I am our group's chair for our Teacher Appreciation Sunshine Committee. I spend lots of hours online looking for creative ideas that I think they'll like and I thought it would be fun to put all of that information together. I started a blog and would love to share my ideas or get ideas from others on how to best appreciate our teachers. If you have ideas or want ideas, stop by and say hi at Sunshine 4 Teachers. Thanks fellow PTOers/PTAers and parents.

Ive heard from parents that breakfast or lunch brunches for the teachers is a good idea. I think a nice poem from the each kid will be very nice.

We are always looking for ideas, too. We are a very small private school with less than 100 students in Pre K through 6th grade.

We do a luncheon that is always greatly appreciated. We ask students to bring in handmade cards on one day. We've also tried fresh fruit or flower days but they can't be done on the first day of the week because the kids (and parents) forget.

We've also done the "walk of fame" with red bulletin board paper and gold stars with staff names, balloons for the first day.

The staff really liked gift card day. Students brought in all kinds of gift cards for the staff. If the teacher didn't particularly like a specific one they just traded among themselves.

We've tried gift baskets for each staff member and they can be well stocked with prize box items, gift cards, favorite cookies, candy, office supplies, etc.

I'm looking for something fresh and new. I'd like to have a crew of dads come and wash all the staff cars but most dads work during the day so that won't work.

If you have anything new we could try, I'd so appreciate it!

I love this red carpet idea and am definitely going to do it! I'm trying to think of a good reusable way to do that. Maybe laminate some red posterboard with gold stars on it? You can write the teacher's names over the lamination and if someone's name changes for next year, you can use nail polish remover to erase their name and put the new name on it. Any others that have done this idea?

We did the Red Carpet last year in the lounge, but we did not make it reusable. We cut out stars and wrote each teacher's name on them and pinned them up. This year we are going to provide lunch again but we've also hired a massage therapist and are having the teachers sign up for 10 minute neck massages, too. They are loving this idea!

Ooh, they are going to love those massages! Did you use a real red carpet? Or did you use some type of material? This article suggests some crimson felt or red tablecloths. I was wondering what your first-hand experience was with what worked or didn't work for people to walk on.