The week after Mother’s Day our class hosted an afternoon of fun activities for our mum! We wanted to spoil and pamper her at school in our classroom! It was such a special time, and we had some grandparents, a dad and young babies come along too.
The origin of this idea came from myself. For 32 years I was a local Girl Guide leader of 5–6-year-old girls and we celebrated our mums by inviting them into our unit meeting and doing fun things with them. So, I had this rather ‘rash thought’ that maybe we could do it at school too? Why ever not and what could possibly happen I thought to myself? After leadership said go ahead, I presented the idea to our cherubs, and they were so excited! They helped me brainstorm a list of activity ideas. We went through the list, and some ideas were ruled out due to safety or time issues (playing on the playground/movie/dressing up). That left us with some fun activities to do with our mum.
So, we all spent over an hour with our mum choosing which activities they’d like to do. They chose from pampering (hand soak in cold, soapy water with rose petals), painting pictures, book making, drawing, bracelet making with beads and pipe cleaners and potting a seedling to take home. We finished off with a singing session! Judging by the many photos taken, everyone involved had such a special time with their loved one and created many happy memories together.
I certainly did as my mum and aunty attended too! HUGE THANKS to the families of our class for supporting this with getting time off work or changing family arrangements so you could be there for your child. Grateful thanks go to Jackie Patterson, my co-teacher, for coming in on her day off to join in, take photos and support with cleaning up too. Special mention to Florence’s mum for bringing in rose petals from her Nanna’s rosebush to add to our pampering activity …. how special!
Hmm, maybe I could do this again with my class next year??
Jennie Hesling, Early Years Teacher
