PTO Today

I have been put on a project for May. Anyone that has ideas for Teacher Appreciation week (sorry I can't spell) that has worked in their school would be greatly helpful. We are a new PTA board this year and do not have any idea's other than a breakfast for them one day. Some fun activities have been thought of such as a before they were teachers photo contest and the breakfast has been tossed around. But I figured with so many different schools and diverse people here, there could be some really great ideas around. Thanks ahead of time.

Last year we had a luau lunch for the teachers, gave out small gifts, and had breakfast 2 days. All of this was spread out over the whole week. This year we are having like a Hollywood party and we will decorate the lounge with stars. We are going to get the children involved some kind of way this year as well but we haven't figured out how yet.

Hi Mommytlc,
I am just beginning to do research to come up with some different ideas for this year's staff appreciation week and kind of decided to go with a hollywood theme as well! I had thought of doing stars, too, (large ones) perhaps with the teacher's name and comments from the students written on them and then hanging them on the walls...I'd like to put them on the floor like in Hollywood. Or, you could have a "bravo" board near the school's entrance with students' notes of appreciation.

Then, I thought for the end-of-the-week luncheon I'd do really nice table cloths and music and have students or parents there to clean up, refill drinks,etc.

We do something different each day...so I'm trying to come up with other "star" related fun things to do...any other ideas?

sharonw

the star ideas are awesome.....you could even combine that with our past idea of before they were stars. If you have teachers that cooperate, they could bring in pictures of them when they were younger , start a board of match for the students....this also helps the students know that their teachers have been in the students shoes, and the students no matter where they come from can be anything they want to be. Awards would go great too! Academy awards so to speak and have voting on the best, coolest, etc. This is really cool for the older grades of the school because they are moving on and would be a good memory time of their time at the younger school levels. Just some more thoughts.

When you get the teachers to bring in their photos you could also have them fill in a standard questionaire of favorite things from their childhood the kids would want to know like: favorite meal, TV show, subject in school, playground game, what they thought they would be when they grew up, etc. That would really give the kids something to relate to and enjoy learning.

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Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.

One day during Teacher Appreciation Week we designate flower day. Each child brings in one flower and a room mom provides a vase. The kids present the teacher with the flowers as they walk in the door and a volunteer puts the flowers in the vase. Each teacher ends up with a nice arrangement of flowers from the students. This has become a tradition at our school.

(I recommend advising your local grocery store to have single flowers available that morning and the afternoon before. Our grocery store orders extra flowers and keeps them as singles since most of the time they sell arrangements or bunches of flowers. The store was happy to help and looks forward to it every year.)


One year we had a SUPER/SOUPER theme. We had signs that said our teachers are super. We provided a Soup lunch one day, another day the room mom's sent home a piece of paper that said, "If Mrs. _____ were a soup, she would be _________ and the students wrote a paragraph or two and then presented the papers to the teachers. These were sent out a week before. We ended the week with a canned food (soup) drive for charity.


Good luck!

Do you have a budget in mind?

We are SO blessed to have such outstanding staff at our local elementary school, and we try to do something special for each day of Staff Appreciation Week. (By the way, we are careful to make it STAFF Appreciation, so it includes the secretary, nurse, teachers' aides, cafeteria workers, and custodians, too.)

One thing that has been really fun and well received is a car wash. We ask staff members to drop off their car keys in the office, and then parents wash the cars during the school day. We decide which day to do the car wash based on the forecast for the week.

At times we've had students who will be graduating from that building write letters about their favorite memories at the school and what they loved about their years there.

Another time a local massage therapist came in to give 5 minute chair massages to staff members. (She was trying to build her clientele, and she didn't charge us.)

One year we surprised the staff by having parents send letters to the editor of the community newspaper to express their appreciation for the teachers and other staff members. The teachers were totally surprised and overwhelmed by this public acknowledgement of their hard work. If you are going to do this, be sure to check the newspaper's deadline for letters.

The highlight of our staff appreciation week is always the Boxed Luncheon on Friday of Staff Appreciation Week. The luncheon is held at a home that is very close to the school building. Parents make creative, themed lunches and drop them off the evening before or early in the day. The lunches are displayed without any names attached (with meatless lunches in a designated area), and staff members have a great time selecting the one they want. Examples: a flowerpot containing a salad lunch and some gardening gloves and seed packets; a fishing tackle box with a tuna sandwich, goldfish crackers, and gummy worms; a Cinco de Mayo lunch, etc. Having the luncheon at a nearby house allows the staff members to get out of the staff lounge on a beautiful day in early May. The staff members say that this is always the highlight of the year for them.

We are also doing a "Hollywood" theme this year and plan on having a red carpet for the teachers to walk with a "Maxwell Walk of Fame". We have plans to create film reels and have students' pics in the holes with a quote as to why they believe their teacher is a star. We also have themed foods (which parents bring in) for the teachers everyday of that week in our multipurpose room, which is decorated to the theme of the week. Each day we hold a drawing for a gift that was donated by a local business and make sure that we have enough for each teacher to receive one. Along with that the we send out a survey earlier in the year to find out the teachers' fave things. And we end each day by hand delivering a small, well thought out gift to each of the teachers in their classrooms. Some of the gifts are handmade since we have several crafty moms in our organization and some are donated or purchased. We do all of this on a $500 budget. This also includes our staff appreciation day which is held the Friday before teacher appreciation begins. On that day, we have parents bring in a food and give away raffle items and small tokens of our appreciation. Of course, we send the survey and the list of themes of the day to the parents the week before and most send in small gifts according to the theme on each day. This year we have massage therapists donating time, limo companies donating limo time, and a few spas donating gift baskets and gift certificates for treatments as well.

I asked tonight and beyond my belief, there is no budget for anything this year. So I guess if it sounds reasonable it is a go...lol