Make a Teacher Survival Kit (Fun Ideas and Printable Gift Tags!)

A Teacher Survival Kit is an awesome gift to give your child’s teacher on the first day of school! Filled with essential items and some fun treats, a teacher’s survival kit is a great gift to kick off the school season!  Read through this list of teacher survival kit ideas, and grab the cute printable gift tags to create a back to school survival kit for teachers this year!

As a former teacher and a Mom of two energetic kids, I know that teachers deserve ALL of the respect, appreciation, and special gifts that we can give!  Teaching a classroom full of 25+ children is not a job for the faint of heart, so I try to give small gifts throughout the school year as a token of appreciation… starting with the first day of school!

In the past, I’ve given Sharpie marker gifts and cookie teacher gifts, but more recently I’ve started making my own DIY teacher survival kits.  And the teachers love them!

So if you’re looking for creative ideas for DIY teacher gifts for the first day of school, then why not put together a cute basket or box of helpful items to prepare your child’s new teacher for a great school year?!

This is one of my all-time favorite back to school teacher gift ideas because it’s an easy and inexpensive way to show your appreciation for all of their hard work right from the get-go.

Here are some tips for making a teacher survival kit and ideas for what to include:

What is a Teacher Survival Kit?

A school teacher survival kit is a useful gift consisting of a basket, box, bin, or bag filled with items to help a teacher “survive” the school year.  The gift can include stress relief items like chocolate or a stress ball, desk snacks for when hunger strikes, or office supply items like pens, markers, and post-it notes.  I personally like to include a combination of those for a well-rounded gift box.

As these back to school teacher gifts have gained popularity, people have even started including cute gift tags with puns explaining the contents of the gift box.  For instance, “Starburst to give you a Burst of energy!”.

How to Make a Teacher Survival Kit

Step 1: Pick out a bin or basket to use as the base.

Dollar Tree and the Target dollar spot are both great places to look for a bin or basket to use for your teacher necessities. I recommend trying to find something sturdy that the teacher can use to store classroom supplies afterwards.

I found this cute red supply caddy at Target for $3.00 (pictured above), and after my daughter’s teacher takes all of the goodies out, she can use it to store scissors, glue sticks, or other school supplies for students.

Or for a different type of survival kit, you can use a hinged mailer style box like I did for this fun gift:

*NOTE – The white mailer boxes that I used fit my US Letter size printables perfectly, but they only come in a pack of 20 boxes.  You can use the leftover boxes to create more teacher survival kits, use as gift boxes, or even create a DIY sunshine box.

Step 2: Add cute paper shreds as filler.

Successful gift giving is about two things: thoughtfulness and presentation. So rather than just throwing your items into the basket or a paper gift bag, take the time to make the presentation pop!

I like to use the decorative paper shreds that you can find in the gift wrap section at Dollar Tree or Target. These basket fillers come in a wide variety of colors, and they’re perfect for propping up smaller items and adding height to gift baskets.  You can also use tissue paper on the base of your box or bin.

Or if you have time and you want to be extra creative, you can even create your own school-themed paper shreds by using a paper cutter (or even an automatic paper shredder if you have one) to cut thin strips of notebook paper. Then crumple the paper shreds up a bit and mound them in the bottom of your Teacher Survival Kit.

See these Printable Teacher Survival Kit Signs in my SHOP Here!

Step 3: Fill the Teacher Survival Kit.

How you fill your survival kit will vary based on the number of items that you have and the type of basket or bin that you are using, but in general, it’s best to start by placing the larger items towards the back and fill in with the smaller gift items.

You can even use small pieces of Scotch tape to hold smaller items in place so that the gift recipient (those hard working teachers) can see everything in the basket.

Step 4: Attach a teacher survival kit printable tag.

As the final touch, add a cute printable gift tag to the teacher gift. You can make your own tag or grab the printable Teacher Survival Kit gift tag at the end of this post! And don’t forget about the curling ribbon!

Teacher Survival Kit Ideas

Wondering what to put in your teacher survival kit?  This really depends on what type of teacher survival kit printable that you use.  

If you’re using the back to school survival printables that are available in my shop here, then you’ll need these specific goodies to add to your gift box to go along with the “poem”:

• Glue sticks – To help you keep it all together
• Lifesavers – To remind you that you are one
• Pens – To list all of the reasons you’re amazing
• Scissors – For when you get a little snippy
• Notepad – To help remember what’s important
• Starburst – To give you a burst of energy
• Gum – To help you through sticky situations
• Chips – To remind you that you’re “All That”
• Kisses – To show you that you’re truly loved

If you want to go the DIY route and add your own goodies and useful items, then here are some ideas for what to put in a teacher survival kit:

Sweet or Salty Treats

I don’t know about you, but when I have tough days, I turn to carbs! Whether it’s cake, candy, chocolate, or cookies… give me ’em ALL! And I imagine that if I were a teacher, I would want to have a stash of salty and sweet snacks in my desk drawer for those days.

Granted, at the beginning of the school year, you don’t yet know the teacher’s dietary restrictions or preferences, but here are some basic snacks that you could include:

• granola bars or protein bars
• mints (Lifesaver mints, Tic Tacs, etc)
• gum – You could do a few packs of different flavors.
• a Hershey’s chocolate bar
• a bag of popcorn (like Skinny Pop or Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn)
• M&M’s

School and Office Supplies

Did you know that most teachers are responsible for purchasing at least a portion of their own supplies with their own money? That can get expensive, especially for a first year teacher!

So why not help them out on the supply front with some of these supply staples:

• pencils (pre-sharpened are nice!)
• a set of nice red pens for grading papers
• dry erase markers
• highlighters
• Scotch tape
• paper clips or binder clips
• a cute set of colored pens or Sharpies
• STICKERS – Elementary teachers, especially, use a bunch of stickers for grading papers and student incentives! These are GREAT consumable items to gift teachers!
• Post It notes

Sanitizers and Other Supplies

• hand sanitizer (both large and purse-sized bottles)
• Clorox wipes
• “Thank You” notes – Teachers typically use a lot of stationary-style note cards to send “Thank you” notes or other correspondence to parents. Another awesome consumable gift!
• Hand lotion – Teachers probably sanitize their hands a gazillion times a day, which can be incredibly drying. A small bottle of hand lotion that they can keep in their desk drawers would be an awesome addition to your teacher kit!
• a Tide pen or other stain remover to be kept in the desk – Because if there’s one thing I learned as a preschool teacher, it’s that teaching can get messy!

Caffeine

• $5 Dunkin Donuts gift card
• $5 Starbucks gift card
• a single can or bottle of a ready to drink coffee beverage
• the instant Starbucks VIA coffee packets
• a 20 oz. bottle of soda (if you know the teacher’s favorite soda)

I’ve also seen some teacher survival kits that include items like headache medicine or even a bottle of wine, but I would be weary to use those in a teacher gift since kids aren’t allowed to bring those items to school.

Make a Smaller Survival Kit for Teachers

Don’t think that you have to create a giant gift basket filled to the brim… a smaller teacher survival kit would also be hugely appreciated by your child’s teacher. Instead of buying a bin or basket for all the goodies, just get a few items, and add them to a party favor-style clear cellophane bag.

Here’s a smaller Teacher Survival Kit that I created for about $6:

• small bag of M&M’s – $0.89
• La Colombe Mocha Latte can (from a 12 pack I got at Costco) – $1.25
• Purell hand sanitizer – $2.50
• 2 red pens (from a larger set) – $0.50
• yellow highlighter (from a larger set) – $0.50

Printable Teacher Survival Kit Gift Tags

Your teacher gift wouldn’t be complete without a cute gift tag explaining what the gift actually is… if not, it’s just a basket of random items. My free printable Teacher Survival Kit gift tags are great because they can be used to give a wide variety of gifts, instead of specific items.

The printable gift tags also come in two different versions… one for larger gifts in bins or baskets and a smaller tag for gifts in small cellophane bags.

Click HERE for the Free Printable Teacher Survival Kit gift tags!

Or, I have a second set of teacher survival kit tags in my shop.  These are the tags that I used to create the back to school survival kit down below:

See these Printable Teacher Survival Kit Signs in my SHOP Here!

And if you loved this teacher gift idea, then be sure to check out my “One Smart Cookie” teacher gift here! This sweet treat gift can be made for about $1, and it’s perfect for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Or, if you want a more personal gift for the end of the year, then grab my free printable teacher appreciation letter here!

And don’t forget to PIN this post for later!

Happy Nesting!