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Celebrating Mom! Gift Ideas for Mother's Day

Celebrating Mother's Day is always a special occasion! It becomes an even more spectacular event when we celebrate our moms at school!

Do you make a special gift for the mothers in your classroom? 

Do you host Muffins with Mom or a Mother's Day Tea? 

Are you in a frenzy because Mother's Day is just days away and you have absolutely no idea what your students will do for their moms?

No worries because here are a few of my favorite, tried and true Mother's Day gift ideas!

I've had my class create these gorgeous Oil Pastel Flowers the past several years. They always turn out so pretty and the moms really LOVE them! I usually buy the artist's canvas at Michael's or Hobby Lobby but this year I actually found them at the Dollar Tree! Isn't that amazing? 

I've used all different sizes but this year we decorated 5x7 pieces.  First, I have the kids practice drawing a big flower on a dry erase board.  This step helps them understand it needs to be a big drawing so they can fill in the inside of the flower. After we've practiced, they use a permanent marker to draw the flower  design on the canvas. Next, we use oil pastels to color the flower details. The final step is to add a background color. I've done this step with watercolors before but this year we used tempera paint with a few drops of water added to it. You want it to be a little thinner than usual but not runny. I can't wait for the mothers to get their Oil Pastel Flowers!

Perhaps the moms would like a fashionable Beaded Bracelet! Students can use the regular pony beads in your craft cabinet but if you want to splurge just a little, then look for a package of true jewelry beads. They are more polished and less plastic. Plus, they're available in spectacular colors. All the craft stores will have them but they can also be found on Amazon or from Oriental Trading. 

Every mom will get teary eyed when they open this Mother's Day gift! Snap a quick photo of each child in your class holding a bunch of colorful flowers (real or fake) and then put in a simple silver frame from the dollar store. It's easy and makes such a wonderful keepsake! One year I printed the photos in black & white and they were stunning!

Here's a practical but oh so cute Mother's Day idea...a Floral Tote Bag made by painting with real flowers! Even your youngest pupils can create this sweet gift. These were done by a class of two year olds! They dipped real pansies into trays of fabric paint and then printed on the canvas tote bag. Don't you know mom would love to carry this bag around while doing her errands?

If you've been saving a sampling of your students' art for the end of the year or to put in their portfolio, why not hang and display it for a Mother's Day Art Show!

Ask your class if mom is a good cook and then have them explain how she cooks their favorite dish. Write down the recipe word for word. Their responses will be quite entertaining! Some years I compile all the recipes into a Mother's Day Cookbook and other times the kids have crafted a Mother's Day Recipe Pot! The recipe pots are basic clay flower pots that have been painted with stripes of colorful tempera paint. After the paint dries, add a coat or two of Modge Podge to seal the paint and prevent chipping. A card featuring mom's recipe can be glued to a large craft stick and placed in the pot with a base of shredded paper to hold it in place. These will be displayed proudly in every mom's kitchen!

Here's a Mother's Day treasure that won't wither or wilt! You'll need a variety of spring flowers (from a garden center or the grocery store floral department), some clear contact paper, and cardstock/construction paper for each child to make a Mother's Day Suncatcher. 

Lay a small piece of contact paper on the table and have the student stick down flower petals of their choice. Once they've covered the contact paper with petals, add a frame made from cardstock or construction paper, and laminate. These flower petal Suncatchers can be hung in a window where mom will be reminded of her little one who made it especially for her!

I hope you found an idea you can use or some inspiration for your  class Mother's Day gifts!

10 Ideas for Earth Day

Make every day count with these Earth Day activities!

1. Earth Day Sensory Bin---Stock your sensory table with a filler and add plenty of blue and green manipulatives for center time fun! 

I used dried beans for the filler and then went crazy with the Earth Day theme. You'll find plastic milk jug lids, styrofoam egg cartons, measuring scoops, and even a miniature trashcan and recycling bin in this sensory table! 

2. Recycle Boy/Girl Art---Watch the imaginations unfold as your class makes a Recycled Boy or Girl using recycled materials!

The prep for this one is super easy, too! 

Simply cut a variety of shapes from old magazines, grocery store ads, and food packages and then grab crayons, scissors, and glue. That's it!

3. Dramatic Play Recycling Box---Bring Earth Day into your Homeliving Center with this Recycling Box! Students will love sorting things into the recycling box just like they see mom and dad do at home! My teacher friend, Melissa, covered a cardboard box with green bulletin board paper and added a recycling logo she found in Google images. She saved food boxes, plastic bottles, and cardboard tubes for her students to recycle as they played in the Dramatic Play kitchen area. What a great way to incorporate a practical experience for teaching youngsters about Earth Day!

4. Earth Day Books---I'm always on the lookout for good books to support my themes and I have accumulated a full shelf for Earth Day! I just wish we had time to read them ALL!

One of my all time favorite books is the Caldecott winner A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry. I read it in autumn as the leaves begin to change and again in the springtime when everything starts to turn green. 

5. Earth Day Fingerpainting---Get out the paints in shades of blues and greens for this one! 

6. Recycled Crayons---By the time Earth Day rolls around, your classroom crayon supply might be looking a little worn down. Take those old crayons and recycle them into beautiful new ones! Gather the green and blue crayons you want to recycle. Then, have your students peel off the old wrappers and break the crayons into smaller pieces. Place the broken pieces in a silicone muffin tray and bake at 225 degrees for 12-18 minutes. Check your oven often as the crayons are baking. Once they are melted, carefully remove the tray from the oven, allow the crayons to cool and harden, then pop the crayons out of the tray. Your new recycled colors will be a favorite in the art center! 

7. We Can't Live Without Worms---Be sure to teach your students that we really can't live without worms. Yes, they're wiggly and slimy but worms are also an integral part of our ecosystem. Earthworms help air and water go down under the ground. They break down organic matter and help to fertilize plants. Read a few of these wormy books to your class and help them understand why worms are wonderful!

8. Earth Day Handprint---You'll love this so much you'll want to keep it on display 'til the end of school! Cut a huge circle out of white bulletin board paper and have your students decorate it with their green and blue handprints! It makes an impressive door display while getting the point across that Every Day is Earth Day!

9. Go Take a Hike---Earth Day is the perfect time for a walk around your school campus or to a nearby park! Go slow, take your time, and enjoy the Earth! And while you're out and about, why don't you collect any trash you see?

10. Have a Reading Picnic---Pack a basket of your favorite Earth Day books instead of lunch and find a shady spot for a Reading Picnic! Your class will never forget the joy of taking school outside on Earth Day!

I remember celebrating Earth Day with my first class back in 1989. I hope some of the things we learned thirty years ago are good habits now. And I hope some of these activities I do next week with my little class will make an impact on them and on our Earth. 

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Ladybug Counting

Even folks who don't like bugs like ladybugs! And this Ladybug Counting activity will entice even those students who don't like math!

The best thing about Ladybug Counting is that you can differentiate the learning for each student. Whether you have some  students working on one to one correspondence, or numeral matching, or reading number words you'll be able to meet the needs of every child with this math activity. 

What do you need for Ladybug Counting?

• 10 red paper plates (I bought mine at Dollar Tree)
• Bag of dried Lima Beans (also can be found at Dollar Tree)
• Red Spray Paint
• Black Sharpie Marker
• Number Cards (you can use a set of flash cards or make your own using index cards)
• Number Word Cards

To make your ladybugs, spread the lima beans out on a piece of newspaper. Spray paint the beans on both sides allowing time to dry before you turn them over. Once the beans are dry, use a black Sharpie marker to draw the ladybug dots and faces.

I have had this set of ladybug beans for over 10 years and they are still holding up really well! 

By the way, I spray painted the whole bag so I would have plenty of counters for my class and I wouldn't worry if we lost a couple along the way. I have actually sent home baggies of ladybug bean counters with students who needed a little extra practice counting sets. Students love when I tell them they get to keep the ladybugs, too. So having extra ladybug counters is always beneficial!

Once I had the ladybugs, I made my dot plates. I took a one inch circle punch and cut out 55 circles (that gives you enough dots to represent numbers one to ten). I glued the dots onto the paper plates and then added a coat of Modge Podge to seal them down. The Modge Podge looks extra glossy in my photos but it's actually really smooth and clear. If you don't have a circle punch you could just draw black circles dots on the plates.

So if a student is working on one to one correspondence and counting dots, they use only the ladybug counters and the basic plate to match one ladybug to each black dot. 

Students who are practicing identifying numerals and counting a set used the dot plates, ladybugs, and the number cards/flash cards.

Those who are ready to start reading number words added the number word cards, as well. These cards are from an old bulletin board set I had on hand. 

Ladybug Counting is a great math activity when you're doing an insect study or spring theme.  I'm sure your class will love counting ladybug dots!

Insects Science Center

We're back from Spring Break and ready for our Insect study! 

I filled the Science Center with everything I own about insects! Come take a look!

The sensory table has dried green peas as a filler and lots of cute little plastic creatures. I added a tray so the kids can sort insects and get a fine motor workout with the tongs. There's a set of sturdy cardboard flashcards in the tub, too. I love including these real photographs for my students.

Gigantic, larger than life insects are available for students to observe with a magnifying glass. They can also use these as a model for drawing and sketching.

Books and puzzles are important in the Science Center. 

Students will sequence the life cycle of a butterfly with these hands on pieces. I also have cards showing this process in our pocket chart. 

Are you studying Insects this month? 

Mini Erasers Giveaway

Learning at the Teacher Table is giving away 3 sets of Spring Mini Erasers!

Click HERE to go to the Learning at the Teacher Table Facebook page. 

Just Like and Comment on the Facebook post to enter! 

It's that easy for a chance to WIN!

The Weather is Wonderful!

Spring is finally here and it's the perfect time to learn about Weather! 

During our Morning Meeting, we always assess the weather and pick the best word for our weather chart. I thought the kids would also enjoy keeping track of the weather when they're home so we made a Weather Wheel!

A cheap paper plate is the base of the Weather Wheel while a clothespin marks the day's weather. So simple but the kids absolutely love them!

To prep, draw lines on the plate dividing it into quarters. Have your students draw a weather picture in each section. We did the basics... sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy. Once the drawings are finished, punch a hole in the top, string a piece of yarn or pipe cleaner in it, and attach the clothespin.  That's it!

Our Sensory Table was filled with rainbow colored rice, huge snowballs, snowflake cookie cutters, sunny yellow pom poms, clear glass beads, and rainbow mini erasers. 

One of the highlights of weather week was making a Water Cycle Bracelet! After reading about rain and the water cycle, we took colored pony beads and sequenced them in order on a pipe cleaner to demonstrate the Water Cycle. You could also use yarn for the bracelets. 

White bead---the clouds collect tiny drops of water.

Blue bead---raindrops fall from the sky.

Brown bead---rain goes into lakes, rivers, oceans, the ground, and it makes puddles.

Yellow bead---the sun heats up the water.

Clear bead---tiny water droplets rise from the collected water. Some of it completely evaporates and some of the tiny drops are collected in clouds.

The water cycle begins again.

Not only is this a great visual for the students as they start to understand the Water Cycle, but parents absolutely love how much we're learning at school!

Does your class enjoy Write the Room activities? Mine does!

I made a colorful set of weather word cards and "hid" them all around the classroom. Students walked around, found the weather cards, and then wrote the word on their Write the Room recording sheet. I am working hard to get this Weather resource ready for you in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Another weather activity we made was this Weather Mobile! 

By the way, the Weather Mobile will also be included with the Write the Room activity in my TPT store! 

We made our Weather Mobiles during small groups at the Teacher Table but you could also have your students create them at morning Table Time. 

After students colored and cut the weather cards, they laced them on the mobile.  To prepare the mobile, I hole punched six holes along the bottom of a sentence strip. I also cut pipe cleaners in half to use to lace the weather cards. With a little modeling and step by step directions, my kids were able to lace their weather cards to hang down from the sentence strip. A little twist of the pipe cleaner ends secured the cards in place.  The best thing about using pipe cleaners instead of yarn is that it doesn't tangle!

Beautiful spring weather and lots of Learning at the Teacher Table made it a great week!