As you may know, Teacher Appreciation Week is upon us, and many parents are scrambling to come up with a thoughtful gift. Well, look no further because I’ve got an awesome idea for you—a Teacher Appreciation Gift Tote!

A few years ago, when my son was graduation pre-school, we wanted to do something grand and personal for his teachers. I looked through ideas on the internet and have come up with an idea of a gift basket. Instead of trying to come up with one perfect gift, we decided to put several small but cool things in one basket.

The only thing was that I did not quite like the idea of a basket. I really wanted to use something more useful in everyday life. Then, I saw an idea of a beach tote on Pinterest. It was stuffed with lots of goodies as a “basket” alternative, and I knew it was just what I had in mind also!

There are so many ways that you can be creative with a gift basket! You can make it very personal, if you come up with specific things the teacher likes.

Thankfully, our pre-school had a handout paper with every teacher’s hobbies, favorite colors, foods, snacks, restaurants, special treats, etc. listed on it. It made our (parents’) lives SO much easier around the holidays and special dates.

If you don’t have such a list, then think about what you know about your teacher. Perhaps look for the biography page on the school’s website. Another idea is to look for a welcome letter, which many teachers often send at the beginning of the year telling a little bit about themselves.

If you are absolutely out of ideas, think about a themed “basket”.

SOME OF THE IDEAS FOR YOUR TEACHER APPRECIATION GIFT TOTE/BASKET:

• Serenity Basket: green tea, a CD with calm instrumental music on it, an eye mask, an inspirational quotes book, a candle.
• Movie Lover Basket: 1-2 classic movies on DVDs, a bag of popcorn, a bag of candy, a gift card to a local movie theatre.
• Garden Basket: packets of flower seeds, garden tools, watering can, garden gloves, a book about flowers.
• Bullet Journal Basket: a bullet journal, a set of fancy stencils, different kinds of pens, a candle.
• Coffee/Tea Lover Basket: a bag of high quality beans/tea leaves, a cool mug, a froth maker, fancy syrups, honey.

And so so much more. Possibilities are endless, truly.

We went with a Summer Gift  Basket theme. Preschool year was ending just a couple of weeks after Teacher Appreciation Week. It was only appropriate to do a fun summer theme for our teachers.

OUR TEACHER APPRECIATION GIFT TOTE (SUMMER THEME) SUPPLIES:

• Beach Tote
• Izze (sparkling fruit juice)
• Paper Straws
• Sudoku/Crosswords
• Fun pen
• Small journal
• Beach ball
• Local Events Magazine (in our case, Bucks County in PA)
• Beach Towel
• A Mini Led Lantern (it was a set of 3, so we just put one in each tote)
• Treats (we got a few favorites for each teacher from the school list)
• Luggage tag (with teachers’ initials)
• Handmade Handprint Card

All of the supplies were quite affordable! I picked them up at Walmart, Target dollar spot, and my local grocery store. Some items were on sale (beach totes and towels), and some I already owned (paper straws). The total for the tote was approximately 20-25$.

Pack all the goodies in each tote, attach a card, and get ready to blow your teachers away! When my son and I dropped off the totes, our teachers were beyond grateful! They kept saying again and again how unique and personal the totes were. They even said that they had never received such a thoughtful gift before.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to make our teachers feel so happy and touched! All I really did for our Teacher Appreciation Gift Tote was simply picked up a few nifty things that our teachers might enjoy during summer and stuff them in the totes!

If you are wondering how to make that Teacher Appreciation Handprint Card sticking out of our totes, then you can fund a tutorial here.

Another creative way to make a Teacher Appreciation card is Apple Stamp Teacher Appreciation Card.

I hope this post gave you some ideas on how to make a unique and thoughtful gift for your teacher! They work hard all year, and they truly appreciate all the personal gestures of appreciation. Do something nice and extra special for your teachers this year and make their day!