Books Teachers Love: T-Rex and the Mother's Day Hug

I’m so excited to share my May book sith you all because it is finally getting warmer and feeling like spring here in Wisconsin. My friends and I are sharing our favorite May Read Alouds to help inspire some great ideas for your lesson plans. Whether it’s life cycles, flowers, Mother’s day or something else, you are sure to find lots of great ideas here!

One of my favorite spring events in Kindergarten is our Muffins for Moms event, which means we spend a few weeks reading mother’s day books and preparing lots of fun gifts, writing and crafts to show moms (and other special women like grandmas, big sisters, aunts, etc.) how much we love and appreciate them. My book this month, T. Rex and the Mother’s Day Hug, by Lois Grambling is just right for discussing gift giving and finding a special meaningful way to show our love.

We start out by making predictions about the gift that T-Rex will give to mom. Then after reading we create this craftivity as a fun gift for mom! Sometimes I have them write about what their mom would be like as a dinosaur, and other years I just have students add the “Rawr!’ page for a sweet message.

I use this book along with other Mother’s Day books to talk about all of the things that moms would find really special to receive as a gift. Most of all I emphasize how telling mom how much you love her and really being thoughtful is the best present of all! At this point in the year, my kinders are becoming really great writers and Mother’s Day is a perfect opportunity for them to practice many different types of writing. We start with writing rebus stories about our favorite memories with mom.

We also review letter writing and write sweet letters to mom to glue inside personalized cards.

Finally my favorite writing of all is our thank you notes. First we brainstorm ideas together to get students thinking about non tangible things. (Giving me hugs when I fall down, watching movies with me when I am sick, playing outside with me and my friends, etc). Students then write 3 things they want to thank their mom for. I try to stress not thanking mom for buying toys/treats for them! They should be thanking mom for these too, but I think it is sweeter and makes students think more about the things they don’t thank their mom for everyday.