Teacher Appreciation Week Hospitality Events - Day One - Breakfast

Over the next couple of days, I'll share our PTA Hospitality Events

 that we hosted for Teacher Appreciation Week. 

To start things off, I made a little invite to put in all of the teachers' boxes.  Their days are so busy that it's nice for them to have a little reminder of the weeks activities.

 

Our week started off with a

"Do-Nut" Think We Forgot About Teacher Appreciation Week Breakfast.

We had donuts, fruit and breakfast tacos.

 

Our theme for the week was a vintage school house theme. 

One friend loaned me her antique desk.  Another friend had the cute school days cross-stitch in a ruler frame.  I borrowed the McGuffey readers from my mom.  Several moms donated the fresh sunflowers.  Fresh flowers are just that extra touch that mean this is something special.

 

The tables for the teachers were set up with white tablecloths, covered with a gingham topper.

The little sunflower plants were wrapped with burlap and tied with ribbon.  They became give-a-ways at the end of the week.  Hydrangea blooms were placed in mason jars tied with jute.

 

The banner above the beverage table says "Carroll is Best in Class!"

We had a selection of Kcups for the teachers in the 3-tiered basket.  Juice, water and soft drinks were also served.

 

We had a variety of donuts as well as a variety of breakfast tacos.

Table tents with the various taco flavors were placed in front of the chafing pan.

 

Mason jars tied with ribbons and placed in a wire basket held daisies.

 

We also had a ticket table for the teachers to sign up for a week of give-a-ways.

The little blackboard is held by my husband's grandmothers little student desk.

You can see some of the Kcup give-a-ways behind it.

 

My grandmother's old typewriter held a page detailing the instructions for the raffle.

(I printed the page on my computer with typewriter font.)

 

The wire trellis hold math flash cards from around 1905.

Cute little clothes pins were a cute and easy way to attach the cards to the trellis.

 

We used these decorations all week.  In the past, I think they've changed the decorations each day.  Our budget didn't allow for that, nor did my energy level!!

 

Stay tuned for more PTA Hospitality Event Ideas!

 

Smiles!

PTA Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Day Five

On the fifth and final day of Teacher Appreciation Week

we gave each of the teachers these little potted petunias.

They made our PTA room smell so sweet!!

 

We attached the labels to cut down wooden skewers.

You can print your own label, just

CLICK HERE

 

To see our other PTA teacher gifts

click below

Friday

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

 

Stay tuned to see all of Teacher Appreciation Week Hospitality Events!

PTA Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Day Four

On day four, we put these little bags filled with mints in all of the teachers' boxes.

I know, you've seen this everywhere already, but how many put in Andes mints?!?

EVERYONE loves ANDES MINTS!

 

One more day of PTA teacher gifts to go, then I'll share our daily hospitality events we hosted for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Other gifts this week:
Friday
Day one
Day two
Day three
 

 

Smiles!!

PTA Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Day Three

On the third day of Teacher Appreciation Week we gave each of the teachers a Chinese take-out box filled with custom fortune cookies.

One side of the fortune had a "thank you" from the PTA and on the other side it had an inspirational teacher quote.  They seemed to go over pretty well.

We order our take out boxes from Uline AND

the fortune cookies from KC Fortune Cookie Company.

Oh!  And the Chinese symbols at the bottom of the label supposedly say "Thank You" in Chinese.  We all laughed a little because we trust whatever we read on the internet!  It could say something completely off color for all we know!

To see some of our other gifts, click below
First Gift
Day One
Day Two

 

Smiles!



PTA Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Day Two

Our awesome PTA Hospitality Chair (aka me) had the task of coming up with affordable daily gifts for our AMAZING teachers and staff.

 

Our hospitality budget is pretty small so we have to be creative.

Giving each teacher a pack of pens was out of the question so instead, I went with a fun pen for everyone.  They're called INFINITY pens and are permanent metallic markers.

(CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THE PENS)

We just added the tag under the cap to help it look less chintzy.

 

Our week's theme was a vintage school house look so we used kraft paper for almost everything.

(You'll see this again and again through out the upcoming posts.)

The labels were printed on the kraft paper then simply punched out with the extra large scallop punch.  Also, doing everything with the black ink saved some on costs as I could just use the ink jet printer.

 

 CLICK HERE

for the First PTA gift

 

CLICK HERE

Day one gift

 

More gifts coming soon!

 

Smiles!!



PTA Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Day One

The first day of Teacher Appreciation Week we  asked the students to bring a flower and note of thanks to their teachers.  To collect all of the flowers we gave them each a vase with a floral pick holding a Thank You tag.  A lot of the vases were donated.  One generous family probably donated 50 of the vases themselves.  We are so fortunate to have such involved families at our school!

 

Don't they look pretty filled with flowers?

(This teacher actually needed TWO vases to hold all of her flowers!!  What a great problem to have, huh?!?)

 

For the Free Printable Label

Click HERE

(printable on Avery Kraft Label 22808)

 

Click HERE

for the first gift we gave the teachers

Stay tuned for the whole week of gifts donated by our PTA!

PTA Teacher Appreciation Gift - Soap & Febreeze in the Teacher Bathrooms

Friday afternoon, after all of the teachers' doors were decorated, I slipped in to all of the teachers' bathrooms and left these on the sink.   They're not much, but it was definitely something the teachers noticed!

 

Here's a close up of the tags.

If you would like to use these tags for your own PTA,

CLICK HERE.

 

To see a post of some of the Teachers' Doors

CLICK HERE.

"Nacho" Average Salad Bar

Isn't that a great name for the luncheon?

The Kindergarten moms came up with it!

We put it on the little invites that we stuck in all of the teachers/staff boxes.

 

It was a great meal with all of the fixin's!

They used deli rotisserie chicken from Costco, shredded it and served it on a platter garnished with peppers and cilantro.  It looked gorgeous!  The chicken would have still tasted great without the garnish, but it would not have been as appetizing.  Notice the tent cards labeling the food.  This is always a great touch!

 

They chose a lot of their serving pieces to reflect the them.  Isn't that the cutest way to serve salsa?

They had cheeses, lettuce, chips, tortillas, beans, queso, ground beef, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and every other thing you might want on a taco/nacho salad.  It was delicious!

 

The room looked so great!  When we're in there, we just block out of our minds the stacked desks and other items found in the room.  I take pictures forgetting you'll see them!

Their dessert bar & beverage station was just as gorgeous as the Nacho Bar.

 

 

 

 

This event was in February so they also incorporated Valentine's into their decorations.

You can see the Nacho Bar behind the table.

 

One of our awesome teachers!!!

(We think she's the BEST teacher!  We've had her twice!!!)

 

Our lead room moms that put this all together!

They did such a fantastic job!!!

Oh!  Check out the red burlap that they used to cover the cabinets in the background.

I love how they tied the little sunflowers and raffia on the edges to give it a scalloped effect!

So clever!

 

For other Teacher Appreciation Lunch/Meal ideas:

Soup and Salad

Dessert Bar

Brunch

Soup and Salad - Teacher Appreciation Lunch

Teacher Appreciation Week is just around the corner and I know lots of you are gearing up for it.

In case you're new to a school or possibly the PTA Hospitality position, I thought I'd share with you what some of the awesome families at our school have done.

 

  About every 6 weeks, a different grade level hosts a meal for our teachers and staff led by the room moms of that grade level.  The Soup and Salad Luncheon I'm sharing tonight was hosted by our awesome Third Grade families. 

A great tip for this type of lunch is 1) use the plastic liners for the crock pots.  (The moms that clean up with LOVE you for this one!) and 2) label all of the soups.  If your soup may contain an item that may possibly be an allergen, be sure to note it!

These families made sure there were plenty of fresh breads and crackers, too!!

To be sure we have enough of everything, our volunteer coordinator sets up an online sign-up sheet.  There are many available for free online.

Please don't forget dessert!  As a rule, the homemade desserts usually go first.  We're happy for whatever we can get, but make if fresh if you can!  Also, fresh fruit is also appreciated for those that may be watching their sugar intake.

The decorations for this luncheon were simple, yet effective.

Fresh flowers always add that special touch.  A bonus with the fresh flowers is that you can give them to your teachers after lunch.  I know our Third Grade teachers enjoyed having them in their rooms for a few days.

The beverage station had lemonade, tea, sodas, water and plenty of ice.

Our PTA has invested in beverage dispenser which have come in very handy for these events.

We also have invested in REAL white tablecloths.  They are easy to launder and serve as a good base to most of the decorations.

A few of our amazing teachers enjoying their lunch!

Some of the great moms that worked hard to put this event together.

We definitely hit the education jackpot with our families, teachers and staff!

 

What are some of your favorite Teacher Appreciation Lunch ideas?

 

Smiles!

You're a Good Egg

Our teachers will find these little treats in their boxes today.

It's not much, but just a little something saying "thank you."

They do so much for our kids with so little recognition.

Our hospitality budget gets smaller every year as PTA says most funds should go towards things that are beneficial to all students...programs, technology, etc.  I agree the kids need all of those things, but I argue that taking care of the teachers is also beneficial to the students.  A happy teacher is a happy classroom.  We'll leave this topic for another day so.....

Our budget friendly little token of thanks was simply a mini twix bar, wrapped in a thank you note and stuffed in a plastic egg with paper grass.  On the outside I wrote, "You're a GOOD egg!"

 

What are some budget friendly ideas your PTA does to say thanks to your teachers and staff?

 

(As always, sharing this with the parties found in my sidebar.)

 

Smiles!

Old School Sack Lunch - PTA Hospitality

This year I plan on sharing some fresh ideas for your elementary PTA hospitality team.

If you are involved with PTA (I highly encourage you to get involved if you have children in school,) you know that most of the budget is spent on programs and items for the school.  We also know that a happy teacher = a happy school.  Hospitality is an important team that has to be creative, often counting on donations and time from the parents at our school.

This year we had about $4 to spend per gift on the 70 teachers & staff at our school.  I started brainstorming ideas, then went to different sites that sell promotional corporate items.

At this site, I found these insulated lunch bags on sale.  The minimum order was 100 but it worked out perfectly as we had a plan for the extra 30 (more on that later in the year!)  It also worked out well  that they only had the navy bags left (our colors are blue and yellow.)

They printed them and shipped them in a timely manner so I was able to get them to the teachers the first week of school.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time giving someone an empty bag.  There was a little money left in my budget so I priced out some food ideas and came up with an old fashioned peanut butter lunch.  (The teachers' lunches were actually made with white bread, but I didn't want to use one of theirs for the photo op!)  The cookies were fresh baked but from refrigerated cookie dough (it was the most cost effective way.)  I used the small cellophane treat bags from Hobby Lobby to wrap them.  A drink and a banana rounded out the meal.

 

 

 Our theme this year is an old school, vintage schoolhouse theme.

I made these tags to tie on the bags.  The back's were labelled with each teacher's/staff's name.  If you need a label, CLICK HERE for your own free printable.

 

 .

 

Oh, I almost forgot.  The bananas got a little label, too!  It says, "We're bananas for Carroll!"  The monkey graphic comes from The Graphics Fairy.  CLICK HERE for the link to the monkey.  Not sure if any of the teachers or staff saw them or not, but I know they were there!

 

If you have any fun, cheap, cute, wonderful ideas for PTA Hospitality, I would love to hear them!

 

Smiles!!!

Sharing with some of the awesome parties found in the sidebar!

Winter Wonderland Teacher Hospitality Event

Click here to view these pictures larger

We transformed the science lab (at the last minute turned temporary classroom) into a Winter Wonderland.  Our team hosted a dessert/candy buffett for the entire elementary school.  Luckily we had such talented, generous and hard-working people on our team.  Hope you are inspired by what you see for your next teacher event!

Smiles!!

Winter Wonderland Cake Pops

Here are the cake pops we gave at our

Winter Wonderland Teacher Appreciation Event.

The theme was "Thank You for Making A Difference"

so I added that to the tags.

More photos and details from the party will be added soon!

Smiles!!!