Holiday Gifts for Teachers

Children are pretty innovative when it comes to handling a challenge. Each child has a special kind of interpretation on any project you set before them. When we engage a child with our time and a special kind of fun activity, we allow them a chance to explore their own creative power. This is a way to teach them what a great resource their imagination is, and using it, opens them up to the endless world of possibilities that lie within each one of them. Spend your time with them and teach them to be skilled innovators not skilled consumers. Teach them to acknowledge their teachers as individuals.

Teacher's Gifts for Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanza
Teaching our children to recycle is more important now than ever before. As we become more and more global in our responsibilities to our neighbors around the world, it is essential that we teach our children to see how we can all reduce waste and recycle our precious resources. The beauty of this project is that we are using left over wrappings and wrapping tubes (or paper towel tubes) to make beautiful, custom gifts that acknowledge the individual Holidays that our teachers celebrate.

Materials:
Used Gift Wrapping Tubes or Paper Towel Tubes
Left over scraps of Wrapping Paper and Holiday Cards
Left over pieces of Ribbon
Glue and Scissors (to be used with adult supervision)
Tape and Aluminum Foil
Template Art for Cards

Optional:
Paints and Markers
Painted Sticks (Kwanza)
Construction Paper or scrap papers that you can use in a decorative way.

Gift Fillers:
A Poem or Story
A Personal Holiday Wish for the New Year
Peppermints or colorful foiled Candies
Gold Coins for Chanukah, Christmas, or Kwanza
Popping Corn in a sealed Baggie for Kwanza
Small Tea Candles
Gift Certificates

Directions:
Take the Tube and cut it in half. Cover one end in Aluminum Foil. (Tape the foil to the end of the tube so that it will not slide off. Do this twice so that it is strong enough to hold whatever you put in the tube). Cut or find a piece of wrapping paper scrap that will cover the tube and set aside. Apply glue to the entire roll. Then cover and carefully tape the paper neatly when the tube is completely covered. It is now ready to be decorated. Using whatever materials you have around the house, personalize each tube for the special teacher. When the tube is finished, fill with a special treat (see above for ideas). The attached template can be used as a gift card or as a cutout template for decorating.