Teacher gift.

I really don't mean to beat a dead horse (where did that saying come from?) with this money teacher book, but I did it for my 4th year in a row and again I walked away saying, "worth every minute"
This is now my third post on the subject, (more detailed instructions here) but I learned some new things this year and wanted to show off a couple of other bloggers who also tried it out. Cara & Andrea . If you have done it let me know, I would love to hear the results. Cara's friend also tried it and just had to share this email I received.

I just got back from taking my daughters teacher the book. She started to open it and once she realized what it was she broke down into tears. She could not believe it and she just kept saying over and over "this is incredible". She started going through it and would read one and start laughing and then cry a little more. She is 52 years old and said, "I have never seen anything like this before".

This year the class donated about $150, so we had to change it to "150 things we love about you..."

I did find this awesome stack of quotes that to me made it that much more special. You can find these at any craft or scrapbook store and they come in different themes. This one is on education and has awesome quotes on vellum paper. The same width as a dollar bill (OK a little smaller in length)
It was so easy to stick in between the dollars and quotes from the kids.

Also, Cara, did remind me that to get brand new money from a bank you may have to order it and could take 2 to 3 days. I forgot to put that in my original instructions. This year luckily they had enough there, but that has never happened before.

here is a photo with the vellum paper.

This year I printed the title on vellum and then had it over a cool floral paper that I had adhered to chip board.

and of course the polka dot ribbon finishes it off!

my favorite answer:
What I will miss most about Mrs. Lee
That I wont' hear her voice any more.

Mrs. Lee has the softest, sweetest voice you have ever heard and a few of the kids wrote about it.

Then at the last minute before I cut my printed pages, you should be able to get three to a page of the kids quotes, I ran to the copy center and copied them and bound them in a book for the Principal. I wrote him a note from the parents in our class telling him how wonderful we thought our teacher was and thought he might like to hear what the students had to say about her.
I then put it in a plastic popcorn bucket ($1 store) with some candy, popcorn and a blockbuster gift certificate. We have a great principal!

these are the forms that had been returned to me. I suggest a few things when sending the forms and trying to get them back.

1. copy them off on obnoxious green, yellow or orange paper, so that they will remember what it is when they see it lying around their house and remember to send it back to you
2. the envelope that i sent it had two things printed on the front each with a check box. to : Mrs. Lee's best second grader with a small box to: Kristi (Annie Kate's mom) then they had an envelope to send the answers back in and could just circle my name so that it would find it's way back to me
   
3. don't give the parents more than a week to get filled out and send back.
4. also send a email that they can respond to. (not everyone in our class has email, so this didn't work that well this year. )
   

Here is what I had typed on the form
You can copy and paste this for next year

For Mrs. Lee's end of the year gift, I will be compiling a handmade book. The size of the book is the same size as a dollar bill. every other page will be a dollar bill and the other pages will be the questions and and answers with your child's name on them. She will be able to easily remove the money and then be left with a treasure of thoughts from her 2007 2nd grade class.
Please fill out this form with your child and return in the original envelope and mark to Your Name here along with any donation,(cash or check) by THIS FRIDAY, June 1st)
Write whatever they say even if it does not make sense,
don't worry about correcting the way they say it.
If everyone donated at least $5.00 we would have $100.
If you can not donate, please fill out the questions anyway.
the cover of the book will read
100 reasons why we love Mrs. Lee

I then just had to share some of my favorite answers this year :


What I will miss most about Mrs. Lee
her niceness
she makes us do our best
is her smile
her compliments to me
I won't hear her voice any more

Mrs. Lee loves me because
I try my best to respect everyone
I am neat, I listen and I do what she says
I am one of her students
I am self controlled
I am creative
I am a good student, sometimes

I love Mrs. Lee because
She changes our desks every month
she is honest


This Year Mrs. Lee taught me
how to multiply, divide and how to be a great owner of a butterfly
my map skills
when a butterfly comes out of it's crystalis it shakes


What I will never forget about Mrs. Lee
she is from Korea like me
she cared for me
her wedding pictures (she got married this year)

Mrs. Lee lives
near the hospital (this year she was really sick)
in Georgetown
with her husband
in a place you couldn't have wished for, like a palace

Mrs Lee's favorite thing to eat for lunch
over half the class said Blueberries