The inspiration for the trend was picked up from the children's book 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond.
Many interesting trends come and go on the internet but some manage to stay in our hearts forever. Recently, one such trend centered around student-teacher bonds has been melting hearts online. Following the Teachers Appreciation Week earlier in May, videos of many thoughtful gifts that students gave their dearest teachers were shared by both parents and teachers. The inspiration for the trend was picked up from the children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond. In this trend, "If You Give Your Teacher A Cookie," the teachers get a cookie and a lot more wholesome goodies.
One of the earliest videos following this trend was made by a parent named Izzy who goes by @mmmizzy9 on Tiktok. The most important part of this trend is a book in which each page talks about the useful gifts a teacher might need. It starts with the "If you give your teacher a cookie" page where children can attach a cookie. This is followed by a storyline where the teacher may need to buy a drink, go shopping, go for dinner or relax. For each page, Izzy's child Ariani attached a gift including pens, socks, lip balms, face masks, snacks and even gift cards for restaurants and other stores.
Rather than giving their teacher stereotypical gifts like paperweights or decorative items, this booklet trend allows students to give them something more meaningful. This way, a teacher gets everything they need to make their day better. The best part is that this trend also engages children since they get to pick a gift for each page. "A little something for our girl's teacher. She loved picking stuff for each page," Izzy mentioned in the caption. The video garnered over one million views and this trend is still going strong on many social media platforms.
Earlier this July, another individual by the Reddit username, u/1q8b, hopped on this trend and shared a sweet booklet a student had made for their teacher. Apart from cookies, pens and socks, the teacher also received a Target gift card if she wanted to go shopping, a gift from Hobby Lobby if she wanted to do some crafts and some more snacks if she wanted to have a quick bite. Just like other videos, this one too ends with another cookie in case the teacher needs one at the end of her tiring day. This video garnered over 500 comments and people found it adorable, especially since teachers are usually underpaid and are forced to put in their own money to buy supplies for the children they teach.
"This is awesome! People don't realize it, but elementary teachers often times spend their own money to do things for the kids. Gifts like these make their day/week. If you have an elementary-level kiddo, do something nice for their teacher, even if it's just a thank you card," said u/Stinky_McFarts. "I would 100% do this for my son’s special ed teacher. They are criminally underpaid for the incredible work they do," remarked u/kamarsh79. "This is such a thoughtful and unique gift! I taught middle school for 32 years and got many gifts. They usually were given at Christmas and the end of the year. But one parent bought every teacher on her son’s team a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie with a note of thanks. The gift stands out in my mind because it was unique," added u/CatfromLongIsland.