{Guest Post by Tracy Murdock}

We really love making cards around here. It is a wonderful way to say thank you and uplift our community in a small, yet meaningful way. These cute teacher appreciation cards are fantastic for showing teachers how thankful you are for them teaching all of our kids.

Being a teacher myself (resigned for now to be a stay at home mom) I am still my children’s first teacher. I believe all of us moms are our children’s first teachers, with or without a teaching certificate.

I just love how influential we are as moms and how everything we do for our kids really teaches them, even in just daily chores. That’s one of the reasons I am writing my first children’s book, “Zoe in Double Trouble.” I want to teach my kids they can reach any dreams they set their minds to achieve!

No matter if I am teaching my kids at home or teaching students at school, I cherish little kid-made cards and even keep them in a box to inspire me when teaching gets tough.

Even though I am my children’s main teacher for now (thanks to Jaimi’s inspirational post about being able to teach our children preschool at home), I also believe it takes a village to raise our kids.

Teacher Appreciation Cards

I wanted to thank the other adults in their lives who have also helped with their education, like nursery teachers at church and retired teachers volunteering at the local library. So, we thought it would be great to create thank you cards for them.

Kid-Made Teacher Appreciation Cards

Materials for Teacher Appreciation Cards:

• Paper: Red, Green and Yellow
• Scissors
• Tape or glue
• Crayon for writing
• Optional: Stamp with a fun message (or you can write it on)
• A flower and a twistie tie

Instructions for Cute Teacher Appreciation Cards:

First, we cut out the shapes for our cards. Some cute shape ideas for teachers are: suns, apples, bees, ladybugs, flowers.

My girls are twins and I respect that they have their own way of creating. I let them decide what kind of card to create for their teachers. They each picked something different. One picked a sun and the other picked an apple.

Sun: We cut a circle for the sun. Then we cut little strips of paper for the sun rays.

Apple: You can cut a little circle, or trace an apple shape and then cut it out. Then we added a little piece of green paper (we used tissue paper) for the leaves.

On each of the shapes, we added a little message. You can stamp on the message or have your child write the message on the thank you card.

Quick Tip: If you have a stamp, you can let the kids color on the stamp with a washable marker instead of stamp ink so it’s easier to wash off. They’ll have more fun choosing stamp colors.

Message ideas:
“Thank you for teaching me how to ____.”
“Thanks a bunch.”
“I love when you teach me how to ____.”
“You’re a great teacher because ____.”

Next, we practiced writing each of their names on each card.

Finally, we added on a little flower (leftover from my Mother’s Day bouquet or you can pick one from your garden). We attached it with a twisty tie or you could tie it on with yarn or just tape it to the back.

The teachers’ eyes will light up when we you hand these little cards to them!

Add More Learning Fun:

Math: You could get out a real apple, cut it in half and then into fours. You could discuss fractions and have the apple fractions for a snack.

Science: You could talk about the apples and flowers and how they grow differently.

Reading/Writing: You could practice reading and writing special messages about what you are thankful for from your teachers.

Social Skills: Practice saying thank you and giving the teachers their special gift.

Faith: Talk about how Jesus taught everyone to love each other, no matter where they came from. How can we be teachers with our own friends?

Remember, every mom is a teacher in their children’s eyes.

When are your children done with school for the year?

Enjoy,
Tracy

Tracy Murdock is a wife and a teacher made mom to twin girls and a boy. She loves to share simple kids crafts and learning activities on her blog Your Twin Mom, so all moms can enjoy their kids and teach them along the way. She loves Jesus, photographing her kids, and has a MA in Education. Follow her on Pinterest and Facebook.