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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
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:
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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