Teacher Appreciation Week - Do a book dedication!

This week was teacher appreciation week and as a first-time room parent, it was a busy week! I had collected money at the beginning of the school year, so I had about $20/day to work with. I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary, gift cards, flowers, snack bags, etc. But I did come up with a couple creative ideas that I wanted to share. 

We did a book dedication, where the kids each brought in their favorite book and dedicated it to the classroom. So they signed their name and wrote a little message to the teacher or to the future classes inside the front cover. Their teacher LOVED it!! We also gave her a book, "Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education" by Ken Robinson, Ph.D. She said the book dedication was the best teacher appreciation gift she's ever received. So, if you have a book loving teacher, remember this one for next year!! 

Also, I asked the teacher if there was anything specific that she needed for the classroom. She said they needed a new CD player, but I thought that it was kind of a boring gift and since I asked, I needed to throw in an element of surprise, otherwise, what fun is that! So I thought it would be awesome to make a dance video as an addition to the CD player. Who doesn't love watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds dancing? 

So I met the kids in their P.E. class one day and videoed them (on my phone) dancing to the song, "Happy". Our theme was, "You Make Us Happy!" We also captured each child saying what their favorite thing about preschool was. I used iMovie to put the whole video together. I've never used iMovie before this project, so it took me awhile to get the hang of it (and by awhile, I mean maybe an hour or 2), but the end result was fantastic!  

The best part, in my opinion, was that we asked each child what they wanted to be when they grow up and then I had their name and "future so-and-so" scroll across the bottom when they were speaking. I'm not sure who loved this more, the teachers or the parents!! I love that we'll be able to pull this up when they're graduating 8th grade and all get a good laugh at what they said they wanted to be and how cute and little they were. We had everything from, dentist to super hero to pink ballerina :) Priceless!!

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