Mother’s Day crafts can get pricey and be time-consuming for many teachers. Not to mention the glue, glitter, and chaos that sometimes accompanies it!
I prefer to try something different when possible, and preferably something that does not involve the art supplies!
As I was trying to think up something that kids would enjoy creating, and something that I would enjoy receiving – I thought of using Wordle to make customized word art, but since that site is no longer up and running, I found WordArt that works just the same!
It seems like every year I was always trying to think of something cute, yet educational-based for my third grade students to create as a nice Mother’s Day gift for their favorite caregivers.
The project needed to be easy (as in not take up a ton of time as the school year was quickly ending), but at the same time I wanted something more thoughtful than a handmade construction paper card.
Luckily, I finally found something that involved learning (hello, adjectives and language arts!), was a fun printable, didn’t cost much to create, and didn’t involve glitter in any way, shape, or form. Once I found something that was perfect, I knew I had a clear winning idea to use year after year.
What is Word Art?
It is is nothing more than a word art generator that displays a word collage of words you input into the word picture creator.
Most are free and you can find examples and a free download template below, so make sure to keep reading until the end.
Typically the user writes down answers to a question, such as “What qualities describe my favorite animal? or food? or person? or place?” A students or teacher will then import all the words into the word map maker and it creates a fun collage of the words, with the most often words appearing larger within the image.
By using adjectives that describe someone specifically, the gift is super personalized and will definitely mean so much more to the recipient.
How to Make a Word Art Mother’s Day Craft
It is super easy to create a word cloud from using words that describe Mom (or whoever the primary caregiver is).
If you are a homeschool parent, make sure to “swap” out kids for a day with another homeschool family to create Mother’s Day gifts. Don’t tell the other parent what their kids are going to make. They will be so surprised and delighted when they open this customized present!
For me, one of the best parts of this project is that the students get to come up with whatever adjectives they think describe their mom (or caregiver) the best.
And then from there, you can expand out to include other synonyms by using reference materials (which is always a handy skill).
Students are the creativity behind the words and the design. That part will be the most fun!
Here is a Word Art Worksheet for Mother’s Day Classroom Craft Idea Template for students or parents to use – hopefully that will make things a little more organized in your classroom as the students are brainstorming ideas.
Have the kids write down 20 words that describe the person they wish to honor for Mother’s Day. The FIRST word should be the title of the person you are describing. For example, Mom, Mother, Grandma, Auntie, Uncle, Brother, etc.
Head to Word Art to create your free word cloud. Add in your words to the online spreadsheet and then change the “size” of the word to the number in parentheses on this worksheet.
Feel free to customize the shape, fonts, layout, and style for your project. Download the image file when complete.
Print, cut, and mount on black foam board with student name, date, and grade level on the back. Wrap gift and take home!
Make sure to grab this project planner worksheet for the students to prep their words.
Other Gift Ideas Using Word Cloud Generators
You can also use other word cloud generators to create similar projects. Each alternative has it’s own pros and cons, so you should experiment with a few of the following to find the online website that meets your needs best! Make sure to check out:
- Tagxedo: This site is geared more towards online bloggers or technology users as the data for the word clouds are pulled from blog post tags or even Twitter posts.
It can also work with poems, short stories, or other works of writing, which would be something fun for a creative writing project in the classroom too!
- Tagul (also WordArt): This one allows you to pick your own colors, upload your own shapes, and really get creative. This one is not a free option though, so keep that in mind when choosing the best platform for your student projects.
Check out some other fun word cloud gift ideas!
Look at these adorable dolphin bookmarks! So thoughtful even though each one is not personalized, it makes a wonderful end of the school year gift for sure!
More bookmarks, but this example is personalized for each child, which I love. Plus, they are so colorful. Very professional looking and eye catching.
Have students make personalized teacher thank you cards for staff members throughout the building during Teacher Appreciation Week that might not normally get many gifts because they don’t house a homeroom class.
Students can pick their favorite animal or famous person and create a beautiful word of art to match a book report for their gift recipient!
Have students in the class create a fun “All About Me” gift for your Star Student of the Week!
I can envision making personalized puzzles, tshirts, binder covers, and more for special events during the school year – or just because you want students (and their families) to know exactly just how special they are too!
Enjoy and have fun “word art-ing”!
~Charity
This post originally appeared at Organized Classroom.
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