Do you give your students a gift for the holidays? I've already picked up holiday pencils and erasers for them, and am just waiting to click "buy" on my scholastic book club order. In my cart I have a $1 holiday book for each of my students.
No but I teach secondary. If I only taught one or two classes all day for the entire year; I might bring an edible treat in as a "gift" to eat in class. Honestly, it would also depend on how I felt about the class.
I have robot bookmarks and holiday pencils. That's about all I have money for. If I have a parent that gives me a Target gift card or anything similar, I'll find another small gift to buy.
I used to use my Scholastic points to get the students in my class a book. Now that I work with the whole school, of course, I don't.
I have 170 students, so no. However, I do write each student a note saying something I've enjoyed about them so far this year and my hopes for their new year. I usually start the first of December and try to write 10 a day so I can pass them in the few days before break.
Hot cocoa packet, mini candy canes, glittery snowflake Christmas ornament. The ornaments come in a pack of 4 at Target. I try to buy them for 50% off the day after Christmas, to give out the next year.
No homework pass, small gift card to Toys R Us, a Goosebump book, and a package of smores. I'm putting them in a cute, individualized bags that I'm making. I'll probably finish them by the first week of December.
hot cocoa at our Christmas party, Throughout December, Christmas pencils and erasers, mini candy canes, Christmas stickers (if I can find them) Individual gifts are books I choose specifically for each child. Of course, (1) I only have 15 students, and (2) if it weren't for my little gift(s), some of my students literally would not get anything for Christmas (found that out for sure last year). This year, I'm thinking of purchasing a few of the "mini" gingerbread house kits I saw at Walmart the other day (I think there were 8 in each kit) and using those as an activity the day of our party. Lots, and lots of hugs!
I teach about 130 students so I found these 12 pack of Christmas pencils that cost about 1.50. I was going to attach a candy cane to each pencil. For the end of the year I would like to give each student a book with a individualize note to them inside.
I go to a Scholastic Warehouse sale every December and pick out a book for each student. With coupons and splitting it between me and my co-teacher I usually spend just over $1 per student.
I didn't think about hot chocolate or gingerbread men, great idea! I found some mini stockings at Big Lots. It cost $6 for a pack of 12. I already bought candy canes, pencils, and erasers to put inside. Part of the reason I got the stockings was so I didn't go overboard like I did last year.
One thing to be careful about with hot chocolate mix is that some of them have marshmallows in them, and some of your students may not eat gelatin!
I have 76 kids this year so I've had to change what I normally do. I bought Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes and cases of Dr. pepper. They'll get the treat our last full day. Then with my homeroom I'll bring sausage balls for our Christmas breakfast the last half day.
I have 235 students, so I don't. When I only had around 100 I gave everyone a candy cane. This year they have midterms before break. My 5th hour is really small, and will have finished their exam by the last day, so I may bring them donuts or something.
For folks that get a scholastic book of some sort, do you choose a book individually for each kid, just get 25+ copies of each book, or how do you do that? I like the idea of getting a book for each kid, but I'd want something cost effective. Granted, if I got each kid the same book, it wouldn't be the right level for a lot of them since I have a seven year range of reading abilities.
When I had a small, contained, second grade class, I bought every student a book and something small like a pencil or stickers, but now that I teach two full classes of Language Arts (in addition to a couple of electives) I just can't swing it. I wish I could, but money is tight.....
I pick out specific books. I get them at a warehouse sale so they're very cheap. You could also use bonus points to defray the cost. I know a lot of teachers get the $1 book- each grade level usually has a $1 book so you might just have to get say whatever is $1 from Lucky and $1 from seesaw, etc. etc.
My kids this year aren't buying Scholastic books. My bonus point total is 18. How cheap are the books at warehouse sales? We have a sale about five miles from my house on Saturday.
They usually have everything like 50%-75% off, a lot of dollar deals, sometimes you can fill a box of books for 20 or 25 of selected books in a certain section. If you're really picky you could probably spend a dollar, maybe a little more on each kid. They also usually give like $25 off a purchase of $75 or something along those lines I really don't remember off the top of my head. Usually they last for 2-3 days in one place. I would try to go the first day, the selection tends to get smaller the 2nd and 3rd day.
I didn't see any dollar books I liked in the flyers. I'm getting 'Winter According to Humphrey' for my third graders. It's a $3 book, but only 75 points each and I've got over 20000 points saved up.
Want to buy an extra 28 copies for me? I did The World According to Humphrey for my kids as a read aloud, and they loved it. Probably out of my price range for 28 copies though. Maybe I'll just buy 5 or 6 books and tell the kids specifically that I bought them for their classroom library.
I used to do the $1 Scholastic books, but it doesn't seem like there are too many choices this year. I usually surprise them with decorating gingerbread man cookies. I think this is going to be my gift this year. It's pretty costly to do, so I think that will be good enough. Maybe I'll give them something from the Target dollar section, too (a pencil, eraser, etc.).
I would make a word document with pictures of all of the $1 and $2 titles. I would give a copy to each child, give a short blurb about each book, and have them circle the one they wanted. There were usually about 10-15 choices. This year I only saw about 3, so I won't be doing it.
I order the $1 books from the Scholastic Book clubs. There's always at least one $1 option in each of the catalogues.
I wasn't super excited about any of the dollar books this year, either. In the past, I have gotten the same book for all the kids--often there's been another one by an author of a book we did as a read-aloud, or a sequel, or something like that. I always write a personalized note inside the cover, though. This year, my lucky kiddos will be getting goodie bags with miscellaneous little things--I always hit the sales at Wal-Mart after Christmas when it's 75% off and stock up on pencils, erasers, crazy straws, etc. (Super cost effective when you can get a pack of 10 for a dime!) I have a good supply, but I will most likely be moving this summer, so I'm going to clear it all out.
My master teacher (high school) gives out Christmas cookies and fun pencils. I think it is the gesture that really matters, even to teenagers.
