Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together: Mother's Day!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Mother's Day!

We have started making some Mother's Day treasures in our room. I am extra lucky in my classroom, because my own mother comes in every day to work with children for an hour during our Literacy Center time. What a blessing! The only problem is that everyone wants to work with her and there isn't enough of her to go around. She can do so much RTI with the children one on one, or in small groups- and they just think they are having fun... Win- win! Thank you, mom! <3

Now- for the gifts! :)

First, I tried the picture of the child holding a flower for the card that I saw on Pinterest. I loved the idea. I had them laminated so they would last longer. I am not sure if this was a good idea or not. The paper may lay better with the flower poked through if it weren't laminated. I am happy the way they came out, though!

My kids love making and giving lots of little treasures, so I decided we would make mom a little treasure bag. I just had the children decorate a white lunch bag anyway they would like. Now, whenever we complete something, I just put it right in the bag so it will be all set for the moms!

One simple treasure is a bracelet with beads. This can be totally independent, is easy , and the children really feel like they created a special piece of jewelry when they are finished. I helped twist and form the bracelet after the beads were on.

Another fun treasure is our origami bookmark. My children love their bookmarks. We did this activity together at a small group center. I explained that origami was Japanese paper folding and we talked a little about where Japan was, just so the children had an idea. I had them follow the steps with me. The only really tricky one for some of them is the last step. The first step (choosing the most beautiful paper for your mom) helps them feel like it is going to be an easy activity to follow! When things got tricky, one of my little guys said, "One really important part of origami is that you never give up!" I couldn't have said it better. :)

Here are pictures of the steps:
1. I tell the children to put the paper in front of them in a diamond shape with the white side up and pretty side down. Then, take the bottom point and match that to the top point, and fold in the middle so it is a triangle.

2. Next, we take the lower right corner and fold that up to the top point. It helps if they put a finger in the middle of the bottom of the triangle, so they only fold to that point.

3. Do the same fold on the other corner. Make a smaller diamond.

4. Now, open up the folds, back to the bigger triangle. Have them notice that there are two layers. Fold the top layer back down to the bottom middle of the triangle like this:

5. This is the tricky part for some of them. Take the lower right corner and tuck it up and behind the middle part that is folded down to create a pocket.

6. Do the same on the other side.

7. Ta-da! This is the bookmark!

Here is a quick little Youtube tutorial that may be easier to follow. :) That is how I learned it originally:

(Except she puts the bookmark in the book the opposite way that I do. I have the triangle facing the page I am marking.)

You can also make them into monsters by adding eyes and teeth, or googly eyes. :) There are lots of ideas for that, too, like this:

Here is an awesome site I just found. We are going to try the Origami Heart bookmark. (I found it under the "Useful Origami" heading.) This site gives great step by step tutorials. My kids loved making origami, so I think we can work that into lots of fun things we do.

My kids were very focused! Once I showed them how to tuck in one corner, most of them got it. It was hard for some of them, but we did it together.