Use an old coffee can, oatmeal canister or even a small play-dough can as the base for this project. Cover it with material of the child's choosing. If you use construction paper, the child can decorate the paper himself with crayons, stamps and markers. Give your child the option to use wrapping paper, felt or other fabric instead of paper for a more long-lasting gift. Use hot glue to secure the wrap around the canister. Cut holes in the lid yourself using a craft knife, so there are slots for pens, pencils and scissors. Or, leave the lid off entirely so the teacher can fill it with whatever she would like.
Create a magnet the teacher can use to post things on her file cabinet or on the blackboard. Use a plain wood 6-inch ruler and two small magnets from the craft store and glue the magnets to the back of the ruler. Use permanent marker to write "Teachers Rule!" or "Mr. Blake Rules!" on the ruler. Add embellishments such as small pom-poms, ribbons, stamps or small wooden cutouts.
Assembling a gift basket is a way that you can be sure the teacher is getting just what she would like, and that can still be affordable. Choose a theme that you know interests the teacher, such as his favorite sports team or subject in class and add items that revolve around the theme to the basket. For a general teacher theme, use apple-related items your child can help prepare and assemble. Bake dried apples, make apple jam or make apple muffins to put in the basket along with an apple craft such as a small picture frame made from a wooden apple cutout or a clay apple paperweight.
Many teachers are avid readers and all teachers need places to store their small school supplies. Using an old book and a craft knife, upper-elementary kids can create a supply box to help keep the teacher's desk organized. Find a book from a second-hand store that is old, but still has its hardback cover in tact. If the cover is attractive, leave it showing, but if it's worn, cover the book with wrapping paper or contact paper. To make the book into a storage box, open the cover and cut a large rectangle out of all the pages, so the margins are left like a lining inside the box.