• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • New? Start here!
  • Join
  • Store
  • Members

Art Class Curator

Hands-on and Minds-curious Art Learning

  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Resource Library
    • Speaking
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Contact

November 29, 2017

Perfect Gift Ideas for Art Teachers – Don’t forget the art teacher this year!

Inside: Don’t forget the art teacher gift this year! Taken from the mouths of actual art teachers, check out this list of the best gift ideas for art teachers.

The week before Christmas break. All of the classroom teachers are carrying around big coffee mugs filled with chocolate goodies, planning how to spend their Starbucks gift cards, and tearing up over sweet notes from their students. And you? Sweet Stephanie from 2C gave you a candy cane, and you got some craft sticks and googly eyes from your Secret Santa.

The Best Gift Ideas for Art Teachers - Don't forget your art teacher this year!

I’m not saying we NEED presents each Christmas or Teacher Appreciation week, but each year art teachers around the country feel the slight sting of under appreciation this time of year.

I recently asked in the Art Teachers group on Facebook — “As an art teacher, what would you LOVE to get as a gift?” I used their feedback to create this list of gift ideas for art teachers.

Several teachers noted this traditional holiday shafting of the elective teachers. Here are some of the teacher comments on that thread:

  • “Anything? Heh, electives teachers get shafted.”
  • “Actually just a gift! lol.”
  • “I think..anything, since we are usually left out!”
  • “Anything…I’m usually forgotten amongst the other teachers.”
  • “I get nothing, so anything, even the smallest gesture of a card would be nice.”
  • “Anything nice someone wants to give me.”

You could totally make an art teacher’s day this year with a sweet and thoughtful art teacher gift. All of the below gifts ideas for art teachers came straight from the source themselves!

This post uses affiliate links which help support the work I do for you on Art Class Curator. Thank you so much for your support!

Gift Cards! Simple and Easy Art Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Far and away, the best gift ideas for art teachers are gift cards. Over half of the responses included gift cards as the art teacher gift of choice.

Find it too impersonal? It’s not! Just think of all of the art teacher’s own money goes into their classroom each year purely because of love and excitement over teaching your child. That gift card can go a long way for an underpaid and overworked teacher! And, you bet they will savor every second of spending it.

Where should the gift card be to? The consensus is basically ANYWHERE. The following places were mentioned in the thread–Amazon, Michaels, JoAnns, Target, Home Depot, Blick, Walmart, Etsy, as well as coffee, restaurants, movies, books, gas, greenhouse, massage, spa/pedicure, and art supply stores.

Gift Ideas for Art Teachers - Amazon Gift Card

Me? I always particularly love Starbucks or Amazon.

Colorful Pens and Sharpies: The Perfect Art Teacher Gift!

Second on the most popular gift ideas for art teachers was an assortment of colorful gel pens, Sharpies, and Prismacolor products.

Here are some great options to give the art teacher:

Art teachers are particularly obsessed with Sharpies. They are pretty wonderful. One teacher even posted a picture of herself and the gifting student with the box of Sharpies! ❤️❤️❤️

Gift Ideas for Art Teachers

Art Teacher Abby Kuhn with her newly-gifted Sharpies!

A big box of black Sharpies is about the most useful gift an art teacher can get. (36 Sharpies for $14.43 on Amazon)Art Teacher Gift Ideaspresents for art teachersI just want to put a big heart eyes emoji on that picture of Sharpies. 😍😍😍

Colorful Sharpies. I honestly have two sets of these, and every time I see them at the store, I am tempted to buy more. I have a problem. (24 Sharpies for $10.23 on Amazon)art teacher appreciation gifts

presents for art teachers

Gel Pens. (108 Pens for $17.99)

presents for art teachersgift ideas for art teachers

 

Prismacolor is the Cadillac of colored pencils. Delight your favorite art teachers with a box of these gems. (48 pencils for $19)

gift ideas for art teachers

Practical Gift Ideas for Art Teachers

One teacher said she wanted “simple stuff that makes my life easier” as an art teacher gift and cited a student who kept her stocked in qtips and toothpicks. Several teachers mentioned things like hand sanitizer, tissues, and lotion.

The truth is that when students bring those types of supplies at the beginning of the year, they rarely ever make it into the art teacher’s classroom.

Other mentioned practical gifts ideas for art teachers include: rubber gloves, rags, oven gloves, sponges, rubber spatulas, dish soap, paper plates, and a first aid kit.

For art teachers, a large part of our jobs is cleaning and organizing the chaos. Little things to help with that can go a long way, and these materials add up in cost after a while!

My add-on to this list of presents for art teachers? Magic Erasers!

These amazing things can get anything off of anything (see Sharpies above)! I used these like crazy when I taught elementary! Plus, you can buy a 20-pack of generic Magic Cleaning Eraser Sponges for only $9.95.

Art Books for the Classroom Library

Having a library of art books is so helpful for an art teacher to use as reference for students, to give students something to do when they finish their work, and *ahem* to assign as book work for a misbehaving student who hasn’t earned the right to use the Sharpies responsibly.

What book you get depends on the age level of the student, but I would recommend some quality art history books or books on an individual artist, style, or civilization.

 

gift ideas for art teachers

The Story of the World series is great for a teacher to have on hand for art history lessons.

gift ideas for art teachers

Here are some book guides from my website.

The Art Curator for Kids - Children's Books about the Lives of the Artists - Artist Books for KidsThe Art Curator for Kids - Artist Biographies for Adults, Books and Movies - Michelangelo, van Gogh, Vasari, Artemisia Gentileschi, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock

Miscellaneous Gifts Ideas for Art Teachers

I think the above list covers most of the art teacher gift bases, but there were some other great ideas from Facebook that I want to include.

  • Art museum membership or tickets
  • Art-related t-shirts, sweatshirts, and aprons
  • Plants
  • Quality glue gun
  • Wine
  • Handwarmers and Mittens
  • Lottery Tickers
  • Sketchbooks or Planners
  • Colored Papers or Watercolor Paper
  • Copic markers
  • Oil Pastels

A Genuine and Simple Thank You!

When it comes down to it, teachers work very very hard for their students, and they do it from the bottom of their heart with no expectation of thanks. A thank you note from the heart is almost better than everything above combined. We want to know that the hard work we are doing is making a difference, and the from-the-heart thank you notes keep us going on the most stressful of days.

But, if you throw in a cup of coffee, some chocolate, and a Sharpie, it certainly won’t hurt. 😉

What are you getting for your art teacher this year? Or teachers, what did I miss? What would you love to receive as a gift! Leave a comment below.

If you like this post, you may also like:

The Very Best Stocking Stuffers for your Artsy Kid - Fun Art Gifts for Kidsthe Art Curator for Kids - Art Gift Guide - Quality Art Supplies for Teens who Love Art - Holiday Art Gift Guidegifts for artsy kidsthe Art Curator for Kids - Fun Art Gifts for Teens who Love Artthe Art Curator for Kids - Manga Gifts for TeenseBay Guide - The Art Curator for Kids - One-of-a-kind Gifts for the Art Lover in your Life

Filed Under: Art, Art Gift Guide

 

Reader Interactions

Please subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to receive the free Art Appreciation Printable Worksheet Bundle which includes 6 ready-to-use art worksheets designed to work with almost any work of art.

 

Comments

  1. A. Houtz says

    November 30, 2017 at 9:33 am

    Love the ideas and thanks so much for sharing. It saddens me to hear that other art teachers are left out. I am extremely blessed by an awesome Parent’s Group and very thankful students. I am reminded at Christmas time especially how much I am loved and appreciated. Art teachers work incredibly hard should be recognized on a regular basis. Thanks for your newsletter, thoughts and inspiration. I am fairly new to the education field and always gain new insight through your work. Keep it up!

    Reply
    • Cindy Ingram says

      November 30, 2017 at 9:12 pm

      So glad that there are art teachers out that feel the love and appreciation!! Thank you so much. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Free Art Worksheets

Join my e-mail list and receive Your Weekly Art Break for art inspiration, teaching tips, and more. Bonus! Get 6 free art worksheets as a thank you!
We will not share your information. Read our privacy policy here.

Welcome!

Cindy Ingram has the awkward habit of crying in front of artworks, and she wants the rest of the world to do it too. This noble quest has culminated in the creation of Art Class Curator, where she shares how to creatively teach art appreciation and art history in a way that will spark a lifelong love of art. Read More…


The Art Curator for Kids - Ready-to-Use Art History Teaching Materials

free art teacher training webinar

Footer

 
   

More Posts You Might Like…

The Art Curator for Kids - Teaching Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia in Art Education - A Lesson Plan on Cultural Sensitivity
The Art Curator for Kids - 5 Women Artist of Color
teaching elements and principles of art

Copyright © 2019 Cindy Ingram · Privacy Policy · Design by Stephanie Jones and Rachel Lapp-Whitt · Brunch Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · Log in