Do you exchange gifts with your teammates for the holidays? I do, and those gifts are always the hardest ones for me to choose. Every year, my family members are all checked off my list, and my three teammates’ names are there until the last minute. This year, I decided to change that, and I found the perfect gifts for them. Keep reading to find out how to get the perfect gift for your teammates at school.
The History of Gifts for My Teammates
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In my 12 years of teaching, I’ve never been happy with the gifts I’ve chosen for my teammates. It’s usually the week before holiday break, and I’m frantically looking for something to give them. I go to a store and look for anything they might like or I search on Amazon for something that can be delivered within a week.
Some of the gifts I ended up with were:
- Bath Sets
- Pancake Mixes
- Coffee
- Pen Sets
All of those things are gifts they can get from their students. I wanted something special; something they would never forget.
The Perfect Gift
A few years ago, we started doing Unlock the Box Mysteries with our students. They are like breakout boxes, where the students have to work together to solve 4 clues and unlock a box that contains a special treat.
Our students love them so much! I decided to take the idea and use it for my teammates’ Christmas gifts this year. I just had to figure out what to use as a box and what to put inside. Here are the steps I used to put the gifts together.
Step 1: Choose a box.
For my Unlock the Box Mysteries, I use black toolboxes from the Dollar Tree and 4-digit number locks. My teammates already have those boxes in their classrooms, so I needed to find something different.
I went on Amazon and found really neat lock boxes. They look like books on the outside, but they are really little safes. They lock with a 3-digit code. Plus, they’re useful forever. They act as a safe that blends in with the other books on a bookshelf. Aren’t they neat?
Step 2: Decide what to put inside the box.
Since I was setting up the gifts as mini breakout boxes, I decided to get my teammates tickets to a local escape room. I bought a ticket for myself, too, so we can go together and have a fun girl’s night.
The tickets didn’t take up much space in the box, so I also got some special holiday candy to fill the rest of the space.
You can put anything you think your teammates will enjoy inside the box. It just has to be something small, because there’s not a lot of room.
Step 3: Make up the clues.
Since there are three numbers on the lock, I made up three clues for each of my teammates. They will have to follow the clues and look around their classrooms to find each number. Then, they will be able to open the box and get their surprises. I taped the first clue on top of the box before wrapping it. That way, when my teammates open it, they will be ready to start their search.
I hope my teammates have as much fun opening these gifts as I had making them! Now I just have to figure out what to get them next year that will top this idea.
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What Do You Think?
What would you put inside the box for your teammates?
Let me know in the comments below.
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