Thought I would post something for this upcoming event! Last year we did a Mexican theme and had decorations and serving things all along the mexican theme! We served a buffet style so that the staff could help themselves. We had tacos, refried beans, enchilladas, empanadas--from a local mexican restaurant, chips and salsa, etc. The teachers thoroughly enjoyed it and we look forward every year to it.

To go along with the theme we also had pinatas for the grades whose teachers knew the most about their students. We are a small K-8 school so we split them by building K-4 and 5-8. The teacher with the most correct responses gets a pinata for their class.

To go along with the rest of the week--we have parents that volunteer to send dinner home one night for each teacher, we do classroom appreciation and we give the teachers a personalized gift basket at the end of the week--we had them fill out surveys at the beginning of the year as to some of their favorite things!

Hope this helps! Good luck this year! We are doing a luau! Love the alohafriends.com website--Thanks!

Hi...I know this is late, but I thought I would throw in my idea. I started a tradition with our group for that week 2 years ago. We have parents send in the dishes for this luncheon. It is sort of a pot luck and the teachers love it! We get so much food sent in. The teachers end up eating all week. Our parent group just has to provide the paper products and drinks. Parents even send in desserts. It has worked out great for us.
Stacey

Last year we went with a baseball theme, it was well received, spring fever, you know. We served Hot Dogs,(donated by a local place)Ceaser salad, nachos, popcorn, garlic fries. It was very fun, decorated with astro-turf, major league t-shirts, then gave them away as prizes.
I love the "souper" idea, we may try that this year.

This is a great topic to be bumped up since it's the time of year we're all starting to think about appreciation week.

We usually do a theme and have everything completely donated--we send home a flyer with a checklist of all the types of foods we want to serve. We have a lot of success with that and more than enough food at the end of the day. We don't have much money to cater or purchase food.

Last year we did a "Moulin Rouge" theme with crepes and salads and french breads and cheeses, etc. We had music playing and made lots of big red tissue roses.

The biggest hit was a photo station--kind of like senior prom. We set up a backdrop with a rail in front that had a "Teacher Appreciation 2005" banner on it. We had a digital camera with a printer that printed postcard size pictures out right there. It's about $30 for 108 pictures and our staff absolutely loved it. We had no limit on the number of photos they could take--they were getting pictures with their grade levels, their longtime friends--I see many of those pictures on their desks every day.

This year we're celebrating our 40th anniversary and so we're doing a cruise theme. We've put aside some money to spend since it's a special year and will start the week with a "Sailaway Party" Monday morning. We'll definitely do a Bingo night--maybe even a casino theme. We've started collecting decorations and ordering from Oriental Trading to turn the school into a cruise ship. We'll definitely be doing the pictures again and will probably do a picture frame for each teacher as a gift.

We're still in early planning for this so I'd love any ideas for turning cruise activities into appreciation activities.

Hi,
I head this committee at a Houston school and we are brand new, so we have no budget. I do a luncheon every other month and have my committee members (about 50) provide the goods. The first one we did was "Sensational Salads for Sensational Teachers" and I sent an email out with items needed for about 80 teachers and staff. I requested at least 9 different salads and got 9 different wonderful salads. Some were pasta, some oriental, some spinich, etc. Also, bread, drinks, plates, etc. Total cost from budget $0. The next time I did "Super Soups" with the same call to my mighty volunteers. This month is Italian and in April "spring Fling" pinic fair. We are saving our money for the week of May. Hope this helps.
Jody This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are thinking of having an ASIAN theme. Egg Rolls and StirFry..... along with American dishes.
We have also talked about having mini massages for them.
But I DO LOVE the OSCAR theme. That was very clever!!!