Mother's Day Hats

I was asked to post the directions for our cute Mother's Day Hats.  We presented this project at the PK1 Conference in Santa Clara, CA last January and again at the Southern CA Kindergarten Conference in Pasadena, CA.   Here are the other "shopping" activities we presented at those conferences.  Click here.

Here is a sample of 2 of the Mother's Day Hats we made last year.

It is such a great project and you can turn it into an awesome math lesson by having the kids "buy" the trimmings and decorations with our classroom coins.  I'll explain that at the end.

Here is what you'll need:
2 different colored pieces of butcher paper (about 30" X 30") for each child
A mixture of white glue and water (about 50:50)
A paintbrush  (I like to use a regular 2" wide paintbrush or paint sponge.)
2 bowls that nest nicely
A variety of decorations:  ribbon, lace trim, buttons, silk flowers, pom-pons, fun foam, tissue paper, etc.

Prepare a mixture of 50% glue & 50% water.

Before you do this step, write the child's name in the
center of the top piece of paper with a pencil.
Glue both colors of butcher paper together.  This softens the
paper and allows it to form to the bowl in the next step.
The kids love to brush the glue/water mixture on the paper!

I just love this salad bowl.  I got it at the Renaissance Fair!
I know the bowl is ON the blue paper in this photo, but put
the bowl UNDER the paper and form the paper to the bowl.

Place a slightly larger bowl over the paper and have the student
roll up the sides of the hat.  Try to keep a round shape to the edge.

Keep rolling up the sides until it's about this size.
You can remove the bowls and set the hat aside to dry.
Then, you can immediately use the bowls for the next student.

Here is a sample in another color combination.
The bowls have been removed and it is drying overnight.

   

You can write the child's name inside of the dry hat.
Their decorations will cover up the original name written on the top.

Here is how to integrate math into this activity:  

 Create a store menu using items in your craft box such as ribbon, doilies, etc.  It might look like this:

     The Hip Hat Shop

Ribbon...................3 cents

pom-poms..............1 cent

doilies.....................3 cents

gold trim.................4 cents

buttons....................1 cent

fun foam ................1 cent

silk flowers.............4 cents

lace trim.................3 cents

glitter......................2 cents

tissue paper............2 cents

I usually do this with a parent volunteer who calls up 2 students at a time.  One shops and one watches.  

When the first one is done, he/she gets the next child who watches the child who is now shopping.  This keeps the process going.  

Students are given 20 cents to shop with and they must spend every penny!  :)

There will be lots of 1:1 adding and subtracting going on as students run out of money and exchange items so they can get the items they want most.  

Each student's purchases are placed in a Zip-lock sandwich bag with their name written on it.  They get the bag back on the next day, when the hat is dry, and they use white glue to attach the decorations to their hat.  

If they bought glitter, I give them a Post-it that says "glitter" on it.  On decorating day, they bring their finished hat and the Post-it to the Glitter table and I assist them with applying swirls of white glue, sprinkling it with glitter, and shaking it onto a large piece of butcher paper to be re-used.  

It's lots of fun to hang a price tag from each hat that says 20 cents.  :o)

You can present these lovely hats to the moms at a Mother's Day Tea or just send them home wrapped in tissue paper.  They go great with our hand-made beads, but that will be in my next post.  Maybe tomorrow.  (It's an awesome project to do during April for Earth Day and just save it for Mother's Day.)

We have lots of other "shopping" projects and printable receipts in our TPT store here.  Click here.