This post contains affiliate links, including, but not limited to, Amazon affiliate links. Read the full disclosure here.
Last updated on August 20th, 2023 at 03:38 pm
This week I’m going to continue with my end of the school year theme. I’ve posted about the best books, unforgettable end of the year activities, and now I want to move on to student gifts. I want to note that it is not essential that you give each student an end of the year gift. The amazing teaching and the safe, caring environment you have provided them for the year is gift enough! Mainly, I do it because I want to, and I enjoy giving gifts to my students. It gives me warm fuzzies to watch my students reactions as they see the gift they have received!
The gifts included on this list are gifts that are free/inexpensive and will, hopefully, not take up too much of your time to put together. And I try to give them something educational for use over the summer, which does not = not fun! Take a look for yourself!
1. A Book- I LOVE giving books as gifts because a child can never have too many books to read! The more interesting books available to them over the summer, the more of a chance they will read the books over the summer. And you all know exactly why we want to keep those kids reading all summer long. Usually the books I give are free! See my post on building a classroom library for ideas on how to get books this way. If you don’t have time for that post, here are my most common ways for the end of the year: bonus points from Scholastic Book Clubs, classroom clean out (get rid of the old to make way for the new), weed outs from the library (school or public), garage sales (those are common this time of year).
2. A Sand Pail of Summer Goodies- I’ve used this one when I taught preschool. A couple years we had it in our budget to provide for this, but a couple of the years I provided this gift for my students. Here are some items that I have placed in the pail: sidewalk chalk, bubbles, sunglasses, inflatable mini beach ball, playdough. These were purchased from places like Dollar Tree, Target dollar spot, or Oriental Trading.com. I, also, created a summer calendar that was placed inside. There was one activity for each day of summer that included all subject areas and community events that were happening (this part does take a little work, but I had fun doing it ; ) )
3. Ingredients for Playdough with the Recipe- You could send a premeasured bag of salt, flour, and cream of tartar in a ziploc bag with a recipe for playdough. Click here for a recipe. Students could then make the playdough at home with their families.
4. A Book of Science Experiments- I have sent a printed out book of at-home science experiments for students to do with their families. It included the recipe for playdough, slime, an erupting volcano, elephant toothpaste, and more.
5. Coupons from Local Businesses- You could go to local places and ask if they’d be willing to donate coupons to your families. Choose places where students can have a fun family experience, while learning and practicing social skills and more. Here are some examples of places you could ask: trampoline park, bowling alleys, restaurants, ice cream parlors, museums, make-your-own pottery, the zoo, etc.
6. Crayon Shapes- You can take all of your leftover crayons from the year, get an inexpensive mold, and make crayons. I’ve done this one in the past. It is a bit time-consuming and some of the crayons that you make typically break, so you need to make extra. However, they were a hit with my students and I felt good having recycled my old crayons. Tip: Make sure these are not left out in the sun. These were a gift at the end of the COVID year, where students came to pick up their belongings and their gift. We were outside to pass these out as cars came through and it was a sunny day. You can probably guess what happened from there. You know, those little things you know, but don’t think about until it happens. LOL!
7. Framed Word Art- This comes from one of my favorites, Mr. Greg, at Kindergarten Smorgasboard. Click here to read about how he does this! Students can practice their reading skills with this one!
8. Scratch-off bookmarks- This one comes from Lisa Taylor from her list of end of the year student gifts. Purchase them through Amazon or you can find the link for them in her post here.
9. A Rocket STEAM Challenge in a Baggie- The only materials needed are pipe cleaners, straws, sticky notes, and sheets of paper. This is from the Bored Teacher’s list of end-of-year student Gifts. Check it out here.
10. Sight Word Beach Ball- This one is from Teach Junkie’s list of “9 Excellent End of the Year Gifts for $1.” You can find it here.
Now that you have seen the list, I hope you will agree that these gifts are fun with some education sprinkled in to keep students learning during the summer! Please comment below how much your students enjoyed the gift you selected or any other ideas you have to add.
