Mini gifts for students

A class set is a different purchase from a present. Thirty of one thing, all identical, because anything else starts an argument at the back of the room. That rules out the assorted boxes where the colors differ and rules in the packs where every piece is the same, and it is the first thing to check when a photograph shows a rainbow of options. The second is the price per child, which is printed on every card here and is usually between fifteen and eighty cents.

What works in a classroom is narrower than what works in a party bag: it has to survive a desk, a bag and a week, and it must not make a noise. Notebooks, pens, stickers and erasers pass that; anything with a clicker, a squeak or a light does not, whatever the children think. Prize boxes are the exception, because a prize is handed out once and taken home the same day, and that is where the plush and the fidgets on this page belong.