ISO - last minute birthday favors to send to school

[anamika]

Help - I wanted to send some b'day favors with DD to school on her birthday and I left it too late to buy online!! Gah!!
What can I send for the kids that is not a BOC? No food is allowed which is *great* with my DD's allergies (so happy they started this rule).
This is the first year where I have not invited her whole class to her party so I have never had to think of this.
Oh, and I need to be able to buy it at a B and M store so Otiental Trading is out.
I have most major stores in the vicinity!

Looking to spend less than $5 - lower is better.

How lame would it be if I bought a bunch of used books to school and asked each kid to pick one?
Any other ideas??
Thanks for saving my kid's b'day!!

[kwc]

How old is your DD?
$5 total? How many kids in class?

[Tondi G]

Target has a bunch of "glow" necklaces/bracelets/wands/glasses in the dollar spot area since Halloween is coming up. My kids love glow stuff!

[KDsMommy]

How about those cute erasers that are shaped like food/sushi/cupcakes, etc.? Fun pencils?

[anamika]

She is going to be 8 (Eep!!) I think there are 20+ kids - hmmm, so maybe the limit should be $2 -3 each? $5 each was my original plan.

Thanks and please keep the ideas coming - I need options :)

[kwc]

My DD likes the erasers or _good_ pencils (the ones her teachers give out sharpen horribly and the lead is often off center!). If you can get a bucket of Smencils at a good price, they are a hit with both genders.

I think the glow sticks are good idea though you may want to warn the teacher so none of the kids breaks it open and gets the liquid all over the classroom.

One year for Valentine's, my DD made bookmarks for each kid with their name on it (on fancy paper) but it was a lot of work.

Good luck... this would totally freak me out! I get worked up enough getting favors for a small group of kids with similar interests. Tough to avoid BOC but to not go overboard either.

[anamika]

One year for Valentine's, my DD made bookmarks for each kid with their name on it (on fancy paper) but it was a lot of work.



Can you send me some info on this? I am crazy enough to try it!!

Also where can I find these erasers that everyone is talking about??

[iaam]

If you have a Five Below near you, they may have some good options. I saw some cute erasers and mechanical pencils there recently. They also have some Lego Minifigures that could be an option. If you are still OK with the $5 limit, you could get the girls 'treasure tins/chests' (sorry, don't know what they are called) - they had some nice ones. I am sure you can find some equally exciting toy-type thing for boys. Finally, they may have BrainQuest cards, which would be great. Mine only had the K (5-6) and Grade 1 (6-7) ones, but you may find older ones. They were $3.

[anamika]

If you have a Five Below near you, they may have some good options. I saw some cute erasers and mechanical pencils there recently. They also have some Lego Minifigures that could be an option. If you are still OK with the $5 limit, you could get the girls 'treasure tins/chests' (sorry, don't know what they are called) - they had some nice ones. I am sure you can find some equally exciting toy-type thing for boys. Finally, they may have BrainQuest cards, which would be great. Mine only had the K (5-6) and Grade 1 (6-7) ones, but you may find older ones. They were $3.

Thanks - the nearest Five below is an hr away. I will keep that as a backup plan.

Why couldn't have remembered this before? Why do I make simple things so challenging for myself?? :banghead: :irked:

[kwc]

Can you send me some info on this? I am crazy enough to try it!!

Also where can I find these erasers that everyone is talking about??

We got nice card stock in various colors and I cut them into the right size with a rotary cutter (I think we used the scrapbooking squares... 8 inches with 4 bookmarks per?). DD wrote the classmate's name in glitter gel pen on the back (or maybe glitter paint pen, can't remember) and threaded a ribbon through a heart shaped punch hole she made 1/2 inch from the top. We have a few shaped larger hole punches and DD glued/glue dotted on other punched out hearts or shapes on the front (though it would probably be easier to buy stickers or scrapbooking cutouts from Michaels, etc.) She was actually going to stamp the names on the back (we have little alphabet stamps) but it was too hard to make it look nice and some of the names are pretty long.
Basically I am a non-scrapbooker with all the scrapbooking supplies so the incremental cost for me was not much but might be significant if you didn't already have stuff. DD is a crafter but it always ends up stressful for me as I am obsessive about making it look neat/ nice... have trouble letting go.

We get the erasers at local toy stores.

[kwc]

Oh... after seeing iaam's post... DD and her friends think mechanical pencils are extremely cool. You could tie a bow or put a sticker on the top to make it more festive, or a little circle or pumpkin stamped with your DD's initial.

Another year for Valentines... Bought precut large hearts (6"?) from Paper Source and threaded a pencil through it to look like an arrow... made arrow heads/ tails and stuck them on. Hearts were stamped with "Happy Valentine's Day" stamp and DD wrote names on them.

[baymom]

How about those cute erasers that are shaped like food/sushi/cupcakes, etc.? Fun pencils?

They have packs of these at Michael's and also packs in the party section of Target (with the packaged goody-bag items, decorations, party paper products).

The mini Lego sets would be a hit! How about a deck of Uno? ...not sure how much they cost, but I once bought 30 Uno decks for a $1 each on sale, so maybe not much more...?

[anamika]

Tell me more about the mini Lego sets - I have never seen them. Can I find them in Target? Where would they be?

I think a long shopping trip is in store for me - planning to hit Target and the local toy store as well as a Dollar store.
Any other stores that might be good?

Thanks

[baymom]

I agree with KWC...mechanical pencils are HUGE with my kids right now. I'm sure they would go over really well! Do you have time to melt old crayons and make those beautiful molded crayons? Target sometimes has gloves/beanies in their dollar area. How about a set for each kid? It's still super hot where I live, so totally inappropriate depending on where you live, of course. DD once got hand-made luggage tags from a pre-school classmate which she still loves. The Mom had color printed out each child's name with a cute border on card stock and put a sticker on the back. Then, she had it laminated, punched a whole and put a key-ring through it. Super simple, unique and personalized...

[baymom]

The mini Lego sets and in small foil-type bags (about 3X2 inch bags) that are sometimes by the cash register at Target, but more often hanging at the end of an isle in the toy department (often not really by the rest of the Legos).

[kwc]

DD once got hand-made luggage tags from a pre-school classmate which she still loves. The Mom had color printed out each child's name with a cute border on card stock and put a sticker on the back. Then, she had it laminated, punched a whole and put a key-ring through it. Super simple, unique and personalized...

Shoot, Baymom, now I MUST buy a laminator. I think everyone I know is getting luggage tags for Christmas/Valentines/ party favors. I think it will pay for itself very quickly.

Good luck, Anamika, I hope you don't get sucked into my crazy. I am thinking mechanical pencils would be easiest to find and may not need any embellishment at all!

[jench]

My 8yo daughter loves arts & crafts, so two yrs ago we gave watercolor paint sets and last year we gave "melty bead" kits (lots of gender neutral designs at Michaels).

[anamika]

Thanks - adding Michaels to the list of stores. I forgot it in my earlier list. I like the arts and crafts idea!

[Jen841]

Notebook + pen/pencil/earser
Deck of cards and a printout of how to do a magic trick or two with it, or some card games
Bookmarks
Gift Certificate for a 'treat' around town
Mad Lib sheets and pen/pencil
School supplied

We can't 'gift' the classmates so we have turned it around and creatively gift the CLASSROOM. We donate a favorite book from my kids to their classroom and library + I gave the teacher 30 fun pencils, earsers and lots of stickers + Kidz Bop 2X (the latest one.)

What is you send some 'fun' to the classroom? Can you have balloons delivered via a clown?