BB Part 7 - Tropical Volunteer Gifts

It's time for part 7 of my 10 part series, Blog Backlog: Playing Catch Up. Today I am sharing another fun idea for volunteer gifts.

This year I was so lucky to have three amazing moms who came in regularly to help make copies, prep projects, and do almost everything I asked! I wanted to show my appreciation with something cute. Last year I made my volunteers these awesome Out of this World gifts, but I was in the mood to switch things up this year. 

I was browsing Dollar Tree and they have a whole tropical/island section for summer. I picked out three tiki cups, some flower leis, and umbrella straws. While looking around some more I found these adorable battery operated string lights that had colorful flowers on them. I knew these would be a great addition!

I placed everything in the cups, including the string of lights, and topped it off with a Jamba Juice gift card (obviously they need something cold and refreshing to put in those cups!). 

I also found plain paper gift bags and foam Hibiscus flower cut-outs at Dollar Tree, so I glued them on for a themed gift bag! Not including the gift cards, each gift came to about $4 each! Not bad! 

I {heart} Dollar Tree

I'm sure most teachers have already discovered Dollar Tree and its great teacher section, plus all the other great things to use in the classroom. Before school started I found this popcorn poster with popcorn pieces for $1. Remember, I am not a teacher who makes really crafty bulletin boards (I prefer simple but still effective) so this was not only cheap, but it was an easy way to spruce up my writing folders. There was only one left at the Dollar Tree I was at and it only came with 25 popcorn pieces, so I threw some on the scanner and printed out more.

The colorful folders I have been using forever. I just bought a few packs of the binder dividers that have pockets, cut off the little tabs, and stapled them up. Students have a great way to display writing and I have them leave previous writing in so that at the end of the year it's also a writing portfolio. Plus it's super easy for me because I don't have to do any work to update the bulletin board.