This easy to make book will be your teacher’s favorite gift all year! Create a Thanksgiving gift for teachers to tell them how much they mean to their students.

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to share with the people around us how very grateful we are for them. And teachers deserve our gratitude in endless amounts!

I’ve been making these little Thanksgiving gifts for my kids’ teachers for the last couple of years, and it’s such a lovely project to work on.

They’re very low-cost and easy to put together, but extremely thoughtful and lovely to receive. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as reasons to love this project!

Psst — before you get the tutorial, be sure to sign up below for my VIP list so that I can send more of my very best ideas straight to ya.

Thanksgiving Projects for Gratitude

This is a perfect way to show gratitude to a teacher, but if you’re looking for more Thanksgiving ideas, I have some other ideas too!

Check these out and be sure to pin or bookmark your favorites so that you can find them again easily.

What’s in The Thanksgiving Teacher Gift?

The most beautiful part of this teacher Thanksgiving gift is what’s on the pages.

Each page has a different message from a student, sharing why they’re thankful for the teacher or what they love about their class.

I’ve done this project with kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, and each time it came out beautifully. So don’t be afraid to try with your child’s class!

How to Make This Teacher Gift a Thanksgiving Surprise

Each time I’ve created the book, I’ve kept it under wraps as much as possible so the teacher doesn’t know what’s coming.

Here’s how you can do the same!

First, contact your child’s teacher and ask if it’s okay to send home envelopes to each child in class. Let them know it’s for a surprise project.

In the envelope, include a blank 3×5 card and a short description of the project informing families what it is. Let them know that it’s a surprise for the teacher. Instruct families to help their children write or draw on the card, sharing why they are thankful for their teacher. Be sure each child signs their name.

Also instruct families to send the card back to school in the sealed envelope. Have the teacher collect them and hand them off to you.

Easy peasy! Now you have the content for your book.

Supplies You’ll Need

How to Construct an Accordion Book for a Teacher Thanksgiving Gift

To put the teacher gift together, you’ll assemble it all in an accordion book.

Start by cutting your fall paper into sheets that are 8″ x 6″. Fold each of them in half so that they’re 4″ x 6″. Cut as many of these as you have notecards from the students, plus 2 extra.
Start assembling the accordion. On the lower half of one folded sheet, use the tape runner to spread tape around the edges and across the center.
Place the top half of another sheet onto the taped half.
Now onto this new sheet, tape the lower half and attach the upper half of a third sheet. You’re creating cascading layers of paper.
Once they’re all taped together, fold them like an accordion.
Onto each page, tape one student’s card.
On the outside cover, add a title card if you like by printing out something simple on your computer like “We Are Thankful for Second Grade” and the year.
To hold your book together, hot glue a piece of flat elastic on the inside of the front cover. Glue or tape an additional piece of decorative paper over this to hide it.
Swing the elastic around the back of the book to hold it all together

More Ways to Use This Thanksgiving Gift Idea

We use this for a teacher gift but there are so many different ways you could customize it!

It would be perfect for a gift for parents or grandparents, filled with different notecards from children, grandchildren, cousins, and more.

You could turn it into a coupon book, with kids creating a different coupon on each page as a parent gift for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Or you could even make it into a story book for a creative kiddo who loves to draw or write.

Hope you and your teachers enjoy this Thanksgiving gift idea! xoxo

Thanksgiving Teacher Gift: Gratitude Book

Yield: Gratitude Book for Teachers

Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Active Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $20

This easy to make book will be your teacher's favorite gift all year! Create a Thanksgiving gift for teachers to tell them how much they mean to their students.

Materials

Fall patterned scrapbooking paper
3x5 blank cards
Envelopes
Elastic

Tools

Tape runners
Printer and computer
Scissors or a paper trimmer
Glue gun

Instructions

Start by cutting your fall paper into sheets that are 8" x 6". Fold each of them in half so that they're 4" x 6". Cut as many of these as you have notecards from the students, plus 2 extra.
Start assembling the accordion. On the lower half of one folded sheet, use the tape runner to spread tape around the edges and across the center.
Place the top half of another sheet onto the taped half.
Now onto this new sheet, tape the lower half and attach the upper half of a third sheet. You're creating cascading layers of paper.
Once they're all taped together, fold them like an accordion.
Onto each page, tape one student's card.
On the outside cover, add a title card if you like by printing out something simple on your computer like "We Are Thankful for Second Grade" and the year.
To hold your book together, hot glue a piece of flat elastic on the inside of the front cover. Glue or tape an additional piece of decorative paper over this to hide it.
Swing the elastic around the back of the book to hold it all together

Notes

Each time I've created the book, I've kept it under wraps as much as possible so the teacher doesn't know what's coming.

Here's how you can do the same!

First, contact your child's teacher and ask if it's okay to send home envelopes to each child in class. Let them know it's for a surprise project.

In the envelope, include a blank 3x5 card and a short description of the project informing families what it is. Let them know that it's a surprise for the teacher. Instruct families to help their children write or draw on the card, sharing why they are thankful for their teacher. Be sure each child signs their name.