So it’s Christmas time again, and you may be wondering what you should get your students. Or if you should get them anything. Or how on earth you could find the time or money to buy or make even a small gift for 100 students.
Well, the good news is that you can give your students great gifts that will only take about 10 minutes to prepare and will cost you NO MONEY! How awesome is that!
5 Free, Easy, & Awesome Gifts to Give Your Students
- Free homework passes. This was my go-to gift for my students. Simply print them off on colored paper and hand them out. Just be sure to include any necessary fine print 🙂 And to save you even more time, I’m giving away an editable template. Just click here to get yours now.
- Homework grace-day passes. If you don’t want to give out a homework pass, what about a pass that will allow the student an extra day to complete the homework. That’d be a great thing to have for a day they leave their homework at home, completely forget an assignment, or just have an unusually busy night.
- Bonus point. I really don’t understand it, but students absolutely love bonus points. It’s like they were the greatest thing ever invented. So give everyone a bonus point (or two) and print up a card that says they have received a bonus point.
- Test boost passes. This is very similar to the bonus point except that instead of giving bonus points right away, you give the student a pass that says you will add 2 points to any future test or quiz of their choosing.
- Special privilege pass. If you teach a self-contained classroom, think of a privilege that you can give your students, such as eating lunch with you, extra computer time, etc. Give each student a pass that they can redeem in the future.
To help you out, I’m giving away pre-designed Christmas homework passes. Just click here to get your copy. The file is editable, so you can reword the pass to say anything you’d like.
One last tip: Save yourself a bookkeeping nightmare & require the students to turn in the pass when they want to redeem it. And tell them upfront that if they lose it then it is, unfortunately, gone.
What do you usually give your students for Christmas?
Original photo of gifts by FutUndBeidl
My second year teaching, I gave each student a little book. One little girl whispered to another student, “this is the first book I have ever had”. It’s been books every year since then.
I work at a tiny private school so I am taking them out to eat this year! They were thrilled. 🙂
I can only seem to download the pass as a powerpoint file. How do I change that so that it is more easily editable? Power point is making the font duplicated when I delete to edit.
Sorry – there was an error with the file. But I’ve fixed it and it should be working now. If you request it again you should get the new updated version. Thanks!
Last year, I printed small “Merry Christmas From Mrs. Anding” labels and stapled them to brown paper bags. In each bag, I had a pack of hot cocoa, a couple candies (from a large assorted bag), a couple peppermints, and a pencil (because I teach high school math and they’re forever needing a pencil haha). Although it wasn’t much, most of them appreciated the thought, I believe!
I really like this idea! I teach second graders, so a little goes a long way.
Shawn
My wife is the best baker ever. I give them homemade goodies
Hey Linda,
I love your posts and have shared them with my devotional group at school. Thank you! I also tried to download the Christmas Homework Pass, but It downloaded as a Power Point. Can you help me ? Thanks!
Hi Margaret! It’s set up as a power point so that you can edit it. If you don’t have power point and just want a PDF, send me an email: linda [at] teach4theheart [dot] com.
I’m already a subscriber. Can I get the passes without having to resubscribe? I don’t want to get double emails.
Hello,
Don’t worry – you won’t get double emails (well, at least not as long as you enter the same email address). This is just the best way for me to get you the passes.
These are great ideas, but unfortunately, we cannot give any type of “extra credit” in our school because it doesn’t reflect their true learning 🙁
I love your post….My one request would be some actual gift guideposts in the course just as samples. Maybe a few beefer worksheets or more videos dissecting a good gift guide verse a poor one. Thanks for Amazon tips. I have been using it but with our much success.