When I first started teaching, I’ll never forget my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. She was amazing! Sophia came home on the last day of school, and my jaw dropped when I saw her enormous bag of student gifts from her teacher.
She got Sophia 10 books for the summer -10! Now, it was a little over the top, but I’ll be honest, I felt that I didn’t do enough for my own class after I saw her bag. In fact, I didn’t do anything for my class!
The following year, I made sure to get gifts for my students.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, and the gifts don’t have to be expensive like my daughter’s teacher’s gifts. Here’s a list of 10 inexpensive student gifts.
Popsicles
Popsicles are such easy and inexpensive student gifts. Do not freeze these popsicles. You will want to give the ice pops to your students unfrozen, but I like to tie a little gift label around them. This is something that you can delegate to a parent volunteer to save you time. Click here to shop from my affiliate link.
Playdough
Children love to build and play with modeling clay. They will create anything, plus there are so many benefits for kids playing with this. I created a cute label that I tape to the lid of the playdough. It’s always a hit! Click here to shop from my Amazon affiliate link.
Math Games
These are so fun and easy to do. All you need to do is get the math game from my TpT shop and prep like you normally would. Place the game in a baggie along with the ways to play and task cards. Prepping these for an entire class does take a little longer, so I highly recommend delegating the cutting to a parent volunteer, or you can pace yourself to prep five games per day until you’re done with the class.
Kids love taking these games home to play with their family, and it’s such an easy way to sneak in some reviews during the summer months.
Ring Pops
One year, my teacher assistant bought a big bag of ring pops. We needed to get rid of them before the summer, so we popped some labels on them and gave them to the class. I loved seeing my kinders put their ring pop on their fingers and pretend they were king or queen of the classroom. I loved this because it was low prep and inexpensive!
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$1 Books
I like to use Scholastic book clubs throughout the school year, and at the end of the year, I would cash out my points for 27 one-dollar books. I would sign each book and put it in their goodie bags, so all the students had at least one book to read during the summer. You can also ask parents to donate $2 or $3 to support a class book donation if you don’t have Scholastic points.
Beach Balls
I love this idea. I have never done this, but my daughter did get a beach ball one year, and all the students in her class got to sign her beach ball. She loved it, and the kids talked about it the following year. You can usually find these at Walmart or the Dollar Tree for $1, but it may be tricky if they are all inflated when you buy in bulk.
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STEM Challenge
These are so much fun for kids. I like to put my Rocket STEM Challenge in a baggie for students. This includes one straw, two sticky notes, and a sheet of paper. They must create an efficient rocket. This rocket challenge is so much fun, and it can be taken home for students to try.
This is one of the four STEM activities in my Summer STEM Activities. You can read more about those here.
Sunglasses
These are inexpensive if you purchase them in bulk. I got mine from Oriental Trading Company, but you can also find them in the party supply sections at Walmart or Target. We used a cute label to put on the sunglasses, and every single one of my students had their sunglasses on by dismissal.
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Composition Journals, Pencils, & Erasers
You probably have a few extra supplies – just kidding. Composition journals are super cheap at Staples. I have found them for as low as .25 cents per journal. Students enjoy this because they can write or draw throughout the summer. It encourages them to get creative and put something on paper.
Well, you can’t have a journal without pencils and erasers. You can find the cutest mini-erasers in the Target Dollar spot. I’ve even seen them at Walmart and Michaels now! Of course, they have adorable pencils for a low price also. This invites students to make their mark and make mistakes.
Bubbles
You can’t say bubbles and be sad. You just can’t. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say over 90% of students love to blow bubbles! It’s magical and so fun. That’s why I’ve added bubbles to the list. You can get bubbles in bulk for a low price. The best part is I have created labels for all these ideas! You can download them for free here!
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These are 10 ideas for end of the year student gifts. What do you think?
Now, I always like to throw in a spiral review because, believe it or not, some students do enjoy the schoolwork, and while others do not, you can at least say you tried your best to encourage it. I have this three-week spiral review for kindergarten that’s really easy and doesn’t take a lot of paper to print.
Let me know what your favorite end-of-year student gifts are, and don’t forget; you can download all these labels for FREE by clicking here!
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