We put a letter out to the teachers if anyone was interested in a 10 minute massage. About 30 teachers responded, out of 80. We had massages scheduled on Thursday from 9-12:30 and Friday was SUPPOSE to be from 9-12. Once the teachers from Thursday bragged to the other teachers that DIDN'T sign up, they ended signing up for a massage on Friday and the therapist ended up staying for the whole day on Friday. THEY LOVED IT, and were greatly appreciative.
It was a win-win situation for everyone because not only did the Teachers end up feeling refreshed, the therapist was able to build up her clientele. We used a therapist from our park district, which was good to bring in someone locally. We are considering to do it at least twice throughout the school year next time.
We are a bucketfilling school in southeastern MI. So I purchased small buckets from a local craft store and decorated them with ribbons and paper drops for their buckets that said "You Rock!" which is a theme this year at our school. Then I filled the buckets with some candy. All of the teachers, including specials, received personalized gift certificates from a local Teacher Store. The rest of the staff received a gift card to Meijer in their bucket. They all went over very well.
We went with the zoo theme-- we made a big banner that says this place would be a zoo without you and we added zoo animal cut-outs made from a cricut machine...
We also handmade invitations for our friday luncheon that have a zoo theme...
We are giving out boxes of animal crackers one day-- zoo pencils and notebooks another--- we have zoo snacks one day... a candy bar with a saying of don't monkey around, have a snack.... thanks for sticking your neck out everyday for our kids-- with a giraffe attached to some of them as well...
Plus we are doing a raffle with 4 prizes to give out-- a few gift cards... and a few baskets.
Last year we did a Walk of Fame...red Carpet theme. We rolled out a red carpet ( we used red paper) that lead into the teachers lounge with stars on it. Then inside I decorated the room with stars (frm the dollar store) each one had a teachers name on it, with a banner that said" You are the stars of our school". We gave them a dessert party. The Board of Education and the Main office took a day and supplied a meal or dessert, so all week they had something.
This year the theme is " You are the apple of our Eye" I got apples from the dollar store and put inspirational sayings on them and we supplied dessert donated from the parents.
Thursday: PayDay candy bar with note that says: For all you do, here's an extra PAYDAY
Friday: Too much going on at the school so doing the "big" thing the next Tuesday which is a Lua "vacation". Creating a "beach" with a tarp, small blow up pool, bag of sand donated by local hardware store, sea shells, beach towels, etc. Making grass skirts out of paper bags and twine. Tropical candle, simple decos and WAALAA....WELCOME TO THE BEACH... We are pulling out fall festival games to win more sticky notes, highlighters, cheesy festival prizes...then right after school..Bingo with donated prizes for local businesses.
Our local grocery stores and fruit stands donate most of our food items.
We also include the entire staff.
Hope everybody's appreciation week is a wonderful success !!!!!!!!!!
We sold carnations during the week prior to Teacher Appreciation Week. A local nursery sold us the flowers for $0.35/each and we sold them for $1.00 each. We made a list of every staff member and put it on an order sheet - to help parents remember prior teachers, principal, secretary, even the janitors. We sold about 250 carnations. The money we made from this sale will help fund our teacher appreciation luncheon, decorations, gifts and activities.
Our theme for the week is Beach Party.
Monday - breakfast: bagels, muffins, juice and flavored coffees (purchased by PTO). We received a gift from our catalog fundraising company - one for every staff member. We will be displaying and handing these out today.
Tuesday - scones (We have a parent who loves to make scones every year during TAW - she makes several kinds and brings in clotted cream to go with them!)
Wednesday - carnations will be delivered to staff members.
Thursday - luncheon: PTO officers are preparing subs, parents will drop off salads, desserts, soda, etc.
Friday - assembly (outside if weather permits). We are still planning this, but we will probably have the teachers do fun activities/contests (limbo, hula hoop, etc). They will also receive planners that the PTO purchased for them for next year.
We may add in another day of treats - a dessert day? We also usually give the teachers a break at second recess so they can have some time alone. We ask the woman who works at recess (can't think of what they call her) to help us (I think we pay her a little bit) and then about four or five parents sign up to work also.
Also on Sunday (the day before TAW), several parents are going up to the school to clean and decorate the teacher's lounge with our Beach Theme decorations.
