Year-End Teacher Appreciation Gift

The perfect end-of-the-year gift for a teacher who loves gardening.  Mommy Standard Time.
End of the Year Teacher Appreciation Gift - Free Printable - Mommy Standard Time

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end of the year teacher appreciation gift with free printable

I have lucked out the past two years and my kids have had teachers who enjoy working outside in the garden.  This has made it fun to come up with their end-of-the-year teacher appreciation gifts.  

(Note:  If you don’t think your child’s teacher has much of a green thumb or interest in gardening, this is probably not the best gift idea.  It will just create extra work for them, having to water and take care of something they really aren’t interested in having.)

thyme plant and terra cotta pot

I bought a fresh thyme plant and a terra cotta pot.  I was torn because the small size fit the plant just right (with very little room to grow) but the next size up had TOO MUCH extra space.  The larger size looked a little silly, presentation-wise, but would have been more practical if the teachers wanted to keep the herb in the pot.  However, I am banking on both of these teachers transplanting the thyme into their own gardens eventually, so I went with the smaller pot.

child planting thyme in terra cotta pot

Since I was anticipating the eventual abandonment of the pots, I opted to not have the kiddos decorate them.  If this is something you’d like to do, it probably goes without saying that I would recommend decorating before planting.  The kids had a lot of fun helping me plant the herbs in the pots.  Since we used the smaller size, we only needed the slightest amount of additional potting soil to top them off.

supplies for making teacher appreciation gift tag

I whipped up a quick tag with the message: I had a great “THYME” in your class this year!  I left room on the tag for the kiddos to hand write their own names. We just used cheap correction ink pens from the dollar store, but these inexpensive white gel pens would probably be more user friendly.

gluing teacher appreciation gift tag
teacher appreciation gift tag

Are you interested in doing something similar? To save you some time, I am giving away these gift tags as a free printable! You can access it right here.

teacher appreciation gift tag back

I mounted the tag on a bamboo skewer and added it to the pot (I love bamboo skewers.  Remember how I used them to anchor the pumpkins in my urns?).

teacher appreciation gift pot of thyme with gift tag

A little coordinating ribbon and the gift is good to go! I am also including a thank you card from this mom’s heart, thanking them for taking extra care of my babies during this difficult year.

This was one of my last things on my to-do list before school let out for summer.  We’re almost there!

What do you have planned for the first day of summer vacation? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.