I taught for 35 years and know how much a teacher spends to make her classroom learning environment special, a gift card from a group of parents would really be wonderful. Teachers also spend on their classroom library so a gift card to a bookstore is nice as well. The one gift that really cost nothing is a letter of appreciation for all the teacher has done to make your child love learning. Letters from the heart are memorable.
Originally Posted by
lab fairy
I can speak experience on this one (I have been a teacher). Teachers get inundated with anything that has an image of an apple. Mugs are in the attic, candles have been regifted, etc. You get the idea. Elementary teachers seem to be especially gifted by their students in this area. When my children were in school, I talked to the other parents from the classroom. We pooled the money that we would have spent on the teacher's gift and got one "giant" gift certificate from the closest "teacher supply heaven". For an elementary school teacher this might be a Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Joann's, etc. This allowed the teacher to receive a far larger gift than any one of us could afford on our own (most parents donated around $5 but when you multiply that by 25...), the teacher was thrilled not to have to spend her own money on things for the classroom, and we still gifted a small plate of cookies.