"Five Minutes Peace" Mother's Day Activities for Preschool Children: Including a Song, Craft and Gift

"Five Minutes Peace" Mother's Day Activities for Preschool Children:  Including a Song, Craft and Gift
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The Perfect Mother’s Day Book

Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy is the perfect book to start your Mother’s Day activities for prekindergarten children. What makes this book great is its believability and one moms and children alike can relate to. The story is about a mom (Mrs. Large) who needs a five minute break from her children. Any mom will find this book to tickle her funny bone with the typical chaos that occurs with children in the house. Children can relate to the story as they like to be “under mom’s feet.”

Teaching with Five Minutes Peace:

While reading this children’s book, be sure to take notice of the humorous pictures. They depict the scene well. Ask the prekindergarten students what is happening on the pages to engage them with the text. Ask the children if they have done any of the parts in the story. Ask the students to describe what Mrs. Large wanted and why.

Let’s focus the rest of these activities on learning a song, learning to spell mommy, making Mother’s Day gifts for mom and pulling it all together for a Mother’s day party.

Learn a Mother’s Day Song

Mother’s Day activities would be incomplete without a song. Teach your prekindergarten children this song, which relates to the theme of the Five Minutes Peace book.

Thank You Mom, by Laurie Patsalides (sung to the tune of Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star)

Mom Hug

Mommy, mommy I love you

Thank you mom for all you do

Mommy works so hard each day

Helps me grow in every way

Mommy, mommy I love you

Here’s a hug for all you do.

If desired, download the picture on the right, blow it up on a copy machine and have each student color one.

Use the American Sign Language website to learn the words in sign language to perform with the song. I love you, work, thank you, grow, and hug can be easily incorporated into the song. After singing the song, ask the children what their mom’s do for them. Jot down what they say and display it on chart paper.

Mommy and Me Posters

While moms certainly appreciate alone time, the truth is, they enjoy spending time with their children. Validate this special relationship with this activity. It’s a great prekindergarten activity to teach students to spell. Ask parents for a photograph of mommy and me. This can be a picture of mom, grandma or caregiver with the student.

You will need:

  • Photograph of mommy (or caregiver) and child
  • Card stock
  • Glue sticks and/or photo adhesive tape
  • Decorating materials- crayons, markers and sequins
  • M-O-M-M-Y download (click the link to start the download)

Give students the five letters in the word mommy. Have the students cut (if possible) and glue the squares on to a poster. Have the students glue or tape the photograph to the poster. (Modify for grandma or the female caregiver’s name). Have the student print his or her name on the bottom of the poster. If possible, laminate the posters to preserve them.

Have the students decorate their mommy and me posters. Reinforce the spelling practice by counting the number of letters in the word mommy and their own names by spelling aloud together.

Make Bath Salts as a Gift

To relate to the book, Five Minutes Peace, make bath salts with the students to give mom a gift. Be cautious when working with salts with children to make sure they do not ingest the ingredients and wash hands properly.

Collect large baby food jars, remove labels, then wash and dry thoroughly. Parents will likely be happy to donate them. You will need one jar per student. Improvise with small gift boxes available through the Oriental Trading Company (one per child) lined with a small baggie.

Bath Salt Recipe:

  • 1 cup Epsom salt

    Bath Salt Photo

  • ¼ cup sea salt

  • 3 Tbsp baking soda

  • Food coloring–add drops until color changes

  • 1-3 drops of essential oils–scent is your choice. These are available at vitamin stores and even local pharmacies carry tea-tree oil.

  • Stickers

  • Ribbon tied around each baby food jar

  • Printed computer labels (optional)

Stir the mixture vigorously until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Have the students fill the jars and tightly close the lid. Print the student’s name on the bottom, or for an added touch, print your own labels on the computer for each jar. Have the children decorate their jars with pretty stickers.

Download the <strong>free template for Bubble Bath Coupon</strong>. To personalize the gift, have the student’s cut the coupons out if they can and/or print their name on each coupon. Place the coupons inside of a homemade card for mom with the bath salt gift.

Finishing Off- Make it a Day!

Pull these Mother’s Day activities for prekindergarten children together by throwing a Mother’s Day party at school. Display the Mommy and Me posters and the chart of what mommy does for me. On the day of the gathering, begin the celebration by reading the book, Five Minutes Peace to the attendees. Have the students sing the song and present the guests with their gifts. Include muffins, juice and fruit for a light snack.

These Mother’s Day activities are sure to be a hit, but most especially, by tying in the book, Five Minutes Peace, prekindergarten children will appreciate their moms while teachers use the activities for instructional purposes.

References

Activities planned by author.

All Free Crafts, Bath Salt Recipe (modified): https://www.allfreecrafts.com/giftinajar/bath-salts.shtml

Murphy, J., Five Minutes Peace. Putnam Juvenile (1999).

Image: Public Domain, https://www.wpclipart.com/people/family/mother/mom_hug.png.html

Image: Public Domain, https://themarlowebookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/05/five-minutes-peace.html

Image: Public Domain, https://0.tqn.com/d/candleandsoap/1/0/K/T/IMG_0645.jpg