Easy Mother’s Day Bookmark Gifts
Are you looking for an easy Mother’s Day gift that your kindergarten class can make? There are so many great ideas for this celebration, however often the crafts and activities involve a lot of preparation, a lot of photocopying (and at the end of the year photocopying allocations are certainly scarce!) or a lot of money. For the last few years, I have been making these easy Mother’s Day bookmark gifts with my kinders and I really love how easy they are to set up. There is minimal prep and the children can do the majority of the activity with minimal teacher assistance.
What you need:
- white construction paper
- colored cardboard – I used pink and purple but any colors will work.
- fancy scissors (regular scissors will be fine, but the zig-zag scissors make them look great)
- glue
- ribbon
Additional Items:
You can decorate your bookmarks in so many ways. For ours we used:
- adhesive jewels
- flower and butterfly stickers
- letter sponges and poster paint
- beads
- colored construction paper to tear (this is a great way to use up any scrap paper)
Teacher Prep:
I like to pre-cut the white construction paper for my kinders as many can find this tricky, but if your kinders are capable then you can let them do this part on their own. When I set up this activity I put the different items (jewels, stickers etc) on different tables along with an example and let the children choose which bookmark they would like to make. I also like to have another table with a variety of art & craft supplies to encourage them to create their own bookmark.
How we made them!
- Pre-cut the white paper into a long rectangle. If you have zig-zag scissors these look best.
- Have the children choose how they are going to decorate their bookmarks.
- Once they have decorated the white bookmark, help the child to glue it onto the colored cardboard, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edges.
- Cut out the cardboard to create a border.
- Using a hole punch, have the child punch a hole in the top of their bookmark
- Tie some ribbon, or some beaded ribbon onto the top of the bookmark.
Jeweled Mother’s Day Bookmarks
For these bookmarks, I like to use the adhesive jewels as the children find them much easier to use. If these aren’t available regular jewels and quality craft glue will also work. This is always a popular choice so I recommend limiting the number of jewels that each student can use or you’ll find that one child will use them all!
Stickers Mother’s Day Bookmarks
I’ve yet to meet a child that doesn’t love stickers and they are a great independent activity. I normally choose whatever stickers are cheap at the time – these ones were $2 and would easily be enough for the whole class to complete one. For children who struggle with fine motor skills, the larger foam stickers would be more appropriate.
Ripped Paper Mother’s Day Bookmark
Ripping paper is a great fine motor activity and a great way to use up the scrap bits of paper from the year. I really encourage the children to rip the paper themselves for this one rather than doing it for them. Once the paper is ripped they can glue it onto the white paper in whatever manner they please!
Sponge Paint Stamping Mother’s Day Bookmark
I’m sure most of you will have some form of letter stamps in your classroom. For this one we used sponge letter stamps and poster paint, but stamps and ink would work just as well. We added beads to our ribbon on this one. If your children are having trouble threading them, try using larger beads and chenille stems instead.
I hope you enjoy making these easy and fun Mother’s Day bookmarks this year. We would love to see what you make, so make sure you share your finished products in the Simply Kinder Facebook Group.
A fun Mother’s Day Craft for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students. You can pick whether they do the Mother’s Day Craft, or Mother’s Day Directed Drawing to go in the center to the O. Click here to check it out.