In search of inexpensive Christmas gifts for 1st Graders...

[mopat11]

Any ideas for affordable (under $1 if possible) Christmas books, coloring books, ornaments, mugs, toys, etc. would be greatly appreciated. The class moms want to get our 1st Graders a few nice things for the holidays. Thanks in advance!

[Jen841]

My son loves any school supply. What about fun pencils for the kids? Add erasers or squishies and he would be super excited!

New pencil boxes they could decorate?

Another thing my son loves are keychains to put on his backpack.

$1 buys ice cream at McD's.... $1 gift cards for a treat? May be able to work a deal with a local store to give them something for $1.

Idea... buy plain notebooks and stickers with a holiday theme and let them decorate them. The teacher could use them for journals for the class.

Do you have a school store? What about $1 to spend there?

[naam]

Check www.orientaltrading.com. They have a lot of that kind of stuff that you can buy in bulk. You could also try dollar stores, party stores, or the dollar spot at Target.

[vickimaggie]

I would try the dollar section at AC Moore or Michaels. They often have small plaster or wooden things with some paint and a brush for a dollar, modeling clay, etc. I find a lot of stuff there, it's way better than the dollar section of target.

[alien_host]

Target's $1 bin had cute pencils that weren't screaming Christmas...snowflake, pink/blue pastel designs and red/green. I think it's a 10 pack for $1 you could give a few pencils and maybe get some fun erasers or notepads to go with them?

[srhs]

I second Target's Dollar Spot...lots of great stuff for kids right now.

[QueenBee]

I second Oriental Trading. They have a huge section of items in all sorts of themes and price ranges. There are also a lot of coupons out there for free shipping or $'s off.

I bought for our preschool those magic write on boards (lift the sheet and the words disappear), cups to fill with candy and little stuffed ornaments.

One year we bought Christmas ornaments that you could put a picture in. We got a copy of their class picture from the teacher, put it in, and wrote their names and the year on them. They turned out cute and I hoped they would get kept and not end up in a land fill.

Beth

[mopat11]

Thanks for all the great ideas! Oriental Trading is a great site...we just ordered from them for Halloween.

[msmouse523]

I agree with everyone else...Target Dollar Spot and Oriental Trading both have great things.

There's actually a free shipping code for Oriental Trading now:

Shop online and enter keycode TKSSHIP during checkout to get free standard shipping on ANY order, within the contiguous U.S. Offer expires 11:59 p.m. CT, December 2, 2009.

This offer is not valid on purchases made with any other offers.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I wouldn't go the $1 store quality route, personally. I think it'd be great to do something like make crayons for the,. YOu can buy silicone baking pans that come in festive holiday shapes or simply mini muffin tins and break little crayon bits into them, bake to melt, cool to harden and the kids have neat, swirly crayons. They're fun, unique and not very expensive. You could even go around school and round up crayon nubs to do the project. We have done that as a Valentine's Day project by following the directions on Family Fun.

Beth

[Seitvonzu]

i like snugglebuggles idea of crayons. you can have a million crayons, but there is something about those rainbow swirly ones in fun shapes! or even just in chunky muffin shape :) i think this would be more "useful" and look "richer" than just a bunch of dollar store stuff. i'd probably tie a few in a festive bag (snowman is nice and neutral) with matching curlycues (curling ribbon is my favorite thing, something so fun about bouncy spiraling ribbon donchathink?).

that said, kids love "little stuff" as much as we all hate it. there is a reason treat bags are popular!

[KimMae]

If you have the time to make vs buy the gift there are many places on the web that have ideas for how to make homemade coloring books that can have mazes, word finds, etc along with a homemade crayon or 2 and a pencil would be great. You can find pages to print from the web then staple and bind with tape for a simple example.

I do agree that the kids love the junk.

[WatchingThemGrow]

personalized pencils from Atlas Pen and Pencil. Each kid gets a set of 3 engraved for just them! They come in a little pouch.

ETA: link http://www.forteachersonly.com/static/custompencil.php
May want to call, though. There may not be time to get them before school is out.

[June Mommy2]

I bought 2010 calendars from Michael's for $1 for my son's class. They have cute color-your-own calendars with different themes (pirate, space, fairy tale, sports, etc.) as well as blank ones.