3 Easy Mother's Day Gifts!

Hello, everyone! I am Beth from Adventures of a Schoolmarm. I am so excited to be a part of this collaborative blog. We have some great things in store for you! :)

I am a planner by nature.  I am also a procrastinator. In other words, I start thinking about things waaaaay in advance, but then I wait until the last minute to actually get it done. It's an interesting dichotomy! Is anyone else like this? Anyone? Bueller?

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It's never too early to plan ahead for how you want to handle upcoming holidays in the classroom... like Mother's Day! It's important to be sensitive to your children's needs. Not every child will have a mother in his or her life, but I sincerely believe that every child has at least one caring adult female that has made an impact. I always treat Mother's Day as a time to focus on the great women in our lives that make us feel loved and cherished, no matter what their "official" title is.  Here are THREE of my favorite gifts to make with my students to celebrate their mothers... plus a FREEBIE!

If I have a little extra money to spend on classroom crafts, this is one of my favorite gifts for students to make for their mothers. We start by decorating the pots with our crayons. Afterwards, we plant fresh flowers in the pots. An easy tip to make this less messy is to put all of the dirt inside of a dish tub (pictured below). There are a lot of variations you could do with this idea, including growing plants from seeds if you really plan ahead! :) 

I mean, what mom wouldn't love a T-Rex trying to eat a Triceratops on her flower pot?!

This card is great to give in addition to any of the gifts that you might have the students make for their mothers. The most important tip for this card is the the thumb and pointer finger MUST overlap the fold so that the pieces will stay together after cutting out the hand. You can read a more detailed description of how to create this card here.

This is one of my students' favorite crafts to make for Mother's Day... paper flower bouquets! There are a lot of really great ideas out there for how to make bouquets out of paper, but this is my favorite. It is really easy and makes beautiful flowers. All you need is construction paper, pipe cleaners, scissors, a hand-held hole puncher, and glue. 

I usually make a template of hearts and copy it on bright card stock, but you could also have the students draw their own hearts. I also cut out circles for the center of the flower. Students glue four heart tips to the center circle, then let it dry. Afterwards, they can use my hole puncher to punch a hole in the center of the circle. Lastly, they will push the pipe cleaner through the center, then twist it into a little ball on either side of the flower to hold it in place. They can also add extra little embellishments with other pipe cleaners. You can even have them make little "vases" out of old toilet paper rolls if you so choose. Aren't these CUTE?!

I usually like to have my students accompany their gifts with something thoughtful they have written to their mothers.  This mini book will be perfect for intermediate students. It features an all blackline design for easy photocopying. Students will only need to fold twice to create their mini book. I like to have my students also create an original cover that they make out of construction paper. To download this FREEBIE, click on the picture below! Enjoy! 

Giveaway Winners...

We promised today would be the day we announced our giveaway winners, so here they are!

Congrats, ladies! You should receive an email from us sometime today. If you don't hear from us, email us at classroomtestedresources@gmail.com!