BB Part 3 - Rubber Duckie Gifts

It's time for part 3 of my 10 part series Blog Backlog: Playing Catch Up! If you missed out on previous posts you should definitely check out part 1 on our state mobiles and part 2 on Go Noodle!

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite things...gifts. I love creating cute thank you gifts for the amazing people who give so much of themselves to work and volunteer for our kids. Some of the past gifts include: thank you cubes, out of this world space themed gifts, and flower cards.

For the past two years I have been teaching the 5th grade intervention math. Most of the kids have an IEP or just struggle with math. We are lucky to have a wonderful para and resource teacher who come in three days of the week to work with us. Last year these awesome gals got calculator cards and fun flexible calculators. This is even a freebie in my TpT store!

Since I had the same lovely ladies this year I needed something different. I was wandering around Dollar Tree and stumbled upon some cute rubber duckies. I immediately had the song, "Rubber Duckie you're the one..." in my head. My next thought was, hey, I could replace "bath" with "math", and this new gift was born. 

Each gift basket includes: cards from each student, two rubber duckies, a loofa, a bottle of bubbles, a lavender bath soak, and a gift card to Bath & Body Works. Most of the items I found at Dollar Tree!

I found a cute image of a bath with a duckie in it and just used that as the cards that students wrote on. The front of the cards says "Mrs. White, you're the one! Making MATH time oh so fun! Mrs. White we're especially fond of you!"

Inexpensive, cute, fun and full of gratitude! That's my kind of gift! There will be another volunteer gift post coming up in my 10 part series! Stay tuned!

Teachers LOVE Teachers

Dear Teachers,
You are AWESOME! There is nothing I could say that you don't already know about how amazing you are - about how you literally put your blood, sweat, tears, heart, and soul into your job. As a colleague I know the tough job you have and see your struggles and joys everyday. I love how teachers support teachers - because there often isn't anyone advocating for us. You are appreciated, everyday, but it is this week that we make sure to show our appreciation. From one teacher to another - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I wish I could raise your salary, decrease your class sizes, give you all a personal secretary, give you access to endless supplies, and provide an on-staff masseuse. Instead, I hope you are showered with love from your students, administration, PTO, and your loved ones. Make sure to pamper yourself a bit too - I treated myself to a 90 minute massage yesterday. 

Although I can't give you all you deserve I do have some pretty cool freebies (see the link at the top of the page). I also have a few secret Fan Freebies on my Facebook page. 

Also, Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting a 2-day sale tomorrow and Wednesday. Get up to 20% at many stores and an additional 10% off with code TPTXO. I'm excitedly filling up my cart!

Thanks Michelle from The 3am Teacher for the lovely sale graphic. (I'm saving my pennies for one of her custom blog designs!!!)

Gift of Appreciation ^cubed

It seems like I can never keep track of all of those days/weeks of appreciation...you know, Administrative Assistant's Day, Boss' Day, Monkey Trainer's Day, etc. The resource teacher emailed me earlier this week alerting me to the fact that this past week was School Counselor Appreciation Week. Our school counselor is full of awesome. She and I used to have rooms right next to each other when she taught resource, but last year she moved up to the office as our counselor. Now, I am still super lucky to have her come to my room 3 times a week for my math intervention class. On top of all this her and I share a love for TV shows ranging from Downton Abbey to American Horror Story. We try to meet once a week to dish on the latest episodes.

Anyhow, we needed to have our intervention kiddos make something to show their appreciation, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose instructional time. Well, it just so happens that we have been studying 3D shapes and volume and I had already copied off a cube net on pretty pink. The idea hit and I knew what to do. The kids wrote notes and drew pictures on each face and then cut and taped them together. One girl even rushed back to her classroom for a piece of jewelry to put inside of her cube! We brought our cubes to the floor and used them to make some rectangular prisms and found the volume of each. Then we took a walk over to the front office. I sent a few kids at a time into her office and they built a rectangular prism of appreciation right there on her desk.

Today's Formula . . . Learning x Fun x Gratitude = Gift of Appreciation^3

I'm linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching's "Spark Student Motivation Saturdays"

Volunteer Gifts

The art curriculum in our district is not taught by teachers, instead we have parent volunteers come in and teach monthly lessons. This year I had two wonderful moms who did an amazing job with my class! This week was our last lesson. I put together a Pinterest inspired thank you card/gift for them. 

It was really easy to put together. I just traced some petals onto colorful cardstock and the kids wrote a lovely thank you note and cut them out. Then I threaded them onto a large flower brad, swirled them around, and hot glued them onto some wooden dowels. Easy peasy!