A Teacher Hack for Wrapping Books for the Holidays
If you are tired, slightly (or extremely) overwhelmed, and just trying to make it to the last day before break, BUT you still need to prepare gifts for your students, then this teacher hack for wrapping books for the holidays may be exactly what you need! I am deep into the spirit of the holiday season! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. Though, admittedly, it can be an extremely stressful time in the classroom. This year, my holiday time with my students was filled with end of the semester assessments, meetings, planning, and observations. Honestly, I did not get to be as crafty as I usually am. We had a good time, but it definitely did not live up to my normal level of craftivity. We danced, sang, glued, and glittered, but it really wasn’t as much as I would have liked to experience with my sweet students.
I decided to gift books from the Scholastic Book Club to each of my students this year. I have gifted coloring books and crayons and puzzles in the past. This year, I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to read more! Reading brings me great joy, and I love sharing that joy with my students. One great thing about Scholastic Books is their understanding of student and teacher needs. They make placing student orders online easy, have a wonderful selection of books (one of my absolute favorite sections is the “We Need Diverse Books” section. If you are not familiar with it, please go check it out!), offer free shipping (when you spend a certain amount of money), and allow you to pay through PayPal (which is very convenient for me). The Dollar Book Deals are a teacher’s friend!! This was the route that I chose for my students.
To Wrap or Not To Wrap: That Was the Question
Fast forward to “Teacher Tired” days and nights! LOL Sitting and staring at a box full of books that need to be wrapped as presents does not fill you with joy. I kept pondering what I could do INSTEAD of wrapping all of these books. Gift bags were definitely an option, but I had already spent $20.00 on books and was NOT going to spend another $20.00 on gift bags. Don’t the retailers always know how to get you by grouping the quantities in a way that require you to buy an additional bag?! That was out of the question. Wrapping them in gift wrap- no matter how pretty that might look- was not an option at my level of exhaustion or limited time! Then, I remembered something that I had done a year or so prior. I purchased…. my teacher hack for wrapping books for the holidays
Instead of telling you, I will show you! : ) I shared this information during my Behind the Scenes Teacher Moments on my Instagram account. I’ll share the snippets with you. I hope that you will be excited about this hack, too! It saved me hours of wrapping!
You can purchase white mailing envelopes for easy wrapping. Even better… buy the kind that is self-adhesive! S-C-O-R-E!!
Here’s a Bonus Wrapping Tip Just for You
Looking for another teacher hack for wrapping books for the holidays? Here’s a bonus snippet for an adorable set of labels that you can get for free HERE in Kaitlynn Albini’s Teachers Pay Teachers Store. There is a set that you can print directly AND a set that you can edit. The product includes a variety of labels that you can use for your students and co-workers.
Just add a bow, a candy cane, or stickers to the outside of the envelope and you are finished. Viola! I taped on a few holiday-themed drinking straws, along with the gift tag, to the outside of the envelope. Admittedly, taping on the straws and tags did add extra time to the process. Making the gifts as personal as possible in spite of my exhaustion was important to me, though. You could write their name in your beautiful Teacher Handwriting and place a bow on it and be done. That’s definitely an option.
I hope that you found this teacher hack for wrapping books for the holidays to be helpful! If you try it and love it, leave a comment to share your experience.
XOXO
Tania
