Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and I have been looking for some writing activities to do with my gifted Kinders and Firsts. I found several great ideas, and thought I should share them with you in case you are looking, too!
Two of the lessons are from one of my favorite gifted teacher bloggers, Joelle Trayers. She teaches gifted Kinders this year, and always has incredible examples of ways to draw out the creativity of her students. One of her past Mother’s Day projects was to have the students do GT Frames about their moms. Using 4 of the icons from Kaplan’s Depth and Complexity, Joelle has her students write about their moms using: Unanswered Questions, Rules, Multiple Perspectives, and Big Idea. You can see some great student products here. For a second (and just as adorable) project suggestion, check out the Top 10 Lists Joelle’s students made about their moms. Construction paper mother portraits make this completely frame-able!
A brief Google search turned up April Walker’s Mother’s Day lesson based on the book, I Love You the Purplest. After reading the book, where a mom uses colors to describe her children when they demand to know who she loves best, students write color poems about their moms. You can see some student examples here. I’m thinking it would be fun to have the students use some unusual color words like “chartreuse” or “vermilion” just to add a bit of extra challenge.
While searching my own blog I found an activity I recommended to myself to do – 4 years ago. Apparently, I found a cute printable celebrating how moms “wear many hats,” and suggested it would be fun to have students think of how their moms do many different jobs. Their mom could wear a fireman’s hat, a chef’s hat, an artist’s hat, etc… This is one reason I blog, so I can record ideas for the following year. Of course, it would probably help if I actually looked at my previous posts a little bit more frequently than every four years.
Now I have a plethora of ideas for Mother’s Day. It’s good that I teach more than one grade level because I’m inspired to try out each one!
Thank you Terri! I actually forgot about those Top 10 lists myself-I may have to do that with my own kiddos this year! Thank you for including me in your post and for sharing your ideas. I am going to check out I Love You the Purplest.