Good ideas for teacher/school staff end of year gifts?

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I'm finding myself in a position of wanting to show some appreciation of more people than I can really afford to gift. It isn't just 2 teachers, one for each kid, it's 3 teachers for the 5th grader and 1 teacher for the boy plus a slew of counselors and the entire office staff. My son has been through that office so many times it's maddening, and usually gave them no end of trouble containing him. So I suppose some sort of basket would be good but I have no idea what to put in it. I'd just bake some cookies but I don't suppose people are comfortable with homemade treats these days. And what to give the teachers? I'd give them some cool little movie rental thingy but there's just too many! And I'm thinking the counselors are just going to have to be happy with notes of appreciation. Maybe all of them will have to be happy with that. This is getting complicated. Ugh, I hate writing personal notes.

Any ideas? Even a note has more wham with a cookie attached, but again, cooties... so... any ideas?

I'm a teacher. We like all food. I accept homemade treats all the time from students and parents, so if you wanted to make cookies, I don't think many folks would object.

But an easier way to go may be just tins or jars of some kind of sweet trail mix or whatever that's easy and cheap to make in large quantities. You can find decorative jars for cheap and stick a bow and maybe a card on top of each and voila, gifts.

Your ideas are fantastic, but sound like a lot of work! Maybe just some of those more personal or expensive things for the teachers/staff who are closest to your kids.

pounds of coffee are always welcomed too

Anything homemade is a worthwhile gift. People love those gifts "from the heart"...and they don't have to cost alot of money.

So you don't think anyone would look at a basket of chocolate chip cookies (made by some parent) sitting in the office as a potential source of swine flu? They seem awfully worked up about swine flu around the country lately, but if isn't a no no, I could bake something easily. 'Cause I make a mean chocolate chip cookie, I can tell you. I just figured I might be crossing some hygienic barrier by taking the easy route.

Gift cirtificate/card for a bookstore or teacher supply store

I'm in the same situation. I think I am going to go to Costco and get a bag of individually wrapped treats of some sort and attach them to a card. Hopefully others will post some good ideas because I am broke and can't afford to buy gifts for everyone. There are so many people to buy for...

Irishwhistle, I would eat the cookies with no problem

Well, that's it for me, I'm baking cookies. I tried looking at some of the options they give on the crafty parenting web sites, but they're all the same. The way I figure it, unless I already know of some very cool thing to give, scrounging up a craft to gather dust is just not on. They must get such a load of stuff like that. So that killed one money-saving angle for me. I mean, if my son liked making crafts, that would be one thing. But though he will take part in an art project and likes to draw sometimes, he usually treats projects as a job to be completed, like a worksheet... So a nice note and a treat seems to be best. I figure if they don't want to or can't eat them, the gesture will have been made and somebody will be sure to eat them in their stead. I'm finally learning that it might be more interesting to try a new recipe but nothing moves like the classics.

You can't lose with cookies! I haven't noticed anyone's attitude about home baked food changing because of swine flu scares.

As you said, even if they don't eat them, the gesture has been made and they are sure to get mileage out of sharing them. They won't have to find a place to store them (once eaten, they take up no space!) and it won't matter if they get a few dozen of the same gift (more to share!).

I buy bookstore gift cards myself, but that isn't exactly a budget option. I think you've made a solid decision

I've always made homemade treats and only had one year <a teacher that kept koser> that was an isues. That year I made magents out of wooden apple cut-outs the kids and I painted them and put self stick magents on them. The whole thing cost under ten bucks and took about an hour. Everyone loved them.