Teacher Appreciation Week Luncheon Ideas
Teacher Appreciation Week, a week designated to honor teachers for educating and inspiring our children, is held the first full week of May each year. Many schools choose to celebrate by hosting a luncheon for teachers as the big event of the week. Having a theme for the luncheon adds an air of festivity and gives you direction for planning the food, decorations, invitations and entertainment.
ABCs of Appreciation
A fun theme for a primary school teacher appreciation lunch could be "The ABCs of Appreciation." The invitations can be done using a font that looks like kids' printing or on paper with a set of ABC blocks on it. The decorations are done in primary colors with big letters posted around the room.
When it is time to set the menu, make foods and serve them in alphabetical order. Avocado in tomato salad could be the appetizer, followed by barbecue chicken, then chocolate cake.
For a recognition certificate, spell out the teacher's name and have students create a list of qualities about the teacher that they appreciate. Example: A teacher named Carol might receive a certificate that says: C -- Caring, A -- Awesome, R -- Really Smart, O -- Optimistic, L -- Likable. Present the cutest one out loud for each teacher and present them the ones from the rest of the class.
The entertainment could be a skit performed by the students emphasizing the alphabet and how each letter reminds the students and parents why they appreciate the teachers.
Awards Ceremony
As students get older, the theme can get more elaborate, like an awards ceremony. For this theme, the invitations could be more formal and be printed on invitation paper with a calligraphy typeface. Decorations might include a red carpet leading into the luncheon area. Students could line the carpet holding digital cameras and take pictures of the teachers as they walked in--just like paparazzi.
The menu itself would be less important than serving the food as fashionably as possible. Renting nice dishes and glassware would be a very nice touch.
Each teacher would receive an award for something special that is unique to them. The awards could be custom coffee mugs. To announce the next teacher to get their certificate two students could open envelopes and then present the award. If there are teachers who are retiring, they could win a lifetime achievement award.
Garden Party
A simple but elegant lunch with tons of flowers in abundance could form a garden party theme. The invitations printed on floral paper and delivered with a carnation launch the theme. Decorations are potted flowers and flower seed packets.
Each family could bring a salad ingredient--one that could be fresh from the garden--and the lunch is a salad bar with hot baked bread on the side.
Each teacher would be presented with a packet of notes from students and parents and get to choose a potted flower to take home.
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