Inside: Show your kids’ teachers appreciation year round with this Teacher’s Favorite Coffee or Tea Drink Printable.
When I taught third grade, I had a room partner who was super generous and thoughtful. Randomly, she would bring me an orange juice or a bagel or a coffee when she got one.
And it always came with a smile and a reminder that I deserved the treats because teaching is one of the hardest jobs out there.
That little treat always made my day so much better. It put me in a better mood. And it made me feel appreciated.
And now that I’m a parent and no longer in the classroom, I make sure to return the favor by paying it forward to my kids’ teachers.
I encourage my kids to take the time to appreciate their teacher and thank them each day…because teaching is often a thankless job. They get paid too little to do too much with too few resources. And that’s in a normal teaching year. Teaching in the middle of a pandemic proved even more how valuable our teachers are.
But teachers don’t often feel valued.
So a simple way to let our teachers know they are valued and appreciated is to take the time to value and appreciate them.
One of our favorite ways to do that is to drop off their favorite coffee drink on a random school day to brighten their day and start them off on the right foot.
Other Ways to Show Teacher Appreciation
Official Teacher Appreciation is the first week in May every year.
And Room Moms and PTAs go big during this week…which is great. Teachers get flowers and cards and parent-sponsored lunches.
But it’s also important to let teachers know they’re appreciated way sooner than May.
We love these 22 Sweet Ways to Show Teachers Appreciation.
We also love sending them this Teacher’s Favorites Sheet for them to fill out so we know what they love and can give more personalized gifts.
Here’s how we appreciate teachers during a pandemic while social distancing.
And this is the Number One Gift All Teachers Prefer.
But we also love randomly dropping off their favorite drinks to them throughout the year.
I tend to drop off drinks on the day after Halloween, which is the worst day to teach.
But before you can send a drink to school, you have to know what their favorite drink is.
One year, I asked my son’s teacher what she wanted and she gave me her Starbucks order. I assumed it would be a similar Starbucks drink for my daughter’s teacher. When I asked him, he shyly said, “Actually, I don’t drink coffee. But I love Diet Coke from McDonald’s.”
So we made two stops the next morning on our way to school…the Starbucks drive-through and the McDonald’s drive-through.
But our thoughtful gift of appreciation would have fallen flat for my daughter’s teacher if I hadn’t asked what he wanted to drink.
How to Use the Favorite Drink Order Printables:
1. Since we don’t know what our kids’ teachers like until we ask, download and print out the Favorite Drink Order Printable (download it below).
2. Cut out the order form and send one with each of your kids (or if you have a middle or high schooler, have them choose their favorite teacher). You can use the Starbucks order form or if you have a local coffee shop you prefer or another coffee chain, send in that order form.
3. Once you get the drink order forms back, choose a morning when you have a little extra time and can get through the drive-through line before school drop off.
4. Encourage your kids to fill out a little notecard to go with the drink. There are coffee ones and tea ones, depending on their teacher’s drink of choice.
5. Drop off the kids, the coffee/tea and the notecard when you can.
6. Next month, fill their drink order again or send in a drink order form to a school staff member who rarely gets appreciated or thanked: a teacher aide or the school nurse or the school custodian.
7. Know that a $4 coffee and the time you took to get it will make a teacher feel appreciated. There’s no need to wait till May’s official Teacher Appreciation Week.
The first time my kids climbed out of the car with their backpacks and their teachers’ coffee and McDonald’s Diet Coke, I knew their teachers’ days would be slightly better…just like mine was years ago when I got my orange juice and bagel.
Download the Teachers’ Favorite Drink Order Printable here.
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