Mother's Day Writing Sample

Hello, friends!  Anita here from Primary "Teach"spiration.  I can't believe it's already May, but I love it!  The sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and mothers everywhere are awaiting that special day set aside just for them.  

In second grade, I've always saved this week, right before Mother's Day, for my students to work on a book dedicated to Mom or the special woman in their lives.  

So, today, for Sample Sunday, I'm excited to share with you a sample from my Mother's Day~Mom Is the Best writing activity for creating the Mother's Day book!  It is the last page of the book that sums up all the earlier pages. You can grab both a "Mom" version and a "blank in place of Mom" version by simply clicking one of the images below.

Throughout this writing activity, I include regular "Mom" pages, as well as versions with "blanks in place of Mom" for those who will make their books for a grandma, aunt, or some other special woman in their lives.

When I do the entire book with my students, I always have them work on it, page by page, each day.  The kids really enjoy making a special book for Mom, and it helps keep them focused as the year is winding down. But, the thing I love so much about it is that it also gives them another chance to practice main idea and supporting details!  Let me show you how the week usually goes:

First we brainstorm things that our moms are best at, like making us feel better, etc. Then they do a pre-writing worksheet like this. 

I do a mini review lesson on main idea and supporting details. The students choose 3-5 things from our brainstorming session as the main ideas that they will put on the worksheet. Then they must write 1-4 supporting details for each main idea.  Most of my students used two worksheets for this.  Others, however, only wrote a few main ideas and details.  So, as you can see, this is a great activity for differentiation.

The next step is to use the pre-writing worksheet to create our pages for the Mother's Day book.  I made several pages of this template for every student to use.  This is one of Emma's.

After each main idea with details are made into book pages, it is time for the final culminating page.  On this page, every main idea is listed to complete the sentence "My Mom is the best at....." and a colorful picture is drawn to show Mom how much she is loved.  This is Emma's final page, and it is the SAMPLE page you can snag above.

When all writing is done, students get a cover page to color (if you use the black and white version), and they can also color the other pages in the booklet.  See how Emma did hers.

That's it!  The book is stapled together, and the kids are excited to take it home to surprise Mom on Mother's Day!

If you're interested in the full Mother's Day writing packet, you can find it HERE.

Have a great May and Happy Mother's Day 

to all the mothers out there!

See you next time :)

Anita Keil (Primary "Teach"spiration)

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Mother's Day Bath Salts Gift

Hi, it's Hannah from The Classroom Key.  Welcome to Make-It Monday!  Today I've got an easy Mother's Day gift you can make with your students.  It's a cute little bag of bath salts with a fun bag topper you can print for free!

Here's what you need:

-Epsom salt (really cheap in the pharmacy section)
-snack size baggies
-food coloring
-extract (I used vanilla but other scents would work)






1.  Put about 1/2 cup of Epsom salt in a baggie.

 2.  Add some extract.  In the picture I'm using a pipette I borrowed from a science kit.  I put in about 10 drops.  You could also use a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon.

3.  Add about 5 drops of food coloring (or more if you're brave.  I was afraid of having moms turning crazy colors)

4.  Tightly seal the baggie and squeeze to mix the contents in your hands until the coloring is evenly distributed.

5.  Color and cut out the bag topper.

6.  Fold the bag topper in half.

7.  Staple it to the top of the bag.  Voila! A lovely Mother's Day gift.




Management tip: Probably the easiest way to carry out this activity is to have all students start with coloring and cutting their paper and while they're busy with this, call back a few students at a time to fill their baggies.

Click to grab the printable for FREE!