Celebrate Mother’s Day with the National Inventors Hall of Fame

It’s often said that parenting is the toughest job in the world. And we all know that over the past year, it’s been especially challenging. Parents have had to become creative innovators, turning homes into classrooms where their families could create new ways to learn together, and they’ve done it all while showing kids how to be responsible and resilient to overcome obstacles.

So this Mother’s Day, we should all give an extra special thanks to the amazing moms in our lives and let them know what an incredible job they’ve been doing! To help you say thanks to a special mother in your life, we invite you to adapt the activities below for Mother’s Day and help her children create something she’ll love.

Create a Homemade Card

Brighten any mother’s day by helping children create a homemade light-up card. Taking two pieces of cardstock or construction paper, have kids fold the pieces of paper in half. Next, encourage them to create a design that would be enhanced by a small light on the front. Taking an LED, place one exposed wire from the LED on one side of a coin or AA battery and place the other wire on the opposite side. Using tape to secure the wires in place, and another piece of cardstock to cover the battery, the LED can now appear on the front of the card after poking a small hole through the paper.

With the card’s design complete, encourage children to write a heartfelt message about how much their mom means to them. They could list different things they are grateful for and explain why she brightens their lives.

Give a Comic Surprise

Adapt this activity by creating a comic book that depicts the many things a mother does each day. First, encourage kids to make a list of reasons why they are grateful for their mother. Have them decide which of the items on this list they would like to draw. Next, use a ruler to draw boxes of a few different sizes on a sheet of paper. Children can number each box and then draw a picture representing something on their list in each one.

Tell a story by having children draw different scenes in sequential order. Perhaps this could depict the different things their mother does from morning to night. It could represent the many qualities that make her amazing, or include their favorite activities they’ve done with their mom.

Thank You!

The National Inventors Hall of Fame^® would like to thank and commend all mothers for their extraordinary strength and continued support of the little innovators in their lives.

For more activities and ideas for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fun at home, we invite you to visit our blog