Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4th – 8th. Each year, this week is an opportunity to show gratitude and recognize the lasting impact teachers have on students, families, and communities. This list brings together 25 ideas that highlight local finds, budget-friendly options, practical everyday items, and creative DIY gifts to help you celebrate the teachers in your life!
Local Ideas
- As a busy mom and teacher myself, I love a good gift card. They’re easy to pick up and rarely go unused, which makes them a perfect choice for Teacher Appreciation Week. Instead of grabbing a gift card from a big chain, consider a local coffee shop or restaurant near your child’s school. You can support small businesses and add a more thoughtful, personal touch. Check out this article for a list of ABQ Mom’s top local coffee shops!
- If you have some time during the day, you can’t go wrong with dropping off lunch. As teachers, we are usually running around during our 30-minute lunch. A warm meal will give your child’s teacher a chance to pause and enjoy their lunch break! A day or two ahead of time, send an email that you would love to drop them off lunch from a local spot and ask for their order. I guarantee this will make their day!
- Teachers tend to collect quite a few coffee mugs throughout the years. A fun twist on the classic coffee-themed gift is to get them a bag of locally roasted coffee. Cutbow Coffee, Whiting Coffee Co., Little Bear Coffee, and Michael Thomas Coffee Roasters are just a few of the local shops to choose from.
- Who doesn’t love a beautiful potted plant? Stopping by one of my many local nurseries and picking up a plant is the perfect way to let a teacher know they are appreciated. If you want to stick with the theme, you can add in a little note about the ways they have helped your child grow this year.
- As a teacher, I’ve snuck a piece of candy from my classroom stash more times than I can count. Sometimes you need a little chocolate boost to get you through the day! Albuquerque has no shortage of specialty chocolate shops. Picking up a high quality bar or set of truffles is the perfect way to say thank you for a year well done! Check out this article for some local chocolate inspiration!
- Literacy is a love language for teachers. You can’t go wrong with a book-themed gift! If you know the genre your child’s teacher enjoys reading in their free time, a book is a great token of appreciation. If you aren’t exactly sure of their reading style, you can pick up a gift card to a local bookshop like Books on the Bosque, Page 1 Books, or Bookworks.
- Mass-produced candles from big box stores can sometimes feel like a tired gift. However, selecting a handcrafted candle from a local small business is a total game changer! Local candle shops like Flickermill Candles and Upside Goods Co. offer high quality, unique options. This gift will remind the teacher in your life that they deserve some rest and relaxation after all the hard work they’ve put into this school year.
- As educators, we are constantly thinking of our students and how we can meet their needs. When your job is that important to you, it can be hard to take your mind off work. Help your child’s teacher relax and recharge with a gift card to an experience in Albuquerque! ABQAx is the perfect place for teachers to relax and blow off some steam! If you want to go more low-key, try a gift card to Art Attack. Here, they can relax, paint pottery, create mosaics, or take art classes.
Free and Low-Cost Gift Ideas
9. Few things mean more to most teachers than a heartfelt, handwritten card from a student. Having your child sit down and create a card or even write a short letter (a sentence or two works!) will undoubtedly have a meaningful impact on the educator in their life.
10. Even simpler than a card, an email to your child’s teacher with their principal CC’ed is a great way to show your appreciation. Running an entire school is challenging, and so administrators often do not have the chance to see the impact their teachers have on students and families. A quick thank-you email can encourage the teacher and help their supervisor notice the hard work they are putting in.
11. A picture is worth a thousand words. Printing out and framing a photo of your child and their teacher, or even a photo of the class on a field trip, is a quick, inexpensive way to commemorate all the sweet memories their teacher has created.
12. You can never go wrong with baked goods! Dropping off a homemade treat is a thoughtful way to make the teacher in your life feel appreciated.
13. If baking is not your forte, you can still find your way to a teacher’s heart through food. Creating a little snack pack of sweet and salty treats (bonus points if you happen to know their favorite!) is a simple way to say thank you. Every teacher loves to have emergency snacks on hand for those crazy days!
14. For teachers, school supplies are just as much of a treat as any candy. Putting together a little bundle of pens, tape, paper clips, and sticky notes will be greatly appreciated by any educator, especially at this time of the year!
Useful Products
15. Before I became a teacher, I did not know the cult following behind Papermate Flair Pens. A simple Flair Pen makes grading 10x more fun! You can never have too many, making them the perfect, easy gift!
16. There are few things more useful to a teacher than hand sanitizer. It is essential in the classroom, regardless of the age you teach. Of course, we have the communal classroom Purell, but a personal-sized high-end hand sanitizer makes the perfect teacher appreciation gift! From moisturizing formulas to delicious fruity scents, there are lots of choices out there.
17. A teacher ID card is a less than attractive, yet necessary staple of any teacher outfit. You can help add some spark and fun by purchasing the teacher in your life a cute lanyard. If you type “teacher lanyard” into your search engine, you will find hundreds of options from chic boho wooden beads to flashy colorful fabric options and everything in between.
18. You’ve probably seen teachers running in or out of school with an arm full of various totes and bags. One of these bags is usually some sort of lunch box. Like I mentioned previously, teachers do not often have time to enjoy lunch, let alone go out and pick it up. A cute, easy to carry lunch box is a practical gift for a teacher that is sure to make them feel seen and valued. Bonus points if you mention in the letter how much you appreciate the work they put in outside the classroom (hence the several bags).
19. Speaking of lunch, a practical but unique gift is a mini Crockpot or slow cooker. Walking across campus to the teachers’ lounge to heat up my food used to take up a good portion of my lunch period. Having a small slow cooker that I could use to keep my lunch warm would have been quite the treat!
20. Another useful, but less obvious gift is a power bank or portable charger. Between phones, airpods, and computers, there is always something that needs charging. Having a power bank in your teacher bag means battery life is one less thing to worry about.
21. If your child’s teacher is anything like me, they may be prone to setting down their very important clipboard with lesson plans and to-do lists in random locations across the classroom. Help them differentiate their own clipboard from the student stash by purchasing a custom clipboard with their name. Etsy and Zazzle have lots of colorful options that they will be able to spot across the room!
22. Teachers are constantly sending home notes, labeling supplies, and grading papers. Purchasing a personalized stamp with the teacher’s name is a practical way to make their day-to-day tasks a little easier.
DIY Gifts
23. This DIY gift takes some planning and time, but it is worth the effort. If possible, connect with other parents in the class. Have each student share a favorite memory from the school year. Compile all the memories into a small scrapbook. You could also write them on the pages of a favorite class read-aloud book. This meaningful keepsake will show your appreciation for the memories and magic the teacher helped create this year!
24. If time is of the essence, this pencil vase requires very few supplies but delivers a big impact! You can stop by the store to grab a few flowers to put inside and viola, you have a handmade gift that your child’s teacher will remember for years to come!
25. This article started with a food-themed gift idea, and it’s only appropriate that we end on the same note! Cookie mix in a jar is an easy DIY that can easily be replicated if your child has multiple teachers. This article provides step by step directions and a free tag printable.
No matter what gift you choose, wrapping up the school year with a little thought and gratitude goes a long way!
