End of the Year Gifts

I am writing you with an empty box of Kleenexes next to me because I had to say good-bye to my 25 favorite people yesterday. Our last day of school was fun and full of laughs and tears.  This class was a special group for me, they are wonderful kids with bright futures ahead of them. I wanted to get them a little something for the end of the year, and keep it on the cheaper end.

This was a two part gift, I got each kid a dry erase board and marker. I went to Lowes and bought one sheet of shower board and had them cut it into 25 even boards. It was very inexpensive because all I needed was one board, and Lowes will cut it for free! I ordered the markers in bulk off of Amazon. I wanted to attach the markers to the board, so I bought really cute, sparkly washi tape form Target!

The second part of my gift was my favorite! My resource teacher gave me this idea. On Monday, I had everyone sit on the carpet in a circle and they needed a clip board and a piece of paper. They wrote their name at the top of the paper. The class' job was write something they either liked, enjoyed, admired, or loved about the person whose name was at the top of the paper. We then passed around the clipboards until everyone, including me, had a chance to write about every class member. I stopped the rotating right before it got back to the owner because I didn't want anyone to see what was written about them until I typed it up.

I made a quick template on my computer and typed up all the amazing things said about each and every one of my students. My heart was full after typing all of them up. The beauty of this part, it was completely FREE! :)

The final product was printed out on AstroBights and laminated for each student! If you would like this template, feel free to email me at crazinessinfifth@gmail.com!

On our last day, I put all of the parts and pieces together and had their gifts on their desks when they walked in. They were so excited to see what people wrote about them, they have never been that focused on something that early in the morning! 

Bonus! My students had the great idea of making the back of their new white boards like a mini yearbook, so we each went around and signed our names on the back of everyone's board, how genius is that idea? I love how creative my kids are!

I hope that this gives you a fun way to personalize end of the year gifts without breaking the bank!