Celebrating our teachers with a classroom group gift at the holiday's is slowing being phased out in my kid's elementary school, given the many different religions practiced within our community. We have only 2 classroom parties, one in the fall and year end.
Without thinking about this changing face at school, I sent out both an email and letter home to parents offering to pick up a "holiday" gift for the teacher, as their room parent. Some room parents are not offering this, I find out after my request. Most are.
I asked our room parent coordinator advice on how to sign the card and wrote..."What is the guideline or recommendation on the signing of a group gift card? Shall I just say it's from the class in general? Or shall I list the individual family names of those who contributed? Some families did both by contributing to the group gift and doing a personal gift. Some families never responded to either email or letter sent home.
I'm ambivalent about both options. . . because the bottom line is that I don't want a child who did not contribute to feel left out.
We have a lot of non-English speaking families in our school, and I'm pretty sure that contributes to the poor response rate, which is less than half the class.
Thanks Gals...I actually searched "Class Gift" and did not find the right answer....There was one post and most of the responders said to list the individual names. This one: http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/14123954301470572545
And Kiki, we live in an area with a ton of oil execs from all over the world, so the non-English speaking is a bit different here, these are kids being raised by multiple nanny's and parents jet-setting around the globe. So, there is no keeping score in the way I interpret your comment.
It's not a kid's fault if their parent doesn't read or speak English, or if they don't have the money for a gift, or if they just flat out don't care. No one should be keeping score, which is the only reason, to me, that one would only include names of those kids who donated money. It needs to be from the whole class.
I think you answered your own question when you said, Bottom line is that you dont want a child to feel left out. So you should sign it from the class as a whole.
Sign it from the whole class. I think it would be different if people were declining because they'd already bought/made gifts, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Therefore, the "whole class" signature is the most helpful in this situation.
Someone asked this question last week, or earlier this week. I think the consensus was to put "To Mrs. Jones From your 2011-2012 3rd grade class/students."
If I'd not contributed, I wouldn't be bothered that my child was included in this gift. If I did contribute, I'd likely assume everyone gave something in the gift. But what I posted last week with this similar question was, NO don't put each kid's name as it singles out those that did not contribute. And I'm sure each person who did contribute did so at different dollar levels. You wouldn't write "Love, Joey ($5) .... Love, Sara ($2) .... Love, Mark ($10)" so you shouldn't write the names either.
sign it:
From the 2011 - 2012 4th grade class.
Or whatever the grade is. Do not even try to list names of the kids. If you forget one, you have a big problem. You also don't have to take the time to do that.....
One would think it would be easy to list all the kids, but here's a good story as to why not:
20 years ago, all the grandkids on my mom's side had a huge family picture taken as a gift for my grandma. There were 19 of us in the picture. After the picture was mounted and framed, my mom asked my dad to type out the kids names and ages on the typewriter (yes, the typewriter!!) and post the list on the back of the pic.
My dad got interrupted as he did this and took the list and glued it to the back of the picture.
When Grandma opened the huge, beautiful picture on her birthday, and in front of all of us, she was amazed!!! She cried, she hugged everyone...and she said she would cherish it always. Then she began to thank us all individually as she read the names off the back of the picture. Uh-oh. My dad had 18 of the 19 grand kids listed. He completely missed one on accident. So grandma went around thanking everyone and "Alan" was no where on the list. Take about a bad moment! Alan felt horrible, his parents were upset with my parents, grandma cried....
you get the idea.
Trying to list everyone, even if you know them well, is dangerous.
The card should be signed "Your 2011 Third Grade Class" or something else that INCLUDES all of the kids. (List of all names, etc.)
I remember a NIGHTMARE in PK concerning this. I couldn't believe actual adults were even discussing the possibility of listing only those who contributed! Think of those poor kids who hadn't! Like they had a say in it....
So.....yeah...this is where people get weird--it's like they want their name & amount donated to be listed on the card.....another reason why I despise "group class gifts" and would escape it any way I can...like a raccoon gnawing off his own leg to get out of a trap.
We have the same issue with the non-English speaking families and your probably right, I feel like it does contribute to the fact that there are people who don't participate. However, people need to be responsible for themselves IMO and they have ALL the school notices sent home in English so I wasn't concerned about that. If they can get translation on the other notices, why is this one different.
We just did the same thing, I sent home letters with all the kids which I personally handed out to them after school to collect for one big class gift. I wrote inside that it was completely voluntary and didn't specify any dollar amount. It said, "any contributions welcome" and explained that all of the money would be pooled to buy a larger gift item. I even went so far as to list a few options for them to vote on and said we would go with majority. I listed a personal gift card to a restaurant a personal gift like a basket with bath and spa items or movie themed basket etc or a gift card or item from the teacher supply store. I also told them when I would be shopping and asked if they wanted to go along. I added 2 other moms to the letter (after asking their permission) as people that they could give their money too or ask questions or whatever.
Only 8 families participated but we collected $130.00 and ended up with a $100 dollar gift card to a nice restaurant and a $30.00 gift from Bath and Body Works. We only included the people who contributed on the card. We went to each person who gave money and had them write a personal note and sign the card as well as their child sign the card. One day after school anyone that contributed to the gift hung around till everyone else was gone and we presented it to the teacher. I'm pretty sure she loved it but of course she said things like "you're all too generous" and "I am fine with chocolates or cookies, really".
Our goal wasn't to exclude anyone at all which is why we didn't suggest a dollar amount. We had people donate from $5 to $50 and I didn't tell anyone who contributed what. If someone would have brought $1 then they would have been included. However, I feel that the people who chose not to participate didn't need to be added to the card. We didn't give it to the teacher when any other kids were around who didn't contribute anyone who didn't wouldn't feel left out. Everyone was given the opportunity to contribute. Our biggest reason for doing this was to give the teacher something that she could really enjoy and use, after all how many boxes of chocolates can one person eat and how many coffee mugs do you need? Not that those gifts aren't hand picked and thought out but I know that if I was given those types of things year after year I wouldn't have space in my home to keep them all. Even when it comes to my own family I tend to give consumable items as gifts or experiences. I stay away from nick knacks and decorative items.
I could have gone either way but when you add the non english speaking community to it, I say just sign it " from your class". It was wonderful for you to do this. And as a parent if i got very upset by not being personally recognized then i just would do my own thing next year. Its not that big of a deal and if the school population is as you lead me to believe the teacher won't really be thinking that all the kids contributed but it will let the kids feel better about it.
Just an idea next year, if you are able to get the teacher out of the room or maybe enlist the art teacher's help, have them do a little craft for her. Or send home a homework type page and have the kids write what they like best about the teahcer then compile those into a book or card to go with a gift. I'm not explaining that well hopyou get the idea i'm going for.
And again for taking one more thing off the parents shoulders, THANK YOU!!
oh that reminds me, maybe send a little note to the people that did contribute letting them know what you purchases and that the teacher loved it. I haven't experienced teachers sending thankyous if it's a group gift and that bugs me, so i would like to know she liked it.
