Crafts allow for creativity because of myriad materials available for students to use. For instance, parents could pour the mix for garden stones and allow students to decorate them.
Papier-mâché crafts may be a bit messy and take time, but children enjoy creating gifts this way. Another busy craft is to create ornaments. These can be made from wood or metal with a ribbon attached. Craft stores also sell frames and meltable beads for fancier ornaments. Have your child sign his name and date the bottom or back of the ornament.
If you know a bit about the teacher, make a craft that goes along with his interest. If he enjoys sports, sew sweatbands or golf towels. If the teacher reads, make bookmarks from card stock and ribbon.
Food is often an inexpensive yet much loved gift for many teachers. Make baked goods, such as Christmas cookies, mini pies, dipped pretzels and other Christmas season delicacies. Allow your child to decorate a plastic or paper bag, enclose a variety of sweets and tie it closed with a ribbon. All Things Christmas suggests planning, buying ingredients and baking a grand Christmas cake. If talent and time permit, cook more delicate and difficult treats, such as homemade donuts, fudge or peanut brittle.
Although Christmas goodies will always be favorites among teachers, think of other food options. Make homemade noodles, dry them and place in a basket with homemade bread and canned tomatoes for a Italian-themed dinner. Surprise a teacher by offering to make her family dinner; take it to them warm from the oven. Homemade jams, jellies and salsa are traditional and usually welcome Christmas gifts too.
Some of the best gifts are simplistic and true. Writings, whether poems, stories or letters, can make Christmas gifts for teachers that showcase the child's creativity. Have younger children illustrate their message and have older children frame it. Be creative with the writing. Make a Top 10 list of why your teacher is the best. Explain why you hope she has a wonderful Christmas break or what she has done to help you so far in the school year.
Buy a small spiral scrapbook and have the class write messages to the teacher. A plain, light-colored T-shirt becomes a written masterpiece after students sign the back. On the front, write "Best Teacher" or another appropriate phrase.