All day long, teachers use pencils and pens for preparing lessons, grading papers and even taking attendence. Make your teacher a pencil holder that looks almost like leather. Cover a recycled glass jar with small, overlapping pieces of masking tape. Use a rag to smear shoe polish on top of the tape, and then a second clean rag to buff off the excess. Apply a thin coat of varnish to the jar to finish it off. Fill the jar with pens, pencils, and other school supplies and hand it to your teacher.
The whole class can make a personalized puzzle for the teacher. First, take a class picture. Blow up the picture until it is large enough to fit on a whole sheet of posterboard. Glue the picture to the posterboard. Draw puzzle piece shapes all over the back, and cut out the puzzle pieces. Have each student in the class write a message on a piece of the puzzle. On Teacher Appreciation Day, ask the teacher to piece the puzzle together while reading through the messages.
Another fun way to give teachers school supplies is to make them into a bouquet. Place florists' foam in the bottom of a small basket. Make school supply flowers by wrapping green florists' tape around the base of a silk flower and then wrapping it around a pen or pencil, from the top down. The pen or pencil should now look like the stem of a flower. Make several flowers this way, and poke them into the florists' foam. Fill the basket with other school supplies, such as White Out, erasers and sticky notes to cover up the foam.
The most appreciated homemade gifts are those that come from the heart. Surprise a well-loved teacher with the gift of a special message. Make a list of the things that the teacher does, an acrostic of the teacher's name, or a poem about how much you appreciate the teacher. Frame the note and decorate the frame, or roll the note up and wrap it with a decorative ribbon for the finishing touch.