Mother's Day Gifts
Help children appreciate their Mothers
Say thank you to Mom
Help your students send their Mothers a message of love with simple Mother's Day gifts. Mothers appreciate personalized cards made by their children, especially when they get thanks for all the monotonous chores they do day after day.
Mother's Day is a great opportunity for students to brainstorm the many things that their Moms do for them. List their contributions in the pocket chart with printed frame sentences. Ann is thankful her mom..., Stephen is thankful that his mom..., etcetera.
Remember that not all children in your class have mothers or live with their mothers and be prepared with a few sentence strips that work for the children, "is thankful that his aunt (or her gramma)".
Have the children draw a picture to illustrate their sentence and pop it in the pocket chart. Have each child read their sentence strip and repeat the process for a few days using the sentences to point out letters and sounds that you may be teaching.
At the end of the week, have the students glue the pictures on to the strips, fold in half, then decorate the outside for instant cards.
Mother's Day Tea bag Card
I am not sure where this Mother's Day gift and card idea originated but it was a favorite one with my students.
Purchase enough tea bags (the type that are individually packaged with strings and tags) for the class. Photocopy the basic teapot shape on to colored construction paper and have the children draw the handle and spout and then decorate the card. 
Ask a father (give the mothers a break) helper to make a small cut under the lid and help each child insert the tag and string through the slit. The tea bag sits inside the card.
Let the students choose a Mother's Day sticker to hold the tea bag in place and then print their name. Those who are able can copy or sound out sentences or words.
Mother's Day Gifts - coffee filter pencil flower
- Purchase a pack of round coffee filters and a pretty pencil for each student
- Set out three bowls of food coloring and water
- Have the students fold two coffee filters (it doesn't really matter how)
- Clip a clothespin to the folded coffee filters and let students dip them into bowls (prevents colored fingers!)
- Unclip the drippy coffee filters and drop on a piece of wax paper to dry (have names on the wax paper)
- When dry scrunch the colored filters around the pencil and tape to make a cheerful Mother's Day gift.
Mother's Day Gifts - My love grows and grows card
This is a fun card that can be changed in many ways. The children love the way it unfolds to make a longer and longer flower stem.
One of my students cut the middle section of the stem and added a longer strip of paper to make his stem really, really long. Some of the children like to glue petals on to the card. Others like to decorate the pot with stickers or bits of colored papers.
Draw two flower pots and tall flowers on a piece of legal size paper - Photocopy, cut in half lengthwise and give one to each student. Have students color the flowers and print their names on the pots.
- If you want, have the students glue a photo of themselves to the center of the flower
- Accordion fold the cards into 4 sections
- This is optional but you can glue a rectangle of colored construction paper to the top and bottom folds of the card.
- When mom opens the card it keeps growing longer and longer
Mother's Day Gifts - Books
Ann Rockwell is one of my favorite picture book authors. In this story, each child in Mrs. Madoff's class knows how to celebrate Mother's Day.
Jessica and her mom go hiking together. Sam helps pick out a new kitchen table. Sarah and her dad take Grandma to her favorite restaurant. And when a surprise visitor comes to class, the kids learn how to make a handmade gift.
Mother's Day is available from Amazon.com
is one of my favorite stories, now only available in hardback or 2nd hand. A wonderful Mother's Day read. 
