Mother's Day Ideas

For the past few years we have had a Mother's Day Tea to honor our all of our special moms.  It is a great deal of work in preparing for the special day, but we think it is worth it! 

We give the mother's plenty of notice and usually have almost a 100% turnout.  If someone is not able to attend, we have someone from our Day Care Center come to represent the missing mom.

We make an invitation using a teapot.  I don't have a sample at home, but will include later.  We send it out at least two weeks ahead of time.  We mention it in our newsletter even before the invitation goes home. 

                                                          Click on photos to enlarge.

We move our desks outside for the day and  borrow enough card tables for everyone to sit in "big people chairs!"  First, we covered the tables with purple, butcher paper cut to the same size as the tabletop.  I bought very inexpensive lace at Walmart and made the tablecloths with a simple hem.    We had a bud vase with fresh roses from our own gardens for each table. 

We used our large table for the punch bowl and served raspberry iced tea purchased at Smart and Final.  It comes in a very inexpensive concentrate and we mixed it with water.  It was a big hit!  We have our local bakery make special fancy butter cookies. 

Decorations
We start ahead of time in making these large flowers to hang from the ceiling.  With both classes making them, they are quite impressive.  We have to put some of them on bulletin boards around the room. 

These flowers will require adult help to make.  If you have older buddies, they could be a big help.  We helped the children fan fold 5-6 pieces of colored copy paper.  Construction paper is too heavy to cut through the layers so we used colored copy paper.  We round (or you can make them pointed) off the outside edge of each section and cut along the fold to make a design on the edges.  At the bottom of the fans,  punch a hole to thread a pipe cleaner through.   We glue the outside edges of the fans together.  We gather the fans tightly to make the circular pattern.   We glue a construction paper circle to both sides for the center of the flower.  A long, green stem and leaves are attached.  See close up of photo.  This is my sample and is a bit crumpled from storage. 

Mother's Day Cards

This idea was given to me by my friend, Kerry, from British Columbia.  We buy flower seeds when they are on sale at the dollar store.  The pattern for the body is copied on heavy, cardstock paper.  The children use crayon to draw the face, sleeves and the shoes on the body.  They glue the package of seeds on the front and attach yarn the color of mom's hair.  The heart was added to the front to cover the price of the seeds.  We give me each child a small piece of colored paper to write "Happy Mother's Day!"  This is attached to her hand.  They can also add a message on the back of the card. 

Another Mother's Day Card

This is another card that is made with the fold at the top of the card.  When it is opened it says:  WOW! 

Mother's Day Corsages

The corsages were made with a tootsie pop center, one stryofoam egg carton section and a coffee filter.  We used Coloration liquid watercolor to color the coffee filter in spring colors.  You can use food coloring or regular watercolor.  When dry, we started with the lollipop and pushed it through the center of the styrofoam egg carton section.  The section was  trimmed to look like a flower.  Then another hole was pushed through the center of the coffee filter.  You can use a hot glue gun (adults only!) to gather it all together and twist to make it look like a flower blossom.  Or, you can use floral tape and wrap around the back.  We hot glued a safety pin on the back of the corsages.

You can also use floral type printed tissue paper instead of the coffee filter to back the corsages.  We used a 10 inch circle of tissue paper and gathered it in.  These were made with the children almost one on one!  This year we used other kinds of lollipops for the center.  The green lollipops were Charms purchased at our local dollar store at Easter.  See photos below. 

Mother's Day Gifts

We make T-shirts for our Moms each year.  We ask the moms to send in a T-shirt or a long nightshirt for us to make her special shirt.  It is a little difficult to see the shirt in the picture.  We have a stencil for each child to sponge paint the center, leaf and stem.  We purchased the plastic sheet at Michael's to make the stencil.  You do have to be careful to wipe the stencil off each time after you use it to avoid getting paint in the wrong place.  They do this first and let it dry.  The next day we paint their hands with yellow paint and stamp their handprint around the brown center of the sunflower.  We use fabric paint.    After the handprints dry, we have each child sign his/her name on the bottom.  We write "You Are My Sunshine!" at the top or bottom of the shirt with a fabric paint type marker.   The moms love them! 

Mother's Day Gift Bag

Our gift bags are a little larger than a lunch bag size to hold the T-shirt.  We draw an oval shape on the bag for the children to make the face large enough.  They draw their mother's face and add their own decorations.  We punch holes in the top of the bag and they tie their ribbon into a bow. 

Mother's Day Book

This is not a very good example of the books that the children make for their mother's.  Ours sample isn't illustrated on the outside.  We order these books from barebooks.com.  We recommend that you purchase the vinyl covers to keep them clean.   There are about 15 pages (30 pages counting both sides) in each book.  We have the children write and illustrate a page a day about their mother.

These are some of the sample pages:

1.  Title Page    Children write "My Mother" by and add a small picture of mom's face.  They write Kindergarten and the date at the bottom of the page.

2. This is my mom.   They draw a whole body picture of mom on this page.

3. My mom has ____hair and ____eyes.  They write the color in the blanks and illustrate.

4.  She is ___ feet tall and weighs ____pounds.    They add what they think is correct--these are hilarious!  We all have a good laugh.

5.  My mom likes to __________. 

6.  My mom is happy when _________.

7.  My mom's favorite TV show is ________. 

8.  My mom is very smart.  She knows all about____.

9.  My mom likes to eat _____.

10.  It really bugs my mom when _________.

11.  If my mom could have one wish come true, it would be ______________.

12.  My mom is special because ________. 

Each of the pages are illustrated and are a real treasure for mom.

Mother's Day Card

I found this idea somewhere on the web and haven't done it, but it does sound cute! 

Attach a scrubber to the front of the folded card with a paper fastener.  Have the children draw a stem and leaves or you can have them cut construction paper for the flower. 

Poem: 
To make a Mother's Day fantastic
I made for you a flower of plastic
I give it to Mom with this special wish
May it help you scrub each pot and dish!

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