The holidays are a great time to show a little extra appreciation to the staff that work in your room and support your students. Since we’re all living on that #teacherbudget, your gift budget may depend on how many staff you are buying for.

Gifts for your staff don’t have to be expensive. Do your best to think of something useful, thoughtful, or something they’ll enjoy!

Portable hand warmers

Do you paras help with bus duty or spend time at outdoor recess during the winter months? These hand warmers can be on for up to 16 hours before needing to be charged.

something personal

At the beginning of each school year, we have our paras fill out this favorite things survey. It makes it easy to surprise them with a small gift card throughout the year or plan for holiday gifts this time of year.

On the pricier side, but one of my favorite gifts to give is this personalized favorite things tote by The Shop Forward. You can add your para’s 4 favorite things for a personal, thoughtful touch. I’ve gifted these totes many times over the years and they are always appreciated.

ornaments

If your students use AAC, there are tons of fun ornaments such as this one on Etsy!

This Visuals Ornament comes with a lot of options if your staff are not coffee lovers

t-shirts

I don’t know about you, but our team loves a good t-shirt. I have personally purchased this one from Moonlight Designs on Etsy and have been impressed by the quality. We got one for the paras and ourselves to show our appreciation.

student-made gifts

You can never go wrong with a student-made gift. You can have your students decorate a picture frame and include a picture of the para and student or have students make an ornament!

support a small-business

There are so many small businesses ran by autistic individuals. Two of my personal favorites are Jordan’s Summer Shirt Project and Jacob’s Ladder.

These hand soaps from Jacob’s Ladder are always a favorite!

quality time

Spending time with your team outside of work can be so good for the soul. During the school day, it is always about student needs first (as it should be), but it’s important to spend time with your people having fun and talking about non-work things.

One of our favorite quality time gifts is our team breakfast the last day before break. The teachers and therapists in our program bring in a variety of breakfast items and we spend a little time eating and chatting before the kids arrive. It’s one of my favorite traditions in our program. Last year, we started adding in a pajama day with matching pj pants 🙂

If you know me, you know I loooooove a fun table for our team breakfasts. Ellie and Piper has super fast shipping and still lots of fun holiday table decor in stock.

A little thought goes a long way when gift giving. Anything that shows your paras you are thinking of them will be appreciated!