Gender Neutral gift?

[steelergal]

Leave it to my youngest classroom parents! They decided that in lieu of the generalized gift bags for the Christmas party this year, they want to have each child bring in a gender neutral gift, wrapped, around $5 in price- she is in 3rd grade so around 8 to 9 year olds. I seriously can't think of anything besides playdough- which is too young for this age group (in my opinion- I know my DD would love that but other children I hardly think so!).

I would of loved it IF they would have the girls bring a girls toy and a boy a boys toy and gift them between the sexes! Tha would of made it so much easier! Also I have a gripe of not everything people bring are gender neutral- in years past my oldest was part of a book exchange for a Christmas party and she got sick and had to leave before the party- when she returned to school she received someones opened dinosaur book- which you know someone opened and was not happy with it!

[sunshine]

Paint by numbers sets, board games (you can find some deals right now, where the price would be in that range), card games like UNO, Phase10, etc. Hats/scarves/gloves in school colors.

[Neeley]

Angry Birds plushie
Assortment of Glow Sticks, glow necklaces, etc...
Paints with sketch pad
Rubix Cube
Uno Cards
Yahtzee
Candies
Stickers, books,
My teenagers, even the one in college, still get a kick out of Play-Dough and Silly Putty.

[stinkbug]

It's insane that her classroom is requiring a gift exchange!

[geckoace]

Do u guys have a five below store up there in steeler country (lol ravens fan sorry)
They have all kinds of small board games card games and even some pc games. I think art sets and modeling clay are appropriate. Angry birds junk is really popular
They had small combo lock safes or desk sized lockers with key

Is food allowed? I would get maybe a decorative pail put in fruit snack and maybe one chips, cards, silly putty all kinds little nonsense that kids are into

[krbshappy71]

Can you do food?

Single-wrapped rice krispie treats
Single-wrapped granola bars, maybe 3 tied with curling ribbon
single-packet hot chocolate in a plastic holiday cup, say with snowflakes on it so very generic not santa etc.
small lego box (my girls and nephews love legos clear into high school)


Can you do gift card for, say, $5?

Barnes & Noble
Grocery Store for a treat
the local mall
gift certificate for a local laser tag place or bowling alley

Tis the season to bang head against wall.

[steelergal]

I did hit a Five Below store (I love that store!) and got a SpongeBob Squarepants game set (has tic tac toe, bingo, checkers, and a few other card games).

[ncarr]

^ sounds like a winner to me

[Ali Lee]

a yo-yo & my grands are really into puzzles (8 & 10yrs)

[oheoh's momma]

coloring books scooby doo, sponge bob, animals, ( lions, tigers and bears oh my) puppies, crayons, uno cards, gold fish, ect this is kinda hard.....

[Neeley]

seasonings, spices or marinades for foods. World Market has cool gift boxes like this.

For third graders?

[janal14]

They have a lot of fun craft kits at JoAnn that would be appropriate for either a boy or a girl - some of them are definitely more girl centric, but they have ones that would be appropriate for either gender.

They almost always have a 40-50% off one item coupon available, so you could get a pretty good gift relatively cheaply. A lot of my holiday presents for the nieces and nephews came from JoAnn this year - bought one at a time, over the course of a few months with coupons.

[Libby]

My suggestions: puzzles, drawing supplies (DIY art kit: coloured pencils, sketchpad etc?) or a 'choose your own adventure' type novel/book.