We just finished up our Teacher Appreciation Week, and while I might need a little time to recoup and recover, I think it was a big success. The teachers all seemed very appreciative and that’s what makes it all worth it! I was also able to share the load with more parents this time around, which made a huge difference. Highly recommend! Our theme this year was Wicked and we had a lot of fun pulling it all together. Everything is more fun with a theme, right? I mean if we can’t agree on that- you’re in the wrong place my friend ;). I’m here to share what we did, how we did it and how you can do it too! So let’s get to it (and if you’d like to see a video of how the week came together you can check that out here).
I’ll walk you through what we did each day, but to start off we had two flyers that we sent out to prep our school for the event. We had a version we sent to the teachers telling them what they could expect for the week, and another version we sent home to families with ideas on things they could do for their teachers throughout the week. Both flyers are available in my Wicked teacher appreciation printable pack along with a canva template link so you can edit it for your event.
Wicked Themed Decorations
To give you some idea of what we had to work with- our budget for the week was $1k and we have 30-40 teachers. We have over 100 staff, but we really were focused on the teachers. Many of the staff member were still able to come in and and have some treats and things throughout the week, but mainly we aimed at appreciating our teachers during this week (since there are days throughout the year to honor everyone else like janitor day, para professional day etc).
On Sunday I went to the school with a couple other parents and we set up the teachers lounge with some fun decorations for the week. It was nice to have a lounge! In the past we’ve had to jimmy rig a space to work with. But this was the first year we actually had a lounge! bougie! It’s small, but it was so nice to have. We set up the teachers lounge for our week of Wicked themed celebrations. We set up these balloons, a yellow brick road leading to the teachers lounge door, hung witches hats and wands from the ceiling, and put out some of the 8X10 prints from my printable pack. These tablecloths were awesome and lasted all week. I also made a large poster to hang up that said “our teachers are wicked oz-some”. (Really I used the name of our school in place of “our” but I think either way works!)
Sunday- Chalk the School
For the second year in a row, we decided to kick off Teacher Appreciation Week with a Chalk the School event on Sunday afternoon. If you want to see how last year’s turned out you can check that out here. Essentially, we just let the whole school know that all are welcome to meet us at the school, chalk in hand, to write or draw nice messages for the teachers to see Monday morning. What I love about this is that it’s a free way for families to participate to show appreciation for the teachers. It’s also something families can do all together. A word of warning, however- the chalk will make a mess so get it cleared with administration beforehand! We did have chalky footprints tracking in on the classroom carpets. Overall, I think it cleaned up easily but just keep that in mind.
Monday- Defying Gravity Breakfast
I think it’s nice to start off the week with breakfast for the teachers. Mondays are always a little rough so having breakfast for them there hopefully takes the edge off a bit. We kept the breakfast pretty simple this year. The menu was: egg bites, yogurt bar & coffee. One of the other parents actually made all the egg bites- and they were delicious! They’re also nice because it’s a quick grab and go option for the busy teachers. She also set up a little yogurt bar and I picked up some coffee from Starbucks (which they donated, so ask your local Starbucks!)
Tuesday- Glinda’s Bubbly Soda Bar
Tuesday was the day I was in charge of (highly recommend getting a group together where each person can just take on one day), and it was a soda bar in honor of Glinda and her bubbles. I set up some torani syrups, (for more tips on pulling together a soda bar check out this post) a menu, and some fun mixins. The printable menu of “Glinda’s signature drinks” (I have since fixed the spelling for the download) is available in my digital party pack. If you follow the menu in my party pack you’ll need the following flavors: coconut,raspberry, vanilla, mango, cherry, & strawberry. And make sure you get pumps (sometimes they come with the syrups). Another good place to check for syrups is Smart & Final. I’ve also included a canva template of the menu so that you can make changes to it if you’d like. Along with the syrups and sodas we set out true lime (this stuff is the best! And way easier than trying to set out real limes and have them stay fresh.), half & half, cups & lids, and ice. There’s also true lemon if you want to offer that option.
To decorate it I got some faux pink flowers from the dollar store and cut the heads off with some wire cutters to fill in the tray I used with the syrups. I also found some silver crowns from the dollar store that I placed around the table, including around the glass jar that we had the straws in. I also had these wands that I had ordered that I stuck here and there. And of course the printables from my digital party pack that are in the 8X10 frames.
Wednesday- Popular Popcorn & Trail Mix Bar
On Wednesday, one of the parents set up an awesome popcorn & trail mix bar. I don’t know too many details on where she got everything and what it all was. But I did see one idea in a PTO facebook group where someone got their local theater to donate huge bags of popcorn. Then they set out jars of mixins like chocolate chips, m&ms, reeses pieces etc. I thought that was a good idea!
The “feeling popular popcorn bar” 8X10 print as well as the “our teachers are wicked oz-some” print featured above are both available in my wicked teacher appreciation party pack.
Thursday- Somewhere Over the Rainbow
On Thursday one of the parents set up a fun rainbow themed fruit & veggie table, along with supplies she was able to get donated in that she put in cute rainbow bags. I should also mention that we had so much left over from the soda bar that we were able to leave that up all week as well.
She also put up some fun rainbow centerpieces like these– I thought they were the perfect touch.
Friday- Pink vs Green Luncheon
On Friday we surprised the teachers with a taco truck. One of the parents had arranged for him to come and also give us a discount. In the gym we set up tables as well as brought all our leftovers from the week to go with their lunch. We had soda, chips, fruits, veggies and decorations that we put out to complete their lunch. The theme for the lunch was “pink vs green” and we had asked the teachers to pick a color to support. They were then to tell their class what color their class would be and all the students could dress to support that color on Friday. It was fun to see little lines of TK kids all wearing pink trailing out of the cafeteria that day. The idea was that at the luncheon we could get a final count of which teachers were green vs which teachers were pink. It turned into a school spirit day, so that was fun. And we may have gotten our principal to agree to wear a witches hat or crown to school based on who won. High stakes!
We also set up tables for the to sit at- we did 2 pink tables and 2 green tables. I labeled them “team elphaba table” and “team glinda table”. I have a “Which Witch Are You?” printable quiz game included in my printable bundle as well that could be used to sort teachers into their tables.
Wicked Teacher Appreciation Printable Pack
The Wicked themed teacher appreciation week printable pack includes over 30 pages of printables (!!) to help you pull together an epic week of celebration for your teachers. In addition to the 30+ pages of printables (in jpeg format), there are also canva template links so that you can edit and customize most of this bundle to fit your needs or event.
This bundle includes the 8.5X11 flyers for both the teachers/staff and for the families (two separate flyers, with a few different versions). As well as the canva template links for those flyers. It also includes 20 8X10 prints, along with the canva template link for those prints so that you can make changes. There is also the soda bar menu print and template. And lastly it includes the team Elphaba and team Glinda table tents and well as the centerpiece flags. Please keep in mind that the wicked font I used is not available in canva so that part is not editable. You can move those headings around, or delete them all together and replace them with something else, but you cannot edit the wicked font in canva (I had to create that part in photoshop). For example, in the print below “our teachers are” is editable, but the words “wicked” and “oz-some” are not. However you can move them around or delete them.
Another option for editing the weekly flyers is to use the included jpg (shown below) versions, open them in canva and add text boxes where you would like to add headings and subtexts. This works well if you don’t need to make a lot of changes. I’ve included a few jpg options for that depending on how much you want to customize the flyer.
UPDATE: The bundle now includes 2 Wicked-themed printable party games. A “Which Witch are You?” Quiz (perfect for sorting teachers into their tables) and a Wicked Trivia Quiz. Answer Keys are also included.
If you’re looking for more inspiration, I also have Teacher Appreciation Week bundles and ideas for the following themes: Children’s Books, Camping/Adventure, Circus/Carnival, and Travel. Good luck as you pull this all together! I think a lot of this could be adapted for an wicked-themed event. Such a fun theme!