I dislike buying “Hallmark” cards. I’d much prefer to write a personalized message from my stash of blank notecards. Not only is it less expensive, it’s just more personal. My extreme indecisiveness also is a factor here, because I spend 20 minutes in a sea of cards at the store trying to find the perfect one, and when I think I’ve found it, I just keep on searching! It drives my husband crazy. A package of cute blank ones makes more sense for me because I don’t have to make any decisions!
When Blake writes Thank You cards we always hand-make them. Nothing fancy, he draws a picture and we write a message and he signs it.
I wanted to do something for Meet the Teacher this year for Blake to bring in, and I knew I wanted them to be hand-made. Initially I was going to fold a piece of paper, write a quick note about having a great year and then have him draw a picture.
This afternoon we had to go to Target (I know, absolute torture!) to buy some black pants for a play he’s in tomorrow at school. As we were standing in the check out line I grabbed 2 Target gift cards for his two new teachers to place in the cards while Blake was trying to persuade me to buy him candy, of which I never do so I don’t understand why he’s so persistent about it every time. As he unsuccessfully attempted to convince me to buy him every bar and pack of gum he saw, he lastly pointed to the mint Icebreakers. And as I held the 2 gift cards, I had a sudden idea! I would use the gift cards and Icebreaker mints to make a cheesey “icebreaker” card at home.
As soon as we arrived home I jumped on the computer and created the card. On the inside I typed in a few questions that would help them get to know him a bit better, you know, an icebreaker. Ha! I printed, had Blake answer the questions and draw a picture on each (a heart on one, and a bakery on the other-what goes through his head is too cute sometimes), and we taped the mints and gift card to it! So quick, simple, and easy! And I think it came out cute!
If you’d also like to use this then I made it available to you for download! BOY Teacher Icebreaker
(BOY=Beginning of Year for my non-teacher friends)
Printing Instructions:
If your printer is like mine, then it’s going to print the interior page upside down. There wasn’t a printer setting I had to change this so I printed the first page then manually flipped it and reinserted it to print the 2nd page. You may have to play with it to get it right, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out.
I also printed it on cardstock because the ink bled through pretty badly on regular copy paper.
I hope you’ll consider giving your new teachers a little something at meet the teacher. As a teacher myself, there’s always something to buy for the class at the beginning of the year. 😉
Have I mentioned he’s coming with me to school next year? I’m so thankful my school has a VPK program!
I hope you enjoy and are able to use it to brighten a teacher’s day!
Mommisadventures 