Mother's Day Ideas

Mother's Day is May 13th. That means it's time to start thinking about what we'll do for our moms this year instead of waiting until the last minute (you know who you are!). I try to mix things up instead of doing the same thing each year because I get so many siblings. Here are some of my favorites.

Fingerprint Flowerpots 

I love Ed Emberly's books and have found ways to use them throughout our curriculum (more on that in the future, promise), but this next idea is just for fun. We dip our fingerprints into colorful paint, let them dry, and then turn the fingerprints into cute little images. The bigger one is a keepsake from my first class of students, but it shows how the fingerprints were turned into faces. The smaller one is a Mother's Day example that was unfortunately broken along the way. It shows how the fingerprints can be turned into bugs and other critters. We write messages along the edges and then add tissue paper flowers (usually two). Mine are a little crushed from living in the closet, but they are really cute when they're all fluffy and new.

If you want to grab your own books, I'd love it if you used my links.

Tissue Paper Stained Glass Frames

In other years, I've made stained glass frames that look really pretty when hung in a window or on sliding glass doors. This one is even easier than the flower pots. You'll need clear contact paper, tissue paper scraps, popsicle sticks, and yarn or ribbon. I precut two pieces of contact paper the size of the popsicle frames for each student. Then students cut a large shape (usually a heart) out of tissue paper and stick it to the first piece of contact paper. After that, the fill up the rest of the contact paper with tissue paper scraps in different colors. When they're finished, they seal the design with the second piece of contact paper. This gets glued to the frame, and then I hot glue a ribbon or yarn loop for hanging. Sometimes I include the suction cups too.

Tissue Paper Butterflies

Here's another stained glass tissue paper project. I found the butterfly template in a teacher magazine, but any black and white lined image would work. Sometimes I even let students draw out their own designs when we have more time. Flowers are really cute ones to make. Using black construction paper, cut out the main design. On the back, cover the holes with tissue paper. I laminate them for durability. Sometimes we add bright pieces of paper on the front too, like the pink one for the butterfly's body. The rest of the pieces are tissue paper that sunlight will sign through.

Ladybug Cards

This one is just too sweet not to share. I found this template in a teacher magazine too. I have students write poems or thoughtful notes inside.

Foam Fun

Finally, when you're in a pinch you can never go wrong with foam stickers and shapes. My mother-in-law picked up really pretty glittery ones last year that I knew would be perfect for Mother's Day. I added my own foam craft stick frames and letters. Some students wrote names, others did "Mom" or "I love you." I took a picture of each student outside on our playground and hot glued it into the frame for them.

I have a few printable poems that I let students pick from for their moms too. You can grab them for free here. For more great Mother's Day ideas, click over to a linky party at Kinder-Craze. You can find even more spring ideas at Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives linky party.

 

This next part is just for bloggers. Have you seen the 5-Star Blogger Challenge taking place over at The Organized Classroom Blog? Charity Preston has challenged teacher-bloggers to reflect on their style of blogging. I know there have been mixed feelings about it and I debated adding this next part, but here it goes.

I like the tag posts because I enjoy getting to know the bloggers I follow personally as well as professionally. Why do I enjoy going to work every day? A lot of it has to do with the wonderful teachers I work beside. I have a personality and I'm going to let it show through my blog. However, I want mostly teaching content from my blogs and if we're tagging and awarding all the time, that's a problem. So, you will find posts like that here, but they're going to be few and far between.

Also, I love it when bloggers I follow give the scoop on awesome websites they've found or super ideas from other teachers I might have missed. That's all about promoting collaboration and sharing to me. It's also how I found new blogs to follow. However, I follow bloggers who personally appeal to me and I think it's hard to show yourself when you're pushing ideas you've found somewhere else most of the time. So, you will find posts here with other ideas and resources, but they aren't the primary focus of my blog. I personally don't consider Linky Parties as part of that because you're writing your own post, with your own ideas. I think the great thing about Linky Parties is that you're able to get a whole bunch of original ideas about the same topic.

I guess my point is... it's all about balance. I was happy to take the time to reflect on what I might be able to do to give even more content to my little community of teacher friends here. Please don't ever hesitate to let me know how you feel!