I worked in early childhood. I have been on both sides of this exchange, and I can tell you exactly what the problem is.
Teacher gifts are not about the gift. Nobody needs another mug. What the gift is doing is saying I noticed — and the part that carries that message is the tag, which is usually the part that gets bought last, in a hurry, from a servo.
So I drew the tag properly and let you supply the mug.
What's inside
- Teacher tags (2 pages)
- Teacher flags (2 pages)
Four pages. Around $20 of value. $7.99, and your purchase lets you print as often as you like for personal or classroom use — which matters if you're a teacher buying for a whole staffroom rather than a parent buying for one.
Working in the other direction
The set doesn't only run parent-to-teacher. Leysha is a prep teacher in Melbourne who used our tags on a tray of cuttings as a class gift for her preppies. Same idea, pointed the other way.
Photo by @leysh_aa
The recipe
Because it is always the same recipe and it always works: a container you already own, three cheap things that are useful rather than sweet, tissue paper, and a printed tag with a name on it. Cuttings. Pencils. A good pen. Chapstick. Done in four minutes, looks considered, costs about fifteen dollars.
Print on cardstock. It's the difference between a printed thing and a made thing.
Get the kit
- Printable Teacher Tags and Flags 2026 — 4 printable pages, instant download. $7.99 AUD.
Note from Marie: To every educator reading this — I know exactly how many of these you have received, and I know you kept the ones with a name on them.
With thanks to:
- @leysh_aa — the classroom gift tray