarten fingers quite a while in a couple sessions to cut out all of these flower petals, but she did it! I was very proud of her.
Dude chose some fun tall metal buckets for his flowers. This one and a yellow one for his other teacher. It didn’t take him quite as long to cut out his petals, and I didn’t have to do as much “rounding” of his corner cutting as I did with the ones Princess cut out.
Here are a couple pictures of the flowers from the top. We put gift cards to Hobby Lobby inside each bouquet (except for Princess’ teenage assistant - she got an iTunes gift card).
I won’t claim that the kids did this project without a little whining. There was a LOT of cutting involved, and they did get tired of it after a while. BUT, they stuck it out and understood the importance of putting time into something special for people who are important to you.
And, I will say, that they were both so proud when their teachers were so happy and grateful for their handmade gifts. Dude may have even whispered “That was totally worth the effort.”
What would I do different next time? I’d put more petals on each of the roses. I’d also mix and match the colors for the other flowers instead of just using the two colors they each chose for each flower. It was their project, so I did as I was told, but I might try to influence their decisions a little more next time 
Any teachers out there? What was the best gift you’ve received? What is a gift you’d LIKE to receive from a student?
I think the foam flower bouquets are absolutely beautiful. What a marvelous idea!!! I’m sooo proud of the kids for spending the time necessary to complete the project. Love…Mom
Those are beautiful gifts! And the time put into it will mean so much to their teachers!
I was trying to be creative for teacher appreciation week this year too. So I got the white hard cover journals from Oriental Trading and the girls decorated them. One for each teacher, secretary, aide that they work with. The ones for the aides were smaller though. For the PE, library, music teachers & office staff they each did a cover. For their own teachers they decorated it themselves. I was really proud of the work they did and everyone seemed to love them. The girls were so excited to give them out! But it was a lot of work! There’s a lot of staff to appreciate at our school!