These teacher appreciation week ideas are the perfect way to spoil and appreciate your teachers that have worked so hard during the year! These ideas for teacher appreciation week work great for members of the PTA, parents, and even staff who want to do something for their teachers!
Every year during teacher appreciation week (typically the first full of week of May) my son’s school puts together a week full of awesome activities and treats for the teachers to show our appreciation. Parents volunteer to put things together, donate items (or money), and the teachers get to feel appreciated for at least a week.
And hello, teachers deserve the world, especially at the end of the school year . My child’s teacher is phenomenal and I’d donate all sorts of time and money to make sure he knows how much he appreciate him and his assistant! I ran out of boredom busters to keep him busy after about two hours.
Since I know most PTAs, parents, and schools don’t want to do the same thing every year, I thought I’d put together a list of the best teacher appreciation week ideas I could find!
I’ve included ones that work great whether you have a lot of parent support and budget or not!
I’ve also got some fun teacher appreciation gift tags and gift ideas if you just need a gift for a teacher! Add it to a sweet treat, handwritten note, or their favorite candy for the perfect gift!
Teacher Appreciation Week Snack Ideas
If you want to give your teachers treats and eats during the week, these food bars are a fun way to do that! Or you could just give them individual snacks as well, also a great idea! Even something small goes a long way to show appreciation!
Smart Cookie Bar
Since we all know that teachers are all one smart cookie, I love the idea of this smart cookie bar setup to celebrate them being smart cookies! You can either get parents to donate homemade cookies (for a personal touch) or buy store-bought cookies of all different flavors! I recommend also serving water bottles or milk to go with the cookies to wash them down!
Set out juice, coffee, and maybe even donuts for this great teacher appreciation week idea! I mean who doesn’t love an extra dose of campaign! Want to take it a step further? Get coffee mugs as teacher gifts or even a small Starbucks gift card for teachers!
You can probably skip the mask at this point, but this bar full of snacks and treats would be a great option as a finale for any crazy year! Put individual snacks in baskets or make a dessert or snack tray like this (but with packaged snacks). Let teachers come in and grab a snack and feel appreciated for their hard work!
Put out pre-topped donuts with cute signs that say something like “donut you know we appreciate you,” or put out donuts and toppings for teachers to make their own favorite combinations! Even better if you can get a local donut shop to make special teacher themed donuts!
If you’re doing this for elementary school, this is a really fun idea to show appreciation for every school teacher and the school staff! Grab the “if you give a mouse a cookie” books, put them in dollar store baskets, and add matching snacks! This is one of the most creative ways to incorporate books into your theme!
Grab a bunch of different types of pretzels and some cute printables and setup a pretzel bar! Try different flavors of pretzels and different shapes! I love the addition of the fun chalk board sign in this bar, but you could just write a cute note with dry erase markers too!
Serve up a variety of candies, candy bars, and other sweets for one sweet ending to teacher appreciation week! Get parent volunteers to send in candies to fill up the candy bar to keep the budget low.
Put out all of the fixings for trail mix and let people make their very own snack mix to enjoy all day long! I love the use of the brown paper bags! Just be wary of dietary restrictions and maybe stick the nuts on one side of the table!
Roll out the red carpet with a bunch of red snacks or snacks themed like your favorite sports team or local movie stars! For our school, we did Chiefs themed and red snacks but you could use this idea for really anything!
If you want to add something other than just candy to your sweet teacher buffet, try one of these yummy treats! They’re all easy to grab and go sweets!
Setup a bar full of yummy flavored popcorns – sweet and savory! Add a tag that says poppin by to say thank you and you’ve got a snack that everyone will love! You could even do themed popcorns like this butterbeer popcorn or these marshmallow popcorn balls for even more fun!
Make it a happy hour for everyone with this fun lemonade bar full of delicious lemonades, mixins, and other mocktails for your teachers to enjoy a little refreshing drink!
Or instead of having lemonade, grab a bunch of pre-made drinks from a local drink place like Sonic and have pick me up drinks for the teachers throughout the week!
Make up some smoothies, put them in individual cups (with cute straws) and let teachers enjoy some fruity goodness throughout the day! Check out these yummy smoothies recipes for options teachers will love!
Show teachers that they’re nacho average teachers with a fun nacho bar! Put out a variety of chips, dips, and toppings and let them make their own Mexican inspired lunch!
You know those little mini bundt cakes that everyone loves? How about giving those out with cute “no bundts about it…” gift tags for each of your teachers? Our school did with the cutest tags ever and it was a big hit.
Grab sub sandwiches and write a little note about how there is no “subs”stitute for the great teachers in your school! Don’t forget the chips and drinks! My son’s school did this – such a fun idea!
Make it a healthy lunch with this fun salad bar idea! You could either have a bunch of salad items for teachers to make their own or put out a bunch of pre-made salads that teachers can choose from!
If it’s not too hot during teacher appreciation week, serve up a variety of soups for teachers to choose from! Don’t forget the crackers and rolls to go with the soup!
Make sure to serve a variety of soups so that there’s something for everyone! Here are a few of our personal favorites that are always crowd pleasers! You could even serve them with these easy bread bowls and/or homemade yeast rolls.
If you have the budget for it, gift cards are always a winner and who doesn’t love Target? Our school gave these out to teachers and I know they were greatly appreciated by all!
Grab a pack of Extra gum for each teacher (buy in bulk to help with budget!) and give out these cute gift tags to tell your teachers they’re extraordinary!
Last but not least, I saw this on Pinterest and loved this idea of getting your students involved with doing something to thank their teachers every day! High fives, selfies, notes, teacher appreciation coloring pages, and anything else to say thank you would be much appreciated!
This is maybe my personal favorite because I just love fresh flowers so much. In addition to providing some sort of snack or favorite things of the teachers, send them home with something beautiful like a flowers in a mason jar, a plant, or a practical gift that they can use. Plus, ideally a heartfelt note from! Going the extra mile can help a teacher feel just a little bit more appreciated than on normal days.
Back to school Cricut gifts – cute gifts you can make for teachers using a Cricut and some tape! The custom totes bags filled with school supplies would make the best gift!
Teacher thank you tags – add these cute thank you tags to some fuzzy socks to tell teachers how much they rocked your socks off this year!
Orange gift tags – orange you glad you teach my kid? Fun gift tags inspired by the orange knock knock joke, kids will love picking out all sorts of orange gifts for teachers to go with these tags!
Brownie balls or chocolate truffles in a mason jar with a cute gift tag! These make fun gifts for people who may not have quite the budget others do.
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