"A Garden of Thanks"

I was roped into heading up teacher appreciation this year.  I understand how anal I am, and I've accepted it.  So, I decided to take a pro-active approach, and made design boards to show the board so we had some direction.  The theme was "A Garden of Thanks".  Here are the inspiration boards...

THE LOW-DOWN

The friday before, we re-arranged the teachers lounge.  We put away all the fake flowers, cleaned it up, added tons of fresh green plants, hung a flag banner out of scrapbook paper, hung white chinese globe lanters, opened all the shades to "let the light in", and even slipcovered the ugly sofa, and tossed in some throw pillows in our color scheme.

MONDAY

In keeping with the "garden" theme, We made individual cupcakes for each teacher topped with a marshmallow flower.  We put them in a cupcake dome made from an upside down clear salad container wrapped in a big bow.  They were put on each teacher's desk with a "thank-you" bag for kids to put gifts in throughout the week.  We set up the extra's in the lounge for all the other staff to enjoy.

TUESDAY

We laid out a spread of "garden" veggies for teachers to munch on throughout the day in the teachers lounge.  We used lots of glass so you could see all the fabulous color!

WEDNESDAY

Brown bag filled with candy, popcorn, and movie tickets for a "special night".  Didn't get pics :(

THURSDAY

This was our luncheon.  We moved the banner to the library, brought in wood pation furniture, rug, pillows and lanterns to really transform the library.  Tablecloths were brown craft paper, and the runner was made out of striped green and white fabric cut into squares, alternating directions.  centerpieces were live plants wrapped in burlap with "thank you" skewers poking out the top (that would also be their "gift").  There were tons of candles.  We turned down the lights, and I made a playlist for background music.

The lunch consisted of a green salad, apple, deli sandwich wrapped in paper, chips, and a cookie.  They were placed in green wire baskets lined with burlap.  The drink was homemade lemonade in mason jars with these awesomely cute lids!

For entertainment, we wrote new lyrics to "Good Day Sunshine", and had the student council perform.

As they walked into the luncheon, we had a "photo booth" by the garden furniture to get their picture taken with some of their fellow staff.

FRIDAY

We used the pictures we took at the luncheon, and the notes that the kids wrote for their teacher during the luncheon, and packaged them in the green baskets that were uses for the lunches, and gave those as the final gifts.