Cheap & Easy End of Year Student Gifts

Technically, our last day of school was Friday… but that was a 2 hour day and I had 9 of my 22 show up, so I'm counting Thursday as the last day.

Knowing that our last day was approaching, I had to come up with some ideas for end of year gifts for my kiddos.

This class was my first class and I truly came to know them as "my kiddos." SO, I had to make it a special end of year celebration/good-bye!

I gave them three different gifts. One of them was completely free, except for the paper and ink, but the other two were VERY cheap & easy to assemble.

The first one I gave them was a Wordle, which is a word cloud. You can get to wordle by going to http://wordle.net. What I love about Wordle is that it's completely customizable - you can choose your fonts, sizes, the way the words are laid out (horizontally or vertically), AND the colors. It's so much fun!

The reason I ended up doing this was because we had done one as a class, too. They each wrote down adjectives about themselves during our "all about me" unit and they typed them up on the computer & printed them out. So, they were familiar with this project and it made it THAT much more special.

Here's an example of one of the Wordles for my kiddos:

I printed the wordles on white paper. Then, I put them on black paper (did NOT glue or anything) and laminated them with my laminator. I initially bought frames and thought they'd fit perfectly but it didn't turn out to work SO I resorted to laminating. I love the way they turned out SO much better. Then, I signed the back saying it was from me - that way, if they pull it out later in life, they'll remember who it's from :)

Then, I purchased this pack from Teaching With a Mountain View's TPT Store.

By FAR one of my FAVORITE purchases ever. The morning of the last day of school, I chose an award for each of my kiddos. The process was difficult since many fit quite a few of the awards, but then I got down to work and it was easy peasy. I'll be honest - they LOVED these babies. They were giggling and clapping for each other and were so excited when their name was called for their awards.

Here's a peak at the awards printed out:

Finally, I was perusing Pinterest (of course) and found this pin from The Crafted Sparrow. It was a link to printable tags that I could put on my summer gifts that were cheap, but fun!

It was a HUGE hit with my kiddos because I chose the blue raspberry kool-aid and some cool crazy straws. They loved it!

Here's a picture of me working on them:

All I used were cellophane bags, the tags printed on white card stock, kool-aid packs, crazy straws, and a stapler. Was very easy to assemble!

Mine had SUCH a blast getting their presents for the end of the year celebration and I hope they truly enjoy them throughout the summer & for years to come!

What do you do for the end of the year for your kiddos? Let me know in the comments below!