Teacher Appreciation Week: UP theme

Teacher Appreciation week has come and gone and this year, we went with an "UP" theme. 

We had $400 to spend on 5 days and I was under budget $1! 

Day One: "BATTER UP" 

Parents brought in cupcakes for the teachers and were entered into a cupcake contest 

The winner was Michelle Helm who won a $25 gift card to GiGi's cupcakes. 

 Day Two: "DRINK UP"

For this one, I had different seven-ups and fresh fruits with seltzer water so teachers could muddle their own ingredients and make their own fruity drink. I also printed the "7-UPS of teaching" and got cute paper clips to give away from the dollar store. We served the drinks on plastic champagne flutes.

 Day Three: "WAKE UP" 

We provided a yogurt bar with fresh fruit and granola. 

Peet's Coffee generously donated coffee for the morning! 

LOVE when our community gets involved with recognizing our teachers! 

We had several classes fill out little suns with ways that their teacher brightens up their lives! 

 Day Four: "DRESS UP" 

This was one of my favorite days. Kids were encouraged to dress up and bring in flowers to hand out to their teachers and staff in the school. They really stepped up to the plate! It was beautiful! 

We provided 40 vases and a rose in each one to get the fun started. 

Peet's Coffee also gave us a bunch of complimentary drink coupons to give away too! 

 Day Five: "GIDDY UP"

The last day, we had a BBQ lunch for the teachers. Parents brought in sides, salads and desserts. Texas Roadhouse catered the pulled pork and rolls. It was yummy! 

It was a fun week and there is no way we could adequately spoil the staff 

at Hopkins enough for all they do for our kiddos! 

Dr. Seuss Teacher Appreciation Week

This year, I was in charge of Teacher Appreciation Week. 

I decided to go with a Dr. Seuss theme for the week and it was fun to pull it all together. 

We have a budget of $500 for the week and this came right in under that amount. 

I also love that I have a lot of containers to reuse and put in our PTO closet:) 

Day One: Hop on Pop-corn Bar

We found many different gourmet popcorn recipes online (Pinterest rocks) and filled colorful bins with them. I made labels and a sign to display the flavors. 

 We had a lot of the kids fill out little hats of thanks to decorate the teacher's doors 

and I took pics of all the staff with a blue frame, a boa and Seuss hat. 

We put those on the teacher's doors as well and on a big poster in the front of the school.  

 Day Two: Pink Yink Ink Drink Breakfast 

Panera donated all the pastries and we sent out order forms the week before where teachers could order a Starbuck's drink or a pink smoothie. I made the smoothies there at the school with Costco's smoothie mix and my VitaMix. I coordinated several parents to hit up local Starbucks to order the drinks. 

The teacher's really loved the personalization. 

 Day Three: Candy Bar and Gift

I put out several jars of candy along with "Green Eggs and Ham". Target had Seuss things like notepads, pencils, erasers in their dollar spot, so I got those as little gifts for the teachers. 

I made the banner out of Scrapbook paper and twine and used wrapping paper as the tablecloth. 

 Day Four: Biffer Baum Boxed Lunches

This was one of my favorite days! It was a lot to coordinate but the results were awesome! 

I sent out teacher lunch surveys. I created a Sign up sheet on Bring It (my favorite free online sign up) for parents to sign up to bring a boxed lunch for a staff member. Then I emailed that staff member's lunch survey to that parent. We had around 60 lunches delivered and it looked amazing! We gave away gift cards to the parents with the coolest looking themed lunches. 

 This was the winner- this parent made her lunches to look like books. 

Each item was labeled inside. SO creative! 

 And the runner up was this awesome looking salad! 

It was such a fun week and the staff at Hopkins felt very loved and appreciated! 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Teacher Appreciation Week is my most favorite volunteer thing to do within the PTO at Hopkins. 

I appreciate the teachers/staff so much and remember when I was a teacher and how small acts of kindness meant so much! 

Day One-  "Thanks for Keeping Calm and Shining On!"

We were able to get the teachers a Keurig Machine (I think their favorite part of the week) and little IKEA lanterns. I made the pompoms with tissue paper and found a free pdf for the sign here.

Day Two- "Thanks for Being Sweet As Pie" 

Every year we have had a pie contest where parents bring in their pies and teachers vote for their favorite. We gave out Village Inn gift certificates to the winners. 

Day Three- "Thanks for Keeping Our Kids Hopping"

Since we are the Hopkins Frogs, I used lots of green frogs to decorate. Panera graciously provided breakfast sandwiches and we made up a little yogurt bar to go along with the sandwiches.

Day Four- "Thanks for all you do. Please enjoy a BB-Q"

We provided a BB-Q lunch which was easily put together by purchasing everything from Costco.

Day Five- "Thanks a Latte For All You Do"

For the third year in a row, we used Executive Perks to provide a barista who made specialty lattes for the teachers and parents at the beginning of school. Its always a favorite!

 Another fun thing we added this year was DOOR DECORATING. I contacted classroom reps and others who were interested and we decorated the doors of all the teachers/staff. It was quite a project but the teachers LOVED them all. We had winners too:) I hope to continue this tradition every year. I just love that it gets the kids involved as well in saying "Thank You".