Teachers Appreciation Week Idea: Pencil Holder

With still two more days remaining in the 'Teacher's Appreciation Week' , I wanted to share this pencil holder that I made for my son's preschool teachers. With no energy to shop these days, I wanted to make something with stuff I already had at home. So, decided on making this personalized pencil holder from milk bottles. It can also be used as a vase. 

These are actually starbucks coffee bottles, washed and dried. You can also use mason jars instead.

For personalizing it, I used chalk board contact paper, as I did not have vinyl handy. I used Cricut to cut the alphabets out of chalk paper. It comes with an adhesive, so its easy to position and reposition it on the bottle.

For longer words,  I cut out an oval on cricut, and used chalk Ink Markers to write on it.

Added chickpeas/garbanzo beans to stick in the pencils. Embellished with a ribbon, and pencil holder is ready.

Thanks to all the teachers who are making a big difference in our little ones life.

Teacher's Appreciation Week

As all know, I just need an opportunity to go gaga over the teacher's at Kabir's daycare/preschool HCM. Just love them. And with Teacher's Appreciation week in May, I wanted to do something special. We missed the actual week as our family was out in Florida vacationing. But I made it up for it last week.

I made a handmade gift for Kabir's 4 teachers, for each day of the week.

Monday: Flower Pot

I got 2 types of plants and mixed it together in 4 different pots, one for each teacher. And the sign with 'Thanks for helping Kabir bloom' was my favourite. I got this idea from skiptomylou. She also has an editable pdf to download the printable.

Tuesday: Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

Isint this cute! I could'nt find any box big and cute enough that I could use to pack atleast 3 cupcakes. Then I saw a mason jar on my window sil and deicded to use that instead. Layered 3 cupcakes with a generous dollop of icing in between each layer. Used a burlap cloth in between the lid which gave it an earthy touch. Green spoon(to match the icing) and a 'Thank You' tag, and that was it. Loved the outcome.

Wednesday: Magnet Clothespin

I got a pack of simple clothespin from dollarstore and made these 4 sets of 5 embelished magnets from it. Teacher's can use these to hold class drawings, notes, pictures..Each clothes pin has a thick magnetic strip on the back. I made few for myself with a mounting tape on the back, as we have a stainless steel refrigerator. I followed the turorial here to make these adorable magnets. 

Also added along was a 'Thank You' card, colored by Kabir and put together by his Mommy.

Thursday : Rye Berry Grass

This is a project in which Kabir was actively involved(in watering). We all were quite fascinated by the fast growth of berry(seeds bought from local Organic Store). I got this super neat idea from here. There are instructions to grow wheat grass here. I used rye berry seeds instead of wheat, but followed the same instructions.

For decorating the cups, I used chalkboard contact paper which I ordered from amazon. I can already think of 1000 more ways of using this paper. 

Along with the cup, I packed some more seeds of berry which teachers can grow on their own, with the list of instructions on how to grow, and a note below. I got this wording from here, which has another amazing idea for gifting.

Friday: Personalized Thank You Pic 

I printed off a 'ThankYou' off internet, and had Kabir color it(with lots of help from Mommy). Then, clicked a pic of him with the drawing. That was a hard one as he is all in 'NO' phase, and everytime I asked him to say cheese, he would frown and say 'No cheese'.lol.

Last year, this week was just before I had started blogging,but I would still like to post one of the gifts I made for the teachers then. I had printed the letters of 'Thank You' on a plain paper, and cut and pasted them on white paper plates. I took a picture of each kid holding a different letter. As kids were really small to stand all together, I took pics of them individually and then later merged them all together. Got it printed on a photo paper and the card was ready from the class.

I wish I could do something like this, this year as well, but some kids from the class were transitioning to the next class. So, I settled with just Kabir's pic.

There are not enough words or gifts with which I can thank the teachers who put in their heart and soul for this job. Its because of great teachers and caregivers like these, that I can afford to leave my kid without any worry and go to work each morning.

Heart felt thanks to all the Teacher's out there...