Painted Pot Teacher Gift Idea

As much as I am looking forward to having my kids home with me 24/7 as the school year comes to a close, I know that my kids are going to miss school over the summer, and their teachers. So far both of my older kids who are in school LOVE going, and they have never once complained that it is a school day. They actually count down the days until it’s a school day. They love their teachers and they love going to school and learning. I’m sure it will eventually change as the kids get older and there is more pressure on learning with tests and assignments (although I still hope they’ll love it forever!), but for now I’m just soaking in their love for learning and school. I’m going to miss my son starting sentences with saying, “It’s just like Miss Laura says…” I love how he comes home and performs the songs they learn and sing at playschool. My daughter likes to brag to her brother that she gets to go to school more days a week than her brother right now. She’s had a great year in kindergarten. So to say thank you to the teachers for all they’ve done, we wanted to come up with a creative gift idea that both teachers will enjoy.

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As a teacher myself, I absolutely love gifts that come from the heart! I’ve received my share of thoughtful teacher gifts over the years. Homemade gifts are always appreciated. A simple homemade card with a message from students (and their parents!) really means a lot at the end of the year, because sometimes as a teacher you just don’t know how families feel about the job you’ve done. A note goes a long way to make you feel appreciated. Of course, there have been some more over the top gifts that are lovely and also appreciated. Their generosity has really surprised me at times. I’ve loved receiving essential oils, or gift cards to a bookstore or a spa have been some of my favorites; one sweet little girl even gave me a leather Guess purse one year! I was shocked!

For us, we are planning to keep it simple and going with homemade gifts this year. I purchased some terra cotta pots and had the kids help me paint them. Each pot turned out a little different (and we didn’t do the steps on every pot exactly the same!), but below is the basic painting process. (There are affiliate links in this post).

First, you’ll need to find some terra cotta pots. I bought mine at Dollarama. Depending on size they varied in price. They ranged from $1-$4 I think. I would recommend at least a 6″ pot, as the little ones don’t really fit much I discovered a little too late!
Paint your pots black. I think a quick spray paint job would be best, but I didn’t have any. I used a brush and some black chalkboard paint that I had on hand. Let dry.
For this next step, I used white chalk paint. Brush on a rough coat of the chalk paint and let dry.
Using a dry brush technique (basically only put a little paint on the paintbrush), I added some strokes of a dark green acrylic paint and a silver acrylic paint I had on hand. I also added a little bit more black. Then I let this dry.
Once dry, top with white chalk paint again, but be sure not to completely cover all the dark spots on the pot because you want them to show through so the pot looks aged.
Once it was dry again, I distressed a few areas of the pot with a sanding sponge. I really liked the look of distressing the rim of the pot, as the black comes through and it gives the pot an aged look.
This next step is optional. We used letter stamps and an ink pad to stamp words on the pot. We wrote “lavender” and “grow” since I had planned to plant lavender in the pots. I let the kids help stamp the letters, so they weren’t perfectly straight but I think it added to the charm. The problem we had with this step was that the ink pad we used was water based. I was worried about it washing off when the plant was watered. I would recommend using a permanent ink pad.
Since I used chalk paint and the letters were stamped in washable ink, I wanted to top it with a coat of protectant for when the pot would get wet. I used this protective finish because that was what I had on hand. Brush this on and let it dry. On the pots that didn’t have stamped letters, it worked great. On the pots with lettering, it smeared the letters a bit and washed them out, I think because the finishing coat was also water based. It actually still looks good though because an aged look was what I was going for. Just keep in mind that the letters may smear. If I was to do this project again, I would use permanent ink.
Lastly, plant your flowers or plants! We used lavender plants that we bought for $2.97 at Walmart!