10 Cheap Gift Ideas for Teachers

With the Holidays just around the corner, most of us are looking at our budgets and counting the number of paychecks between now and Christmas. We want to make sure that we have just the right gifts for just the right people, but what do you do for your child's teacher? And what do you do if they have more than one? After speaking to many teachers about their most cherished gifts, I've put together a list of cheap Holiday gifts that are sure to warm their hearts.

1) A Picture and a letter. One teacher said that the best gift that she ever received was a "Thanksgiving Present". A student had written a letter thanking her for the extra help that she had given him. He had told her how much he appreciated the time that she took to make sure that he understood everything. The letter was framed with a photo of him affixed to the letter. She kept that letter on her desk all year and still has it at home. She looks at it on the days when she wonders if she's really getting through to the kids.

2) School Supplies. Teachers today buy a lot of supplies for their classrooms out of their own pocket. One teacher said that towards Christmas she begins to run low on the extras for the classroom. Go to your local dollar store and buy a basket, some stickers, some pencils, some pens, and markers and put a bow on it. Not feeling crafty? How about a gift certificate for the local teachers supply store?

3) Homemade Cookies. Homemade cookies are always a treat. They are an extra-special treat when the cookies were made by a student, and have a handwritten recipe attached to it. Bonus points go to the student who can explain what they learned by making them, for instance, reading the recipe, copying the recipe, the chemical changes taking place and the measuring involved.