Hey, Teacher! 👩‍🏫

Welcome to Part 2 of my Back to School Series: Start Strong, an exclusive series designed to help you navigate back to school without losing your mind (or the rest of your summer). If you missed part 1, you can click here to check it out! Spoiler alert: FREEBIE INCLUDED!

In this part, we will be exploring some affordable (and even free) options for student gifts for Meet the Teacher night. I think that Meet the Teacher night is a perfect opportunity to get your students truly PUMPED about the new school year. And if they get a super-fun, memorable gift from you on the first impression?! Half the battle is already won; your students are excited to come to school! 🎉

I am going to share three options for Meet the Teacher night student gifts. I am personally doing all three of these for my 3rd graders (I'm extra, I know, I can't help it). These ideas are all going to be under or around $10 total, keeping it teacher budget-friendly.

• Mystery Resin Mini Animals. I got the pack of 110 -- I plan on giving each one of my students 2 of these on MTT Night and the rest I will put in our class shop. The lure of the mystery is what makes these so dang desirable. I mean, EVEN I WANNA OPEN SOME!!

MYSTERY ANIMALS

• Scratch off stickers/coupons. THESE ARE GENIUS. Can you imagine all the possibilities!? I typed up some free prizes, like "Lunch Bunch," "Line Leader," "FREE Homework Pass,""Choose Your Seat," etc. I love that they can scratch these off! Oh, the excitement!! Each student will get one at MTT Night. (You can download the template for the coupon for free at the bottom of this page.) So this isn't technically free since the stickers cost a bit -- still under $10-- but they will last you for several years (there are 300 in the pack)-- and you can make the prizes free. We love free! I got the holographic ones, but there are some plain silver and gold ones, too.

SCRATCH OFF STICKERS

• Pencils! I got the pastel Ticonderoga pencils and engraved their names on them (I told ya I was extra) -- but there are SO many different pencils available that students would love. And because I imagine there aren't many other teachers out there with a C02 laser lying around ready to engrave names on pencils -- I've linked a few different options below. 😉

COLOR CHANGING MOOD PENCILS

PENCILS WITH CUTE ERASER TOPS

SCENTED PENCILS

I made each of the gift tags that you see in the photos and as a thank you for being here, you can download them for free. I printed my tags on sturdy white card stock. For the pencil one, you will have to make two little cuts to slide the pencil into. I've made two lines as a guide. I just used an Exacto knife to make my cuts.

Click the link below to download these for free! You can edit them, too! Add your name to the pencil tags and the date you want your coupons to be valid to the scratch-off cards. 😉

FREE GIFT TAGS

🎁 These gifts are super simple and don't cost a lot of money -- but make a VERY FUN first impression! If you have never done student gifts for Meet the Teacher night, I highly recommend it! Little bit of money & effort, HUGE amount of return. 🩷 Parents are especially appreciative, too.

Next week, I am going to share my Classroom Management system that I start immediately (as in DAY 1). It is a lot of fun, the kids are fully invested -- and most importantly, it's effective!

Thank you for being here!

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