Affordable Teacher Appreciation Gifts

When my oldest started school, I was floored at the end of the year with the types of gifts families were giving to his teachers. I could tell that they were spending way more money than was in our budget for gifts and I was honestly embarrassed to give the teacher anything. I felt like our meager gifts would be insulting. Last year, my then-5-year-old got off the bus and declared that his bus driver loves chocolate and that he had to buy her chocolate. I decided that was something we could afford and started thinking of a cute way to say thank-you to the teachers/adults who had influenced my children’s education for that year. Here is what I came up with:

My husband and I are both musical, so I loved the idea of the Symphony chocolate bars with a simple little note attached. On cardstock I printed “Thank you for playing a role in ________’s life symphony this past year!” I hope that in some way this showed their teachers/bus drivers/etc how much we appreciated them.

How do you thank the teachers in your children's’ lives?