Inspiration from the Blogosphere - Mothers' Day

In my classroom, I don't plan a lot of crafts. Now that word is tossed around and defined in a lot of different ways. I think of a "craft" as an activity (usually using art materials) that focuses on an end product - the goal is usually producing a particular something.

Most of my art explorations are more focused on exploring the materials or exploring ideas. I may have a particular goal when putting out materials. (We will make a book, etc.) But the kids can use the materials in ways that they choose - following their own ideas as they work.

However, Mothers' Day is one of those times when we shift more to "making something." Our traditional activity is making a magnet. We use cardboard shapes and sticky gems to create. The kids can still explore their own ideas, but they are excited about making something for Mom.

Here are some links for other ideas of "somethings" that your kids could make--

Mother's Day Gifts with Sticky Paper (Pre-K Pages) - Make a bookmark or a suncatcher.

Felt Shape Flowers (B-Inspired Mama) - Practice shape and "build" flowers.

Simple Printed Mother's Day Card (Rainy Day Mum) - Repurpose a plastic bottle to make a flowered card.

Planting for Mother's Day (Teach Preschool) - Plant some real flowers for a springtime gift.

Mother's Day Gifts Kids Can Make (Pre-K Pages) - A roundup of lots of ideas for kids and moms

What other ideas are your favorites for Mothers' Day?

It's Mothers Day

How did you celebrate Mother's Day? We made special magnets for our mothers.

Our mothers are all special and different and so are our magnets.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom in Texas. I love you!

Mothers Day

For Mother's Day, we were going to make fancy cards. I went into a local craft store and struck it lucky. I found glittered foam stickers on sale. And self-adhesive gems, too. I bought a lot! Then I found some great butterfly shapes and decided we would make fancy butterfly magnets for moms. 


The kids really enjoyed working with these "new" materials. The butterflies were very fancy and gilttery.


And I received additional confirmation that I am NOT a prophet. I wondered if the activity would be too "girly" for the boys to enjoy. It was for Mom, so girly is expected. But I did wonder if they would just do something quickly and move on to other things. Especially since my boys usually don't spend a lot of time in the art center.


But the boys--the ones that were there--spent the most time with the activity. They were very particular in how they used the materials, placing each item in just the right place. The boys used most of the gems. Such concentration and effort. 

Such wonderful results.

And, of course, it was for MOM! 


(I'm going to quit trying to predict anything.)