Teacher Appreciation Week is an important time to express much gratitude and thanks for the educators who work tirelessly to shape young minds.
Your Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) can play an instrumental part in making this happen!
What better way to show your appreciation than with a sweet and fun-filled ice cream-themed celebration for all of your school’s teachers, staff and administrators?
Hosting an ice cream-themed teacher appreciation week is a delightfully fun way to honor teachers while indulging in delicious treats.
Here’s a guide on how to plan and execute this fun week of celebration and love for your school’s teachers, staff and administrators too!
Decorations
First things first- let’s get the space decorated for the week.
While decorations totally aren’t necessary, they do add a ton of fun to the events and let your school’s employees know what you’ve really gone above and beyond in your planning of the appreciation events.
And decorating for an ice cream themed appreciation week is just about one of the most fun themes, don’t you think?
Balloon garlands are such a eye popping way to decorate for an event.
If you’ve never given it a try, don’t be intimidated from giving it a shot.
This post lays out everything you need to know about creating a ballon arch.
It’s really much more simple than you might think!
This ice cream themed balloon kit comes with a fantastic mix of balloon shapes and sizes. Love the creative use of the long balloons to mimic sprinkles!
If you’re not ready to create a huge balloon display, start small with a few ice cream cone shaped balloons.
These confetti balloons look like they’re filled with jimmies aka sprinkles!
An ice cream themed garland is an even easier decoration to adorn a space. Just unfurl, hang up and enjoy the bright pops of color it adds to the space!
When decorating, I really like to mix different shapes, colors and textures for a well rounded out look.
This ice cream garland decoration pack offers a lot of choices that can be used to decorate walls, tables, doors and more.
Crepe paper is another easy decoration you can stretch for multiple looks and this palette of ice cream colored crepe paper is just perfect!
Decorating a room from ceiling to floor is always fun. Even if you can’t reach the ceiling, you can hang a few of these ice cream themed swirls around the room to draw the eye up and around the room.
Since you’ll undoubtedly be serving up ice cream at some point in the week, save yourself and the school’s custodians from a sticky mess by covering the tables in the space with an ice cream cone themed tablecloth.
Grab a package of this adorable ice cream icon confetti and sprinkle them across the covered tables for some fun patterns and colors that fit right into the theme.
How cute is this ice cream truck? Perfect for use as a table centerpiece. You could use it to put a sign announcing the day’s appreciation event.
Surround the truck with even more honeycomb ice cream confection decorations for extra fun.
Daily Ideas for an Appreciation Week to Remember
Now it’s time to serve up some fun ideas you can use each day of the week that fit perfectly for this ice cream week of fun!
Monday
Bust out sherbet colored chalk and write love notes along the sidewalk to greet the teachers and staff as they report to work for the day.
Continue the theme of letting them know how much you appreciate them with a personalized thank you note inside their school mailbox!
This is a great way to involve even more members of your PTO and students awarded well and ask that everyone takes a few cards to write out.
How cute are these ice cream thank you note cards?
And this sprinkles note card is especially perfect for jimmies-lovers!
Tuesday
First thing Tuesday morning, set up a coffee and tea bar that leans hard into the ice cream theme but won’t give anyone a brain freeze.
This set of ice cream flavor inspired coffee is just perfect!
And don’t forget about the tea drinkers in the bunch!
There’s two great options to choose from:
A Matcha Ice Cream green tea…
and a Mochi Ice Cream Boba tea.
Both sound pretty tasty!
Wednesday
Now it’s time to fill their bellies, but not with ice cream.
Let’s save that for later on in the week!
Since lots of sweets are headed their way, a well rounded sub sandwich and salad buffet is an easy luncheon theme that will flex for a variety of tastes and dietary needs.
Pull the theme into the day with special plates that are ice cream themed.
Wouldn’t a salad look pretty on the pink plate?
And don’t forget about napkins to keep faces and fingers clean.
Need guidance on how much food to offer for the luncheon?
This post has all the details about portion sizes for many different types of foods, salads included!
Thursday
Pop a little gift bag full of treat into their staff mailbox or on their desk for an unexpected surprise as we near the end of the work week.
These striped ice cream themed bags are a good size to fit a variety of small gifts and treats they’re sure to enjoy!
Toss in a few ice cream flavored lollipops…
Some chewy ice cream candy…
A cute ice cream treat keychain…
And some snow cone flavored lip balm!
Friday
End the week with zero surprises by giving them what they’ve know is coming all week long: a fabulous ice cream bar!
Make scooping quick and easy with a good ice cream scoop!
Be sure to have a ton of toppings on hand to suit all tastes!
This multipack of Smucker’s sauces and syrups is a good start.
And this Torani chocolate and caramel pack will satisfy any chocolate lovers’ palate!
Serve up the other toppings in bowls to help staff get through what’s sure to be a long line to get their treat faster.
If your school isn’t peanut free, this peanut brittle crunch coat topping is a fun choice to offer.
Mini M&Ms are great on ice cream and don’t turn into jawbreakers when they get cold.
A dusting of Oreo crumbs can be the perfect ice cream topping.
Give them the option to sprinkle a healthy dose of mini marshmallows on top.
Cookie dough balls are a popular ice cream addition.
This pack of Ice Cream Parlor Jelly Belly jelly beans is a nice dairy-free alternative option to offer that doubles as an ice cream topping too.
Don’t skimp on the ultimate topping- sprinkles!
This kind of crumble style ice cream sprinkles is a fun addition for every ice cream bar.
These ice cream cups are really cute to serve the treats in!
Over to you
Hosting an ice cream-themed teacher appreciation week is a super sweet way to celebrate the dedication and hard work of educators.
Why not create a fun-filled environment with delicious treats and thoughtful gestures to show your gratitude in a memorable and meaningful way.
Let’s scoop up some gratitude and celebrate the amazing teachers who make a difference every day!
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