Teacher Appreciation Week Garden Theme

Last week I was in charge of Teacher Appreciation Week for both of my children's teachers. The school has the teacher's Wish List in the office.  I found out my daughter's teacher loves gardening - that was the hobby on the list.  The students sent donations home to me. I purchased 5 metal buckets that the teacher could use to organize gardening supplies, one for each school day last week. I also purchased all of the items in the buckets with the donations.

I purchased 10 V8 in the large cans and put 2 in each bucket.  Then I added in a gift card or gift and also the teacher's favorite candy bars.  One of the other Room Moms helped to deliver the gifts.  I delivered gifts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The bucket has a spade in it - to which the teacher said, "How did you know I broke mine last year?".  I just laughed.  I really had no idea but as a gardener myself, it's always great to have an extra spade around.  

I also got to decorate the door.  I made the book in Adobe Illustrator and then I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette Cameo to cut out all of them.  I took them with me to the school and kicked the teacher out for a few minutes while the students wrote something nice.  I also used my Silhouette to cut out vinyl letters and added the words "[teacher's name here] Digs a Good BOOK, Our Teacher Rocks!" I put the whole thing together at home except the lettering because I wasn't exactly sure where the window was.  This was the first garden door the teacher had ever had.  

As I brought other gifts the reactions were, "You're spoiling me." And "I'm going to have to hide the Panda Express gift card from my son. We love to eat there."  And "I'll be able to buy all my seeds at Anderson's with this gift card.  It's just what I needed this year."  And with a happy chuckle, "Look at all the candy bars!" And when the kids were asking "What are those???" the answer was, "Peat pots for starting my seedlings. Just what I needed!" 

Teacher's don't make much money and so I can't even imagine how fun and helpful these gifts are. It wasn't until after that I realized it, especially since they just sent a missionary off.