11 Last Minute Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas

Every teacher deserves a thank you, especially at the end of another successful school year. We present 11 last minute Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas.

It’s a long, long time since I went to grade school.

And I’m embarrassed to admit that I have no memory of giving my teachers any gifts, ever.

Wasn’t it a thing in the 1960s and 1970s? I don’t remember anyone ever giving the teacher a gift of any kind.

I remember the “big boys” concocting elaborate tricks on the teacher. And I remember first and second graders making valentines for teacher. Or writing love notes. But no end-of-school gifts. No Teacher Appreciation Day.

I’m so glad the practice of giving gifts to teachers started sometime before my children (and grandchildren) began school. We had so much fun planning and giving their teacher’s thank you gifts.

It’s a great way to acknowledge a teacher’s hard work and dedication in shaping the minds of students. It is a gesture that expresses gratitude for the significant role that teachers play in the lives of their students.

So let’s get started with this important list.

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Last Minute Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas

1. Last Minute Gift Cards

I doubt there’s a teacher in all of school-dom that doesn’t appreciate a fully loaded, print-at-home gift card. Unless you’ve never gone to school or had children in school, you know that teachers spend a lot of their hard earned money on stuff for their classrooms. So giving that back in even a small way will make them do a happy dance.

Then use your imagination to wrap the gift card in an unusual way. For example, tuck it into a card game, and it may take awhile till she finds it.

2. Personalized Tote Bag

Does a teacher ever have enough large tote bags?

If it’s a personalized large tote bag, that makes it even better. We think this monogram tote bag is a great option. Not quite large enough for the bigbagclub, but has pockets for all kinds of teacher-ish things.

3. Personalized Water Bottle

Because every teacher talks too much to go through a class without a water bottle sitting at the ready on her/his desk.

This one is our water bottle pick of the year.

4. Books for Lazy Summer Reading

You would think a teacher wouldn’t want to crack open a single book in the months away from the classroom. Think again. This is their time to relax and catch up on the books stacked in their bucket list. Relax? Maybe. Read? Oh, yes. They deserve some fun, non-study books for the short months of summer.

Here’s a few of our picks:

• Anything by Lisa Wingate, leading with “Before We Were Yours,” the novel, and “Before and After,” the history it was based on.
• For suspense readers, “Aftermath” by Terri Blackstock.
• Another Holocaust book? “The Sweetness of Forgetting” by Kristin Harmel.
• Sweet romance and southern hardship. “Under the Magnolias” by T. I. Lowe.
• “Wishing comes easy. Change don’t.” Appalachian struggle on the eve of WW2. “Night Bird Calling” by Cathy Gohlke
• “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. What if you could choose the story of your life? What if there was a library at the edge of the universe, full of books of how your life is, and the life it could have been if you’d made different choices along the way?

5. Traveler’s Journal

Hopefully your favorite teacher gets to vacation and travel this summer. Gift a traveler’s journal to tuck into the large personalized tote bag. If I was a teacher, I’d want this Midori Passport Sized Leather journal. The cahiers are changeable, and it comes with a slim, silver pen. Delicious color, too.

Or another option we like is this journal with an etched appreciation message.

6. Personalized Note Cards

With all that traveling, teachers will have a bunch of “I was here” notes to write back home. Or thanks for the hospitality notes back to their hosts when they get home.

Our Elegant Monogram Note Cards come in sets of 8 with lovely floral lined envelopes.

All wrapped up in a dainty fabric bag that will become another useful traveling item for tucking little odds and ends into a suitcase or carryon.

And if your gift is truly last minute, like mine this year, there’s a digital option to print your own personalized note cards.

7. Bloom Inspirational Perpetual Flip Calendar

I used to have a collection of these I’d switch out year to year. When I saw this one, I thought it was time to buy a new one. This is more a daily inspiration and motivational quote than a date minder. Perfect to adorn a desk, whether at school or at home.

8. Chocolate

This will be the special chocolate they won’t buy for themselves.

We’re kind of partial to Ghirardelli chocolate at our house, because our local candy company uses it to coat all their sweet confections. The best part of going into their shop? You get to sample any chocolate gratis… and you know, one great chocolate can last a long time in one’s memory.

9. Artisan Coffee

There’s coffee shop gift cards, and then there’s a great blend you want to wake up to in the morning.

You’d love to give that special teacher a world tour, but the next best is a world tour of coffees: “chocolatey Latin American coffees, fruit-forward African roasts, earthy Sumatran blends, and everything in between” with this artisan, whole bean World Coffee Tour kit.

10. Not-So-Last Minute School Year Memory Book

In this post, we talk about First Day of School Interviews for your kids, to fill out each school year to save in their memory boxes.

Make a School Year Memory Book for your teacher. Conduct an interview with each student in your class, then compile them in a book or binder for a Teacher Appreciation Gift. What a keepsake that would be!

Here’s a printable guide to get you started.

11. Teacher Appreciation Digital Card Instant Download

Teacher + Words = Happiness. Download and print a famous quote card for your teacher.

These are nice enough to frame! (If you print it on nice paper, like this handmade cotton rag imported paper.)

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