Steer your middle-schooler's energy into these great teacher-celebration ideas.

• Design a thank-you card.
  Have your children write a note or poem about why they appreciate their teacher. They can design a special card or decorate their poem with pictures that show what their teacher has taught them.
• Create a teacher recipe.
  For example:
  
  Take:
  
  1 Cup of Patience
  1 Tablespoon of Fun
  A Pinch of Courage
  
  Stir in a love for (science, music, literature) Voilà, Ms. or Mr. Teacher!
  
  Show them real recipes and cookbooks
  to get the recipes rolling. Why not give their recipe to their teacher tied to a bag of homemade cookies or muffins?

• Plan a program.
  For a real show-stopping tribute, your children can work with parents (and the PTA), school staff, and fellow students to plan a school assembly to honor teachers. Parents can work with groups of middle-school students to write, direct, and act out skits that portray,
  "a typical day in the life of a teacher"
  or
  "what our school would be like without Ms. or Mr. Teacher."
  It's sure to be an assembly filled with original, funny, and heart-warming scenes.