Hiya Friends! In all the hoopla of appreciation week, jackpots, and TpT shopping these past few days, one of us (We won’t mention any names…) found ourselves in a serious panic late yesterday when she remembered she is not only a teacher sitting back ready to be appreciated {insert fake palm frond fans and faux grape feeding here}, but also a serious sucker Room Parent for her daughter’s second grade class as well (We both have 2nd grade daughters, so still not mentioning any names…).
OH YIKESSSSS!!
It is times like these when this person vows the utmost appreciation for the ingenious inventors of Pinterest. We know. We know. Who doesn’t love Pinterest. Right?
With just a few clicks through our boards, and a few scrolls of the mouse…there it was, right where we left it. Ahhh… Heart palpitations settling, breathing back in place.
Many pins ago, this adorable lil’ thing joined our Pinterest board family…Isn’t she so cute?!? Fell in love from the moment we met!!
We tracked the original pin back to the sweet family blog, The Butlers, and found a super creative and talented Mom named Leigh Anne. We emailed her to thank her SO much for saving my life sharing her creativity for this super easy project.
This was it! Teacher Appreciation can resume…GAME ON!
We shopped for the supplies using class donations, used a few we had on hand, then got to work. Peeps, this whole thing took 15 minutes to whip up!!! Seriously!! It is all done around a paper towel roll and everything is added to using rubber bands. It was so, so easy! Here’s ours…
Didn’t have as much time to doll up the ribbon as cute as Leigh Anne, but our school colors are purple and gold and figured the gift cards might make up for it. Found a plastic charger plate for the base on super sale and it worked great! We used a metal pencil cup that we found in the dollar section and then hot glued cute scrapbook paper around it to coordinate with the colors. And yes, we did have to buy lavender glue sticks and matching spiral notebooks…And, we tried really hard to match the gift card colors too, but we’d never admit it. 🙂
We won’t go step by step because Leigh Anne’s directions are amazingly easy to follow.
You can find them here.
As a Room Mom, thanks so much Leigh Anne…Your pin totally saved me!
As a teacher, Thank You Leigh Anne…We would feel so appreciated with this fun gift!
And Bonus = NO calories cake! Yay!
Though we used this for appreciating one of our own teachers this week, we are tucking this lil’ gem away for back to school time. Our school always has a back to school luncheon and we think a few teachers would jump at the chance to win something like this as a back to school treat. Yes, this lil’ pin may be making her appearance at teacher gatherings for many years to come. And the way we look at it, if you’re going to get school supplies as an appreciation gift, at least a cute presentation helps…and the gift cards…those help too. 🙂
We hope each and every teacher is feeling very appreciated this week. But, it definitely got us thinking. It really isn’t so much about the shower of gifts we receive this week. Feeling appreciated as a teacher happens in small ways, along the way, day by day. Sometimes, we don’t even realize until many months or years later that we really were appreciated.
But over the years, once the gift cards are spent, the chocolates are eaten, and the flowers have wilted, it really is the little acts of appreciation that stick around. The hugs, the hand drawn pictures, the little notes of kindness, and just the faces of little learners waiting to absorb anything you say {well, most days anyways}…Those are the acts of appreciation we keep with us forever, read often, and reflect upon to remind ourselves why we do what we do. We hope you are feeling appreciated too!
Christy & Tammy
