6 Mother’s Day Activities for Students

Mother’s Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Since then, on the second Sunday in May, we take time to remember, celebrate, and thank the mothers and mother figures in our lives for what they do for us all year. 

You can use these Mother’s Day activities for students in your classroom to help them learn about and prepare for the holiday, and create gifts for the special women in their lives.

• Mother’s Day ELA classroom activities
• Mother’s Day science classroom activities

[Mother’s Day ELA classroom activities](id-ela)

Get students thinking about the roles of mothers and mother figures in their lives with ELA content and activities:

Discover Amy Tan’s take on mother-daughter relationships

Explore the nuances of mother-daughter relationships with texts from author Amy Tan. With this lesson, you can:

• Help students build background knowledge about Tan and her works.
• Assign the original, full-text versions of Tan’s stories “Mother Tongue” and “Fish Cheeks.”
• Use a T-Chart worksheet to have students compare feelings discussed in the texts with quotes and other evidence that supports their observations.

Use “A Chair for My Mother” to create multilingual lessons

Make your Mother’s Day lessons more accessible for multilingual learners using the story “A Chair for My Mother” by Vera B. Williams. Scaffold different aspects of reading and activities with supports like:

• Six relevant, real-world texts available in both English and Spanish to help students build background knowledge about story themes in two languages.
• Language cues to help students respond to the texts, such as elaborating on a topic or challenging a claim, and stretch their language use.
• Additional teacher resources for scaffolding all lesson parts, like reading, responding to the text, and interpreting and constructing meaning from texts.

Teach students how to write thank you notes

Have students acknowledge the mother figures in their lives and practice their writing skills simultaneously. Use this lesson to:

• Share an interactive video with students about how family dynamics are similar and different worldwide.
• Teach students how to write a thank you note and why writing them improves interpersonal relationships and communication.
• Encourage students to write a thank you note to a mother figure in their lives to use as a sentimental present for Mother’s Day.

Share Mother’s Day novel studies

Mother figures may look different in every family. Use these novel studies to explore some types of mother-child relationships:

• Aunt: “Before We Were Free” by Julia Alvarez
• Grandmother: “Walk Two Moons” by Sharon Creech
• Adoptive mother: “Matilda” by Roald Dahl
• Deceased mother: “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo
• Biological, married mother: “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle
• Stepmother: “Sarah, Plain and Tall” by Patricia McLachlan
• Biological, single mother: “Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan

[Mother’s Day science classroom activities](id-sci)

Get crafty with STEAM and learn about the mothers of the animal kingdom with Mother’s Day-themed science activities:

Make Mother’s Day bath fizzers

Help students create some of their Mother’s Day gifts in science class! With a seasonal STEAM activity, students can:

• Learn what a chemical reaction and its outcomes are, like creating a chemical change.
• Discover what a chemical change is, how to recognize one, and the three chemical changes that occur.
• Use the information they learned to make bath fizzers for the moms and mom figures in their lives that they can give as Mother’s Day gifts.

Discover mothers’ roles in the animal kingdom

Moms and other strong female leaders exist in the animal kingdom, too! Help students explore female roles in other species with resources on topics like:

• How lion prides are considered matrilineal societies because the females keep the core group together.
• Why a great white shark named “Nukumi” that lives off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earned the name “the queen of the ocean.”
• How sequencing the genome of seahorses helped scientists discover more about their makeup and what role the females of the species play if the males carry the babies.

What holiday will you teach about next?

Mother’s Day is one of many holidays you can explore with your students throughout the school year. With Newsela's subject products, you can access over 15,000 pieces of relevant, real-world content to pair with any seasonal lesson you can plan. 

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