Thanking Volunteers

This year I have been blessed with many parent volunteers who consistently provide at least an hour of their time on a weekly basis to help the students in my classroom. Having additional hands and the extra support of helpful adults make a world of difference to a teacher with 24 students! 

I decided to give my volunteers Cookies in a jar this year as a thank you gift. The idea is to put all of the dry ingredients used in a cookie recipe in a jar and provide a label with instructions for adding the wet ingredients and baking. The ingredients are layered in the jar for a cute presentation. The website above provides many different choices for types of cookies to use along with quantities of the dry ingredients to place in the jars. Additionally, there are links to several different labels that you can simply print out which contain the mixing and baking instructions. You can choose both the type of cookie and the design you want to print your own custom label! I also included a personal note on the back of each recipe label thanking the volunteers for their work.

It was fun putting together the jars and I am hopeful that the cookies will come out good! I found that the ingredients for the Oatmeal Plus Cookies fit perfectly in the jars, but the ingredients for the Chocolate Chip and M&M cookies fell a little short. Of course I added extra chocolate chips and M&M's to make up the different and I am hopeful that works out okay.

I have not completed the jars yet and I will post a picture of the final product. My next step is to glue the recipe card to colored construction paper and glue the thank you note on the back. I will then laminate the whole thing and hole punch one corner so that I can use colored ribbon to attach the card to the jar.  The site also suggests using a 6-8" circle of fabric to place under the jar lid for further customization. I do not think I am going to do that part because I am trying to keep the project within a budget, but I do think it would add to the presentation of the gift.