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 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 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 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!

 Copyright © 2003 by Kinderteacher.com All rights reserved.