Anyway, so first off...Brooke's teacher is retiring this year after 29 years teaching. The school did a little reception that was....eh...quite frankly, blah. So a few of us parents decided first to go in on a gift together. Which led to me getting all into it. I wanted to create something personalized from her class, yet with some sort of financial benefit too. She's not going into retirement for vacation...she will probably still work afterwards, so we wanted to give her a great send off. I came up with the idea to have each kid create a flower and put (donated) money in the flower. The flower idea changed throughout the course with some better ideas on how to make it work. We ended up tracing kids hands, curling the fingers of those hands, then curling the whole hand together to make "lilies". Each kid signed the back of their flower. Then I rolled up the donated money (which ended up being $5/kid!!!) and stuck it in the center to make the centerpart of the flower. As we were utilizing their art time (the only time of day away from their teacher!!!) to trace hands, I also asked each kid their favorite thing about Ms Neff. I wrote them all down, typed them up real pretty in different colors and stuck those sayings/thoughts inside the 'bouquet' too. We were going to just read them at the (surprise) party but I thought she might like to be able to read them later in case she forgot what was said in the moment. I stuffed some greenery in, tied a pretty ribbon, made a bow with Snoopy ribbon (she LOVES Peanuts characters), and voila'! I think it turned out really cute.
Also, while we had the kids to ourselves, we snuck them outside for a class picture (minus the absent ones... :( ) with a sign a parent had made "we love you Ms Neff". Another parent is putting the picture that I took here on a 16x20 canvas for her to always remember her last class.
Aside from that....I personally am giving her a regular end of the year gift, with a Target gift card, a nice candle, and a picture frame magnet with a picture of her and Brooke in it I took at the beginning of the year.
As far as Brenna's teachers go... well, they also each (there are two of them) are getting a Target gift card, a candle and a magnet notepad with a picture of her with each one of them respectively. I did a lot for Teacher Appreciation Week as well so I just wanted a little token of how much we really thank them for all they do throughout the year. I sent along a nice card with messages and Brenna is making a card as well.
I had one more craft up my sleeve though. When I was taking the preschool's class pictures, one of the things I had asked, was if they had a sign for the school? Just a small little sign or something having the school's name. They did not...since they were still kinda new. So, guess what? I made them one. And maybe if I get to do their pictures next year, I can use it in the pics! I plan to give it to the school's director...as she often gets overlooked for end of the year gifts I assume. But, here's the finished product. I painted each piece of this, found the letters at Hobby Lobby, minus one "E" I needed (there's a lot of E's in their name!!). So Brad literally sawed off one of the E's off my wooden blocks I sometimes use and you can never tell the difference. I painted the backboard black to give it the chalkboard look, added the cross, using different primary colors on all of it. Then found the little fencing at Hobby Lobby. Hot glued it all together, added the 'school days' ribbon as a hanger and again....voila'! I think it turned out pretty cute as well. :)
All of the gifts went over well. Pics to come of the surprise party for Brooke's teacher and last day of school.
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