Remind your teacher, in writing, of the time you taught them something.First line: Show me how you did that, you said, and handed me the marker.
Write a note for your teacher to find on a hard day, and say on the outside when to open it.Angle: Open when the copier jams. Inside: one good memory of this class.
If you were the teacher for one day, what would you do first? Write the first ten minutes and show your teacher.First line: Good morning, everyone. Today we start with the thing I always wanted to do.
Ask someone at home what they would thank your teacher for, and write the letter together.Angle: put their sentence in and yours beside it. Both of you sign.
Give your thank-you letter to your teacher a P.S. that is longer than the letter.Angle: the letter is polite. The P.S. is where the real story goes.
In a letter, thank your teacher for the hardest thing they made you do this year.Angle: be honest about how much you complained. Then say what you can do now.
Keep a thank-you letter to your teacher to exactly three sentences: then, now and thank you.Angle: what you could not do, what you can do and who stood between the two.
Make a thank-you letter to your teacher entirely out of questions.Angle: How did you know? Why did you wait? Each question thanks them for something.
Thank a grown-up at school who is not a teacher, in a letter, for something they taught you anyway.Angle: the bus driver, the cook, the custodian, the office. What did they show you?
Thank a teacher in a letter for one sentence they said that you still hear.Angle: quote the sentence first. Then say when it comes back to you.
Thank your teacher in a letter for a book they read aloud or put in your hands.Angle: say where you were when it got good, and who you told about it.
Thank your teacher in a letter for something small they did in passing.First line: It took you ten seconds in October, and I have thought about it since.
Write a letter thanking your teacher for being patient on one particular day.First line: It was the day I asked the same question four times.
Write a thank-you letter that your teacher could read aloud to next year's class.Angle: tell the new class what to expect. The truth is the thank-you.
Write a thank-you letter to a teacher from an earlier year, to be delivered now.First line: I am taller now, and I still use the trick you taught me.
Write a thank-you letter to your teacher in the voice of your pencil case, your desk or your reading book.First line: I have been opened more times this year than in my whole life, thanks to you.
Write a thank-you letter to your teacher that thanks them for exactly one thing and explains it fully.Angle: no list. One thing, with enough detail that they know you mean it.
Write to thank your teacher for a mistake they let you make.Angle: what you got wrong, what they did not say and what you worked out yourself.
What I learned by accident 15
A classmate's question once taught you something. Write the moment for your teacher, who made room for it.Angle: thank the teacher for the pause after the question.
Make a list called Things I Learned by Accident This Year and give it to your teacher.Angle: ten lines. At least three should make them laugh.
Remind your teacher, in writing, of the time you taught them something.First line: Show me how you did that, you said, and handed me the marker.
Tell your teacher about a habit you caught from them without meaning to.First line: Last week I noticed that I clap twice to get my little brother's attention.
Tell your teacher about a skill you picked up in class that has nothing to do with schoolwork.Angle: folding paper neatly, waiting a turn, telling a story so that people listen.
Tell your teacher about something you learned from them that was never in a lesson.Angle: how they hold a door, how they say sorry, how they start again.
Write a note to your teacher about one thing they do for the class every day that nobody asked for.Angle: the door held, the names learned by the second day, the spare pencils.
Write for your teacher the day you learned something by watching them learn it too.First line: You got it wrong on the board, laughed and tried again in front of all of us.
Write for your teacher what the class learned on a day when the plan changed: a fire drill, a snow delay, a missing key.Angle: what did the class find out about itself?
Write to your teacher about a lesson that went wrong and what you learned from how they fixed it.Angle: the projector died or the experiment fizzled. What happened next?
Write to your teacher about a word you learned from them by hearing it, not from a list.Angle: the word, where you first heard it and the first time you used it yourself.
Write to your teacher about something you learned in the hallway, at recess or in the lunch line.Angle: a lesson from outside the room, handed back as a thank-you.
Write to your teacher about the thing you learned this year that surprised you most, and the minute it clicked.Angle: where were you sitting? What did the teacher do just before?
Your teacher has a saying they repeat. Write it down for them, with what it turned out to mean.First line: Check it twice sounded like nagging until the day it saved me.
Your teacher once told a story about being your age. Write back what you took from it.Angle: retell the story in two sentences, then say what stayed with you.
A day as the teacher 15
As the teacher for a day, explain one thing you know well so that everyone gets it.Angle: use an example from the playground or the kitchen, as your teacher would.
As the teacher for a day, you have to get the whole class quiet. Write the three ways you try.Angle: one fails loudly. Say which trick you would borrow from your teacher.
If you were the teacher for one day, what would you do first? Write the first ten minutes and show your teacher.First line: Good morning, everyone. Today we start with the thing I always wanted to do.
If you were the teacher, which lesson from this year would you teach again exactly the same way? Write why.Angle: describe the lesson so well that your teacher recognizes it.
List everything a teacher has to carry in their head at once, as you imagine it, and hand over the list.Angle: who is absent, who needs a pencil, what comes next. End with a thank-you for carrying it.
Write the note you would send home at the end of your day as the teacher.First line: Dear families, today went mostly to plan.
Write the rules you would post as the teacher for a day, then cross out the ones you could not keep yourself.Angle: three rules survive. Which of them does your teacher already have?
Write the schedule for your day as the teacher, with one thing kept exactly as your own teacher does it.Angle: say why you kept that one. It is the compliment.
Write the welcome speech you would give as the teacher of next year's class.Angle: borrow one line your teacher really said, and put it in quotation marks.
Write what you think your teacher does after the last student leaves, and ask them how close you came.Angle: guess honestly: the board, the chairs, the papers, one long breath.
Write your day as the teacher from the point of view of the teacher's chair.First line: The new teacher did not sit on me once before lunch.
You are the teacher for a day and a student asks a question you cannot answer. Write what you say.Angle: now you know how that feels. Add one line to your real teacher about it.
You are the teacher for a day and it rains at recess. Write the indoor half hour.Angle: a full room, no plan and wet windows. What saves it?
You are the teacher, and it is your turn to grade the work. Write the comment you would put on your own best piece of this year.Angle: write it your teacher's way: one thing done well, one thing to try.
Your day as the teacher is over and you sit down at the big desk. Write what you understand now.First line: My feet hurt, and I have new respect for the stapler.
A note to leave on the desk 15
Award your teacher a certificate for something nobody else could win.First line: Awarded for Finding My Lost Lunch Box Three Times Without Sighing.
Begin a note for your teacher with the words: This class would not be the same without...Angle: finish with something small and exact: a laugh, a song, a Friday habit.
Fit a note for your teacher's desk on one sticky square.Angle: one sentence. Try five, then keep the truest.
Leave an unsigned riddle on the desk whose answer is your teacher.Angle: three clues from this year's class. The last one gives it away.
Leave your teacher a three-line poem, small enough to fit under a coffee cup.Angle: something they say, something they do and the season you met.
Make your teacher a coupon, good for one thing only you can give.Angle: one board wiped, one quiet morning, one joke saved for a hard day.
Put a top-five list on your teacher's desk: Five Times This Year You Made Class Better.Angle: number them. Number one should be the smallest thing.
Rhyme two lines that your teacher could pin to the board.Angle: rhyme the subject, the room or a classroom saying. Silly is fine.
Send your teacher a postcard from the future, dated ten years from now.First line: You were right about reading the question twice.
Thank your teacher in exactly six words.First line: You waited. I got there. Thanks.
What goes into a great teacher? Write the recipe, using only ingredients your own teacher has.First line: One cup of patience, leveled. A pinch of terrible puns.
Write a note for your teacher to find on a hard day, and say on the outside when to open it.Angle: Open when the copier jams. Inside: one good memory of this class.
Write a note to your teacher from the classroom plant, the pencil sharpener or the lost-and-found box.First line: Thank you for watering me even on test days.
Write a thank-you note for Teacher Appreciation Week that names the week.Fact: the week is the first full week of May, and its Tuesday is National Teacher Day.
Write an acrostic from the letters of THANK YOU, one line each, and leave it on your teacher's desk.Angle: each line names one real thing from this year. The Y line is the hard one.
How it works
Every one of these teacher appreciation writing prompts ends in a piece of paper a student can hand over: a letter, a list, a certificate, a sticky note. The best answers are exact about one day.
Read the full guide
When Teacher Appreciation Week falls
National PTA says it has set aside one week in May for teachers since 1984. The prompts work in any week of the year.
A long letter or a short note
The thank-you letters want half a page and one true story. The desk notes suit a writer with five minutes: a coupon, a two-line rhyme, a riddle left unsigned. A day as the teacher turns the thanks into a story about the job.
Name one day. A thank-you with a date in it is believed.
Stuck? Start with the smallest thing your teacher does. Small is easier to describe than great.
Questions and answers
What should I write to my teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week?
One exact thing. Thank them for a mistake they let you make, a book they put in your hands or the hardest thing they made you do this year. A teacher has read thank you for everything many times.
When is Teacher Appreciation Week?
In the United States it is the first full week of May, and the Tuesday of that week is National Teacher Day, Wikipedia's Teachers' Day article says. National PTA's page gives the dates of the coming week.
What is a short thank-you note for a teacher?
Try the desk notes: one that fits on a sticky square, a certificate for an award nobody else could win, or a note marked on the outside with when to open it, such as when the copier jams.
Can a whole class use these teacher appreciation prompts?
Yes. There are sixty in four groups, enough for a class to write with no two pieces alike. One of the letters is written together with someone at home.