We celebrate teacher appreciation week in the first week of May, from May 1 to May 8, 2022 (Sunday – Sunday). It is the week when we honor teachers and recognize the contributions they make to our lives. If you want to give your teacher something unique, not again a plain gift card, check out our favorite 5 teacher appreciation gift ideas below.
5 DIY Teacher Appreciation Gifts Anyone Can Make
Whether you want to give your teachers end-of-the-year teacher appreciation gifts, a gift for teacher appreciation week or you need an idea for secret Santa, teacher appreciation gifts show your teacher how thankful you are.
None of these DIY teacher gift ideas below require any special skills, crafting experience, or expensive materials.
1. Colourful Pencil Vase
Throughout the school year, teachers often run low on number two pencils. Rather than simply giving your teacher a box of pencils, this DIY teacher gift plays double duty. A DIY pencil vase is a practical and thoughtful gift.
Without any messy hot glue guns, the little ones can also lend a hand in creating special teacher appreciation gifts. As a bonus gift, any leftover pencils or materials can be put to good use on other at-home craft projects.
What You Need
- Number Two Pencils (your choice of colors)
- Double-side d tape
- Non-stick scissors
- Washi Tape (your choice of colors)
- Glass jar or bottle or Mason Jar
Instructions
To create this DIY teacher gift, start by cleaning and drying your glass bottles or mason jar. Then carefully apply double-sided tape to both ends of the glass jar, mason jar, or bottle.
Lay one pencil onto the bottle. The eraser should be pointing towards the top. Press the pencil against the tape until it sticks securely. Continue adding pencils around the bottle. At about the halfway point, put a rubber band around the middle to keep the pencils in place. Keep adding pencils until the bottle is covered.
Choose a washi tape color that your child’s teacher would like and tape one end of the pencil vase. Then add a band of tape to the opposite end.
Remove the rubber band from the middle, and voila! You’ve got a one-of-a-kind vase that any teacher would proudly place upon their desk.
Add either fake or fresh flowers, and you’re all set. You can give the DIY vase on its own or choose to add a gift card to the favorite coffee chain of the teacher or an office supply shop.
2. Terracotta Apple Candy Dish
Rather than just giving a simple bag of chocolates, whip up this DIY terracotta apple candy dish. It is a simple homemade teacher appreciation gift that shows your teacher just how much you care. As one of the best teacher appreciation gifts, you can repeat this is one year after year.
What You Need
- 4-inch Terracotta pot with saucer
- Red Craft Paint
- Green felt
- Pencils (classic yellow works best)
- Hot glue gun
- Craft paintbrush
- Scissors
- Assorted candies
Instructions
Start by wiping down your pot and letting it dry thoroughly. With a medium-sized craft paintbrush, go ahead with the first DIY task and paint both your pot and saucer red. You may need two coats for a beautiful glossy finish.
While your pot dries, cut the eraser off of one of your pencils with a knife or a very sharp pair of scissors. Now cut your green felt into a small leaf shape with your scissors. This will form the stem of the apple on the saucer.
With your hot glue gun, add a small dot of glue at the center of each leaf and pinch to make the leaf seem more dimensional. Use glue to attach the pencil and leaves to the saucer. Fill the dish up with candy, and you’re ready to go!
What makes this DIY teacher appreciation gift practical is that your teacher can reuse the dish and fill it with their favorite candies year after year. Whenever the teacher pulls it out for a new school year, the teacher immediately thinks of your child and how much they’re appreciated.
Additionally, this little DIY vessel can serve double duty. If a teacher isn’t fond of the sweet stuff, they can also choose to fill the apple pot with school supplies, rubber bands, or anything else they may need easy access to throughout the day.
3. DIY Scrabble Name Plate
Want to give your teacher one of the best teacher appreciation gifts that keep on giving year after year? This is a DIY project that will find a spot on your teacher’s desk long after your child has gone on to a new grade. This simple teacher appreciation gift idea is easy; all you need for this DIY project is a few necessary supplies and a hot glue gun.
What You Need
Instructions
This teacher appreciation gift does not need much DIY crafting. With your letter tiles, line up your teacher’s name on the letter tile holders.
Decorative wooden button in your chosen design in the space where the punctuation mark would go in the teacher’s name. For example, if your teacher’s name were Mrs. Holden, you would place the button right after the “S” in “Mrs.”
Stack letters or glue two tile holders together if your teacher has a very long name. Once you have everything laid out, put a hot glue dot on the bottom and center of each tile/decorative button.
Let dry and make sure each is firmly in place. Once each letter is secured to the holder, you’re all set! Now you can give a great teacher gift that can be reused year after year.
We love this fun gift because it is also a great practice in spelling for younger elementary students. As you assemble the teacher’s gift, have your child attempt to line up the letters to spell their teacher’s name. If they get bored during the project, they can also use leftover letters to spell their name or their classmates’ names.
4. DIY Teacher Survival Kit in Metal Buckets
Now more than ever, teachers could use a helping hand in the school year. Putting together a thoughtful DIY teacher survival kit can bring your teacher some much-needed peace of mind.
This gift idea requires very little crafting skills. If you’re short on time or don’t want to mess with paint or glue, this is the gift idea for you.
What You Need
- A small metal craft bucket
- Kleenex Travel Tissues
- Hand sanitizer or hand sanitizer wipes
- A tube of lip balm
- Craft ribbon
- Card stock
Instructions
Take your metal bucket and tie a nice piece of craft ribbon around the top in a bow to get started. Choose any color you’d like or one that you think would best suit the teacher’s personality. From there, stuff a piece of tissue paper into the bottom of the bucket.
Place your tissues, sanitizing items, and lip balm into the bucket. On your computer or online, type up a free printable gift tag that says “Teacher Survival Kit” and a brief thank you. Make sure what your writing will fit onto a large printable tag.
Print your message out on your cardstock color of choice, cut, and attach to your bucket with leftover ribbon. Just like that, you’ve got meaningful DIY teacher appreciation gifts that go the extra mile. Odds are, your teacher will reach for the supplies in this bucket day after day.
Once empty, they can choose to refill the DIY kit gift themselves and have a little station at their desk with all of the sanitary essentials.
5. DIY Tea Tumbler
Teaching throughout the day can cause the throat of any teacher to go a bit dry. Maybe that is why you see your teacher reaching for some hot tea or water to help keep things from going a bit scratchy.
An easy gift idea that doesn’t require any special tools or gluing is a tea-riffic gift using a simple reusable plastic coffee tumbler, some tea, and a little bit of thought.
We think this DIY teacher gift is one of the best teacher appreciation gift ideas because it is practical, affordable, and reusable.
What You Need
- Clear coffee tumblers
- Crinkle cut paper shred filler
- Solid color satin ribbon
- Stash tea bag assortment
- Cardstock
Instructions
To start this teacher gift, wash and dry your coffee tumbler. Add some crinkle paper into the vessel’s cup part until it reaches about two-thirds of the way up. Once your crinkle paper is in place, add an assortment of tea bags into the cup.
If your teacher is a coffee drinker, you can also add some coffee packets. Once you’ve placed your teabags, screw the lid back on the cup.
Cut a piece of satin ribbon and tie a neat bow around the straw right at the lid base. Take a piece of card stock and cut it out in the shape of a teabag. With this teacher gift, you can thank the teacher in your life for being so tea-riffic!
Final Thoughts on Best Teacher Gifts
Letting your teacher know you care through a thoughtful gift or a gift card is a simple extension of gratitude. Utilize a bit of creativity and plenty of DIY grit to create a teacher gift for your teacher.
Another great gift idea is a personalized teacher planner for the next school year. This is definitely something that your teacher would use daily. Before you purchase a planner, try to find out, which planner your teacher uses. Some teachers are very specific with the layout of their planners.
No matter what gift you make on your own at the end of the school year, at teacher appreciation week, or around the holidays, all DIY teacher appreciation gifts say “Thank you!”.
