Are you looking for a parent or family gift ideas?  These family gifts can be for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and the end of the school year!  

We encourage you to make sure all of your gifts/holidays are inclusive of all families.  It is so important to remember that families come in so many different make-ups and we need to respect and include all of those families.  If you’re in doubt, our biggest piece of advice is this:  speak to the families.  Ask them for guidance and how they would like to be included.  This is the experience we have had with Adelynn’s school and it is so powerful to have them ask us how to include her and us in Mother’s Day and other family celebrations.  The communication piece here is vital.  

Family Gift Ideas:  Handprint Plates

One of our favorite gifts is handprint plates!

To make these plates we use $1 plates from the Dollar Tree!  We use acrylic craft paint to make the handprints.  The names and year are written with a Sharpie.  Then bake the plates for a few minutes in the oven at 200 degrees to bake the paint onto the plate. Finally, spray with a clear acrylic spray paint to seal.   (Note:  send a note with these that they are for decoration and not for use with food!)

Another handprint ideas is handprint tiles!  We use the same procedure as the plates but with ceramic tiles.  The tiles are from Home Depot!

Family Gift Ideas-Rainbow Tiles

This idea can be done on ceramic tile or on canvas.

Take pictures of the kids in various poses.  Print the images in black and white.  Cut out the pictures.

Students use bingo daubers and make dots on the tile.  Allow to dry.  Glue on the pictures and have students write their names with a Sharpie.  Finally, cover the entire thing with Modge Podge!

Family Gifts: Handprint Keychains

These keychains are actually Shrinky Dinks.   Students use acrylic paint to make their handprints on shrinky dink paper.  When baked in the oven they shrink up and get very hard.  Add a key chain ring and the families have their child’s hand on their keys!

For more details on this project, check out this post:

Student Photos

This gift was born out of the virtual school and Covid protocols of the 2020-2021 school year.  Due to the pandemic, we couldn’t do school pictures.  As teachers and parents, we know how important these pictures are for families.  So we decided to gift families with a kindergarten picture.  We used some photo backdrops we had, ring light, and my iPhone.  We set up a little photoshoot in the hallway.  I shared the backdrops with families and they chose the one they wanted.  I printed the pictures at Wal-Greens (you can always find a coupon online) and used Dollar Tree frames!  The total cost was around $40 for 24 students.  You can find photo backdrops on Amazon.  You can also do this outside with a nice nature background.  

For more end of the year ideas, check out these posts: