Notes written by the kid are really nice. If you have to give me a gift, I'd rather get gift cards. If you know the teacher really likes a certain place (I get a lot of REI cards ) that makes it more personal. Barnes and Noble is always a good choice.

I use to like to get plants, but Cassie tries to eat them or is afraid of them. Makes it hard to enjoy them at home and our classrooms are too small to allocate much space for plants. Although, those small cactus gardens are kind of cute.

Last year my hall passes kept disappearing. One of my kids made replacements on his computer and had them laminated. That was an awesome gift! Very thoughtful and meaningful to me.

I still have a card from a 5th grade girl (who's now a sophomore in college.) She drew a picture of me, sitting in my chair and reading aloud to the class with a nice note inside.

No ornaments, candles, coffee mugs, cheap chocolate, or bath stuff. Unless you know they like that kind of thing.

Veronica