Happy Mother’s Day

On Sunday 8th of May, Australia and New Zealand will be celebrating Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day gives us a day to reflect and show our love and appreciation to the women that have played a significant role in our lives. In this blog, we look at the ways we can celebrate this special day in the school library.  

Mother’s day library display

Showcase your collection with a Mother’s Day Library display! With so many great stories about Mums, and a significant number of diverse books about families, this is a great opportunity to display a collection that celebrates the women who have played a significant role in our lives.  

Don’t stop at showcasing just books, make your Mother’s Day displays pop with these easy to make flowers from Krokotak to create a fun and engaging display in your library!  

Library lesson activities

Write a poem

Help students to express their appreciation with an original poem. With there being many forms of poetry, whether it be a haiku, freeform, or any other style of poetry, this is not only an engaging way for students to celebrate their mothers, but also an opportunity to explore language. When the students have written their poems, why not encourage them to read them aloud to their class!  

Read Mother’s Day books

What better way to celebrate our mothers then to spend some quality time with them enjoying a good book? We’ve put together a list of books that are perfect for Mother’s Day reading!  

Does a Kangaroo have a mother, too?

New York Times bestselling author, Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), answers the question – Does a Kangaroo have a mother, too? 

This warm and approachable book with bright, vibrate illustrations, answers a curious children who often wonder whether animals such as kangaroos, lions and sharks have mothers too. 


 

How Maui Found His Mother

New Zealand Author Peter Gossage has written and illustrated a book about the beloved Māori myth that follows Maui’s discovery of his mother.

After being found washed up on a beach as a baby, Maui is raised by his powerful uncle, but is bothered by not knowing his mother. Tired of not knowing, Maui sets out on a quest to find her. 

Mother’s Day

Laurence Fearnley (Edwin and Matilda), recognized as one of New Zealand’s finest writers, tells the heart-warming story of a Maggie, a solo mother who works as a caregiver and is having a hard time raising her three children. 

Tragedy strikes, and Maggie and her family gather for Mother’s Day. 





 

Just Like My Mummy

Author David Melling (Hugless Douglas) introduces us to a cute little lion cub and his mother. This humorous picture book explores the unique and loving relationship of a child and their mother.  

“If I hurt myself, or argue with someone, or get upset… my mum makes me feel better.”



 

My Mum Says the Strangest Things  

Mum’s just say the strangest things, don’t they? This book from author Katrina Germein (My Dad Thinks He’s Funny), explores all of the strange idioms that our mothers tend to use on a day-to-day basis.  

She says, “Stop running around like a headless chook. You’re driving me round the bend.”

 

Make mini books

Get out the ribbon and crayons and get started on your own Mother’s Day mini books! Reflect on some of your favourite memories with your mother or use your book to tell your mother why you love them so much! This fun and simple activity allows for creative minds to run free!  

For more great ideas, check out this blog from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

More Mother’s Day reading

There are so many great books about Mothers we couldn’t fit them all in this blog! Here are some curated lists of Mother’s Day books that we found online.  

Abby The Librarian has put together a list of the top ten picture books for Mother’s Day while Here Wee Read has named their top twenty-five! If that’s not enough, head over to Colours of Us where they have selected over 40 of their favourite multicultural children’s books about mothers.  

Customise your Oliver homepage

If you’re an Oliver user, you can customise your homepage to create a virtual library display. Perhaps you could create a carousel or booklist featuring Mother’s Day titles. Maybe you could run a competition to encourage students to provide a review or star rating on the featured books or embed a video featuring students sharing messages (or their original Mother’s Day poems).

We hope these ideas inspire you and we would like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers in Australia and New Zealand for Sunday 8 May.  

Further reading: 

• Softlink Europe have announced the Library Impact Prize, created to celebrate and reward the efforts of students in Europe who have had positive influence, or experiences, within their schools’ library.  
• We've put together some fun activities, videos and lesson plans to help you celebrate Roald Dahl Day! 
• Are you taking advantage of all the features in Oliver v5 to engage your students? In this blog, we provide a few ideas for you to try. 
  
  Editor’s note: This post was originally published March 2022 and has been updated for freshness, relevance, and accuracy in April 2022.