What if, after a super long week, you could transform your teacher’s lounge (or a fellow teacher’s living room) into a luxurious spa for the day?
And what if I told you that you could do it with very little expense involved?
So how do you organize a special Saturday teacher spa day that will relax and refresh you and your colleagues? You pool talents and resources and share the food load, and you have a most perfect spa day for all!
Read on to find out how to put together all of the components of a well-deserved teacher spa day that can make you ready to tackle life again by Monday.
Table of Contents
The Inspiration
There is an article here about a school in which the PTA actually brought in a spa. They transformed their school library into a spa for the day. They blacked out the windows, and transformed the room into a spa with candles and scented oils. Then teachers came in throughout the day when they were able to. They were treated with 10 minute mini-massages and made to feel amazing for the day.
Once they were done, they were then sent to another location to enjoy a lunch provided by the parents.
It would be awesome if there was a spa in every school district that was able to do this and a PTA that was able to hire them. But unfortunately, that is usually not the case.
That’s okay! We can still have our spa day! And it isn’t even hard to put together.
Introducing the Concept
I can see it now. You have this whole idea planned out in your head and tell a few of your fellow teachers about it. And they laugh. How are you going to turn the teachers’ lounge into a spa? It’s so…functional. Then when you tell them that it isn’t going to cost thousands of dollars, they will ask you what in the world you are thinking.
And then you can show them. And you will be the hero of the teachers–at least for the week.
Location, Location, Location
The teachers’ lounge would be the perfect place to have it, especially if you have a couple of comfy chairs or a sofa that you could transform. But sometimes school facilities are not available on the weekends. A couple of other possibilities that won’t break the bank would be a room at your local library, or possibly the living room of one or two teachers, depending on how many teachers are planning to attend the event.
One other possibility could be a clubhouse in a complex that any of your fellow teachers lives at.
Why Saturday?
Saturday makes a good day for a teacher spa day because it allows the majority of teachers to be available without trying to find someone to take over their class while they sneak out. It also allows all of you to be together at the same time to enjoy each other’s company, where if you do it in snippets throughout the school day, it will not have nearly the same cohesive feel to it.
And finally, it allows you to block off just a few hours of the day rather than making it the whole day. Teachers and all involved can spend a couple of hours and then get the rest of the things done that they needed to that day.
Of course, you can plan it on whatever day and time works best for your group. A weekday evening may work better for your group. And the teachers’ room may be more available at that time. With this option, you will need to set up between school getting out and the time of your event. That could cause you to be more pressed for time. And babysitting for your children may be more difficult to procure at this time rather than a Saturday event.
Invitations
You can easily print up some invitations that will let your fellow teachers know when and where (if you are unable to use the teachers’ lounge) the teacher spa day will be held.
I made up an invitation here that you can print up and pass out. Just click on it and print and you’re good to go!
The one thing that will be critical for you to do is get timely RSVP’s for this event. I know how bad we all are at RSVP’s. But you may have to go get them to make sure that this event goes off without a hitch.
The Components
This is the fun part! You get to put all of the components together to make your area look and feel like the real thing. And you will have your fellow teachers join in on the fun so that the expense will be next to nothing!
The components you will want to think about are as follows:
- Atmosphere
- Treatments
- Healthy food and drink
You want this to be a wonderful experience for everybody involved. But it also doesn’t need to be exactly like the spa that costs thousands of dollars to walk through the door.
By following a few suggestions, you can have a unique and beautiful experience. I will elaborate on how to make each of the above components work perfectly for your teacher spa day.
Atmosphere
Believe it or not, this will actually be just about the easiest part of putting together your perfect teacher spa day.
Depending on the size of your room, you will want to collect the following things:
- Freshly scented candles
- A few floor lamps and table lamps that have low light
- Table lamps to sprinkle throughout the room for ambient light
- A good selection of essential oils
- Some comfortable, preferably super soft blankets and throws
- A few throw pillows
- Something to block out the majority of sunlight from any windows in the room
- Some flowers and plants
- Tablecloth or two
So why is this the easiest part of putting together your teacher spa day? Because the vast majority of these items can be found in your home and all of the other teachers. So it is not an expense and with everybody helping out, the decor and ambience will be a breeze.
Warning About Essential Oils
There is just one thing here that you would probably want to buy instead of use from people’s homes, just for the sake of freshness of the product. That is essential oils.
The essential oils will need to be fresh and they will need to be good quality so that there are no perfumes in them that could be sensitive to others’ allergies. No spa day is fun if you can’t stop sneezing!
Anyway, here is an Amazon link to some really high quality but reasonably priced essential oils. What makes these oils so amazing is that they are not really any more expensive than their non-organic counterparts and will not cause allergies among teachers that may be sensitive. Also, if you are buying organic, you know exactly what it is going to smell like rather than whatever the creator thought it should smell like to them.
Oh, and while I am at it, here is a chart showing you how to use those essential oils in blends that will make your space smell like a real spa. But feel free to experiment and find what will work for you and your group.
Putting It All Together
For the rest of the list above, I had a sign up list for each of the items that we could all bring in from home. I had a large number of these items myself but I waited for everybody else to sign up so I could fill in all of the gaps. Plus there are a couple of things on the list that don’t go into the signup that you will need to provide. You don’t want to be moving your whole house to school for this event. The more people you have bring in items, the easier the cleanup will be. You will love having everybody take their items home and then seeing what little bit is left to clean up.
Here is a copy of the signup form I used. Just leave it on the table in the teachers’ room with some spa props and it will garner plenty of attention.
When you click on the signup sheet, it actually comes out much lighter than my article is showing it. I have no idea why it is showing up so dark. But anyway, once you click on it and print it up, it will look fine.
The Advantages of the Signup Sheet
Back to the sign up concept. There are a few really good advantages to doing it this way, besides saving money.
- Everybody gets excited about bringing in their own items that they feel are perfect for the occasion.
- Cleanup is a snap because everybody takes their own stuff home.
- No need to find a place to store the decorations.
You can have everybody bring in their items and place them in a designated safe area. Then you can set them up as you see fit. Feel free to ask for the help of a fellow teacher that may be gifted in decorating concepts.
Items Not on the Signup Sheet
As for the items to block out the sunlight from the windows, I didn’t put that in the signup. Using black bulletin board paper works. If you don’t want the black to show and you have extra energy and time to exert, you can cover it with another color of bulletin board paper that more suits your ideas.
I also didn’t put the tablecloths on the signup sheet.
Final Details
And finally, the blankets and throws are to dress up any chairs or sofas in the lounge so that it doesn’t feel like the usual teachers’ lounge that you visit daily.
You can add some other decorations as you see fit. Please feel free to share what you did in the comments!
Treatments
While it would be most amazing if you could just pay thousands of dollars to bring in massage therapists to save the day, that is not going to be practical in the majority of cases. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great quality teacher spa day.
Options for Help
There are a few great possibilities here. The first one is if you happen to have a couple of teachers that are or were at one time licensed massage therapists. Then they could each take a component of massage therapy to give out mini massages to everybody who would like one.
Another option is if one or a few of the teachers who is attending has a friend or family member that would be willing to come and help make the day special for everyone.
The final option is probably the most viable one. And that is to have a couple or few of the teachers focus on one aspect of massage and get some great pointers on Youtube. I have found some really good ones that I put here so you don’t have to hunt for them yourself. I researched it and made sure that they were from people who knew what they were talking about and had great reviews.
Making It All Work
I put 4 different videos in so that you can choose which ones you prefer. All are suitable for beginners to do after watching a couple of times, so if you have enough volunteers, then you are good to go on all of them! It would be best if you had at least a couple of volunteers on each type of massage so that everybody has a chance to relax and enjoy their teacher spa day.
And for those of you that actually know or related to people who know massage therapy, if they are willing to give you a helping hand on your teacher spa day, then you are perfectly hooked up!
For however many of these you decide to incorporate, just have a designated area around the room. No need to keep it hidden. In plain view is better so people will see the opportunity.
Healthy Food and drink
Ok, since we are using the word spa, we sort of have to offer healthy food. But there are a whole lot of foods that are healthy and delicious. And they are easy to make or buy. Here are some suggestions:
- Fruit tray
- Veggie tray
- Mini cucumber sandwiches
- Mini chicken salad sandwiches
- Chocolate mini cupcakes with whipped cream and chocolate covered strawberry on top
- Milano cookies or other specialty cookies
- Fruit salad
- Broccoli salad
- Pasta salad
- Fresh fruit tarts
- Mini quiches
These are just a few ideas to run with. I would once again do a sign-up sheet so that everybody can bring one thing. I made one for you here that allows you to either put the food options in or let your guests decide what they want to bring. You will have an amazing spread by doing it this way, yet nobody has had to do a whole lot of work.
Once again, it looks super dark here, but when you click through, it shows up correctly.
Honestly, if you search for spa party snacks on Pinterest, you will have enough ideas to throw a spa party weekly for the rest of your life. If you wanted to.
But seriously, turning this into an annual or biannual thing could be a wonderful thing for your school to look forward to. This would especially be true for certain times of the year such as just before school starts or right as it ends. Or the dead of winter, when everybody needs a pick-me-up.
Drinks
For your spa drinks, I found a wonderful Sparkling Cucumber Lemon Limeade (you can find the pin for it by clicking here) that my kids thought was the bomb!
Once again, there are so many perfect ideas out there. You are sure to find the one that works perfectly for you with a simple google or pinterest search.
Tableware
You will need to get some plates, cups or glasses, napkins, and other items for your food table. This will not be a huge expense if you go to your local dollar store. If you check out both the party section, but especially the wedding section, you will find some really good things to make your table very elegant. The kitchen area will also be very helpful.
If there is one person coming who would like to take charge of this, then that works well for you. Just make sure they know what the color scheme is if you have one.
Putting It All Together
You will have a lot of excited teachers who are eager to help. And that excitement will help you to put on a wonderful teacher spa day with very little work required on your part.
You will want to have most of the non food items on site the day before the event so that you won’t be scrambling around trying to get everything set up and ready to go. And actually, if you start setting things up while everybody is still at school to see it, you are just promoting excitement about your event.
You will most likely have several people that will be excited to help you set up as well. In 25+ years of planning all sorts of different events, it was a very rare thing to not have a large number of eager helpers who were also excited to see it all take form.
Music
Make sure to bring a playlist of some great relaxing music to set the mood. Although this is a small detail, it is actually a huge one. It will change the feel of the room and help everybody to be able to relax much more easily.
A Few Final Ideas
There are more options for you to add to your teacher spa day than you will be able to do. I guess that means you can have several!
Anyway, here are some other suggestions that are pretty easy to do.
- Foot soak
- Warm washcloths in a warming crockpot
- Manicures
- Pedicures
- Coffee and or tea bar
- Smoothie bar
- Facials
- Spa-related crafts (soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs, etc.)
- Games with prizes
- Movie
- Seasonal/holiday decorations
Conclusion
So this is my idea for a teacher spa day to honor the hard-working teachers that don’t always get a chance to do something special for themselves.
But guess what? This doesn’t have to be limited to teachers. You can literally insert this plan into just about any industry that you are in. Or you can even make this a Mom’s spa day! You could even do this as a special spa day for your significant other. Neighbors, extended family, friends, girls day–there are no limits here!
We all work hard. And we all need a break or a mini vacation sometimes. I realize that finding the time to organize one can be hard. So here it is for you–all ready to go!
Let me know how you planned your spa day and how it went!
How awesome! Teachers deserve all the pampering in the world for what they go through. I love this idea.
If you have a military wives group or some other group you meet with regularly, this all still works! Everybody deserves a spa day!!!!
What a great idea. The teachers sure do need a day of pampering like this
Oh this is such an amazing idea, teachers work so hard and totally deserve something like this. Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us!
Bless your heart for thinking this up. Awesome posts. Teachers really deserve all the pampering they can get.
I love this idea! Teachers deserve to relax and enjoy themselves in a spa but may not have the money for a real spa. Creating a spa in the teacher’s lounge sounds like a wonderful idea for a Saturday.
Thank you, Norma!
What a fantastic idea! If everyone pitched in then it would not be difficult to organize. You really have given teachers a go to guide on how to do this. Teachers need every minute of relaxation they can get!
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂
You know how to tell about things in the most amusing way.
Thank you, Olya. 🙂
This sounds lovely! Teachers need to stick together and this is the perfect way to do it!
Ahh what a beautiful idea! I know so many teachers (and non teachers really) who would love this!
That’s so awesome that the PTA brought in a spa for the teachers to access throughout the day! Teachers definitely deserve to be pampered and shown great appreciation! And who wouldn’t appreciate a spa day!
Location is everything! Regardless of where you go, a spa day is always a bonus in my book.
I also go for spa night on Saturdays. 🙂 This is worth sharing, thank you!
This is such an amazing concept. A spa for teachers ! I am going to share this with my two aunts, who are both teachers and would love to know about this.
Thank you, Sudipta!
This is a great idea and a wonderful resource for planning so nothing is forgotten! Thank you!
Thanks, Melanie!
What a fun idea. In my last job a team building day involved a muddy outward bound course. I would have preferred a spa
I fully agree, Susan! Thank you for the giggle!
it is amazing that you managed to do all that stuff on your own, wow!!! I would love to be invited to a SPA lol…That would be great.
I started organizing events on a smaller scale many years ago. The more you do it, the easier it gets! And who knows, maybe if you share my post with the right person, they will throw you your very own spa day. 🙂
aww I love this idea. How sweet to treat!
This is so thought out and well-organized! I’m very impressed. I’d love to do something like this with my girlfriends. Also, I love the essential oil blends you included!
Yes, Angela! You should do it! Your girlfriends will love it and you will all enjoy the time spent together!
This is such a great idea, not only for the teachers to relax but also to get to know each other better. Spa days are some of the best experiences.
this is great, everyone definitely need some pampering.
This sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to put something like this together.
Let me know how it turns out!
This sounds like a dream! I bet it was much appreciated too. I love how you carefully planned it all right down to the healthy snacks. It’s nice to take a little time for yourself wherever you can manage.
Thanks, Lisa! And yes, self care is critical to well-being!
This is such a great idea! I live in a small town and our teachers are awesome!
That is awesome, Echo! Let me know how it turns out if you do it!
Umm I totally want to set this up for my teacher friends!
I hope you do, Rachel! Let me know how it turns out!
First- what a great concept! I can’t tell you how much I’d love to put something like this together for my kids’ teachers. Second- some great execution tips, which everyone would need. Where did you get this idea from if I may ask? It’s so thoughtful!
Teachers need a break! With everything they experience everyday I think even a saturday and sunday spa would be fine
I love this idea! I should start a spa day event at my university!
You should!!! If you do, let me know how it went. 🙂
That is such a great idea! Teachers do so much, they deserve all the pampering and also a relaxing break!
I think so too! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
What an idea different from the usual, interesting and above all relaxing. The mind is more receptive!
These will be something so thoughtful for the teachers, they need a relaxed day and this will be a great gift from the school to them. Is a great idea and I love it that it can be done on Saturday.
A spa day is always a great choice, and teachers definitely deserve them. The pandemic has given me an even deeper appreciation for the work that teachers do.
I think that’s an awesome idea. Teachers deserve to be pampered like this, and making it a teacher event is a great way to get in some relaxation while strengthening the bonds of the faculty.
This sounds like such a great idea. Teachers work really hard and stay on their feet all day long, they deserve some nice relaxation time between them.
Love this because I am in DIER need of a spa day! SO why not make it happen at home for myself!
Teachers definitely deserve to be pampered and so much more.
I have 3 teachers in my family and I think they’ll all really appreciate this! Thanks for sharing :). They definitely work so hard and are very deserving of spa days.
I love spa days! But they are always better with friends. Will send this to a few of my teacher mates
These are great ideas. Everybody needs some pampering.
Oh, I love this. Teachers, treat yo’self!!!
This idea sounds great! Teachers would have a nice time relaxing after working! Thanks for sharing this with us.
That’s quite a unique plan. What makes it better is that it hardly requires items which need a separate visit to the supermarket.
Teacher really need a spa and me time too. All there efforts needs to be pay offs. Thanks for this.
Teacher is the most regular and hardworking person of the society; teacher really need SPA. You as a teacher, really wonderfully explained it. Especially the final ideas are the great suggestions and easy to do.
Hhhmmmm….this is very doable, actually. Let me arrange one soon, when we are done with the COVID-19.
Well doesn’t this sound absolutely lovely, I would be totally down for this.
That sounds quite an interesting concept! Great tips to keep in mind and I like the idea of it as well.
This is wonderful! If there’s anything our hard-working teachers deserve, it’s a day of pampering and relaxation.
Pretty sure I know quite a few teachers who would be on board. A spa day would be amazing.
i can’t imagine a teacher not wanting one of these spa days. and massages are easy enough to give as a gift certificate to your teacher.
This is such a great post. Nowadays spa is the nearby hitchhike of those busy people. I like your recommendation. I am sure this is so beneficial.
I love essential oils. It’s really a good thing to make you relax. It’s good for health.
This plan would be a perfect idea for any profession! But the teachers would truly enjoy this spa heaven.
What a sweet thing to do for teachers. I’m sure any teacher would appreciate this.
I absolutely love this concept. Teachers do deserve pampering after all the hard work they do.
This is a wonderful post and I love spa. I have been trying to make some bath salt for myself, and now I have a lot more wonderful idea about how to relax and enjoy a wonderful weekend – Knycx Journeying
Wow, this is such a cool idea! Great initiative for teachers too
I love this idea. I think the teachers at our school would love this. Thank you for putting a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish this!
This is such a cute idea! I love anything with the word spa in it!
This is a great idea. A spa for teachers – brilliant! I think teachers definitely deserved it.
That is such a great idea! Teachers do so much, and they deserve al the down time they can get. A spa day is the perfect way to do that.
This is a lovely idea. I have a high-stress job, and a spa day always makes me feel better. I think this is just the ticket for any teacher.
This sounds like a great way to reduce stress and connect with other people who understand what you’re going through.
I believe that all teachers in the world and beyond should follow you. Your blog is really great!
It looks like the perfect plan to get some good time to relax and refresh from a hard week at work! I am totally following your plan to have a great spa day with my family
Love the initiative you’ve done here, it’s a great idea to pamper our self after a whole week of stress in many things. It’s great to a have plan and organize everything to make things run smoothly.
Of course, our teachers need relaxation too! It is good for the mind and body, and they are feeling relaxed, they become more active and creative. You are so generous in hosting the spa day!
I am not a teacher but the idea of teachers spa day is really thoughtful and helpful.
a good spa days is always fun. this sounds like a fantastic idea that everyone will enjoy.