Often a few well-chosen words can let a parent volunteer know how much they're appreciated better than expensive gift items. Children can each write a poem or letter to a particular parent volunteer during lesson time, under guidance from the teacher. This can form part of the children's writing lessons if the teacher prefers, or could simply be a fun activity at the end of a school year. After each child has finished his poem or letter, the teacher can read through each and select the best few to give to the parent volunteer. Alternatively, the teacher can bundle all of the poems and letters together with gift wrapping and hand them all to the parent volunteer on the last day of the school year.
More artistic students will enjoy creating gift cards which express just how the class feels about the parent volunteer's help. The teacher can provide materials for each child to make a gift card as part of art class. Each pupil can be given glue, spare cardboard, glitter, crayons and other craft items, with the teacher providing a few design ideas at the start of the activity. Students can sign their names in each card and write an appropriate front message.
Alternatively, as teacher Beth Newingham suggests on the Scholastic website, gift cards can be put together by the teacher and could feature a group picture of the whole class, put together through a computer program such as Microsoft Word or Paint. The teacher can use a digital camera to get a photo of the whole class together, or perhaps of every pupil individually, for a huge gift card.
As a way of giving something back to parent volunteers, teachers could reverse the roles for a day on the weekend or during a summer or winter holiday. Parent volunteers can be invited to drop their own kids off at the school, which could open especially for the event, and then head off for a relaxing day elsewhere. In the meantime, the teachers can look after the kids for the day, playing games and running activities to keep the children amused until it's time for them to be collected. With this idea, it's best if the day is run for several parent volunteers at once, since that enables multiple teachers to team up to staff the day. As noted on the P.T.O Today website, school pupils can also be invited to play with the guests during the day.