The school I was at last year hosted a Mother's Day Tea each year.  You can read about how we celebrated here.

One of my favorite new crafts I made for our moms were these adorable cupcake liner flowers.

Fair warning:  This is not a craft that will get done in 5 minutes.  It's more like do with a small group of 6 at your table.  I had my first graders working independently on their mom portraits and interview pages while I pulled back a group at a time.  It took the better part of the afternoon to finish 25 cupcake liner flowers, but the payoff was STUNNING!

Here's a look at how to make them and the lessons I learned to make this even more efficient next time around.
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Materials:

You will need each of these per kid...



Step 1: Fold the Cupcake Liners

Line up all 3 cupcake liners on top of each other.  Fold them in half.

Fold them in half again.

Fold them in half again.  You have now folded the cupcake liners into half 3 times.

Step 2: Cut Scalloped Edges

This is why it's important to get thin liners.  Trust me.  I learned the hard way.  My liners were thicker and so it made it difficult to cut with kid scissors.  I ended up cutting the edges with my adult scissors which made the process take twice as long.  If you use thicker liners, you might just try only using 2 per kid instead of three or three thin liners.  Otherwise, I would suggest these liners.

I just cut 2 scallops to make a heart shape.

Then, unfold the cupcake liners to see the flower shape!

Step 3: Add the Stem

Poke the toothpick through the center of the flower.

Using your fingers, pinch the flower around the toothpick and so that it pushes the flower up (instead of looking flat).  Hold your pinch! :)

Here's a view from the side while you are still pinching the base of the flower to the stem.

And the top view...

While you are still pinching the flower, have your craft partner tear a ~6 inch piece of green washi tape.  Tape over the base of the flower where you pinched and around the toothpick.  This will make sure the flower is taped to the toothpick.

Step 4: Add a Colorful Center

Once the flower is taped to the toothpick, you will wad up a piece of bright paper or tissue paper for the center.  I let my kiddos pick out their piece of paper.  I used my hot glue gun to glue it.  {TIP: Use a generous amount of hot glue in the middle of the flower.  This will help hold the flower to the toothpick even more since the toothpick should be coming out of the top of the flower just a hair!}



For our Mother's Day Tea, we added these to the top of each cupcake to make a colorful display on our food table!  Our moms took them home as souvenirs.  They also work great for boutonnieres or corsages!



The school I was at last year had a tradition of doing a Mother's Day tea in May!  It was a fantastic day for our first graders to get dressed up and invite moms (or grandmas or aunts or volunteer teachers as stand-ins :) ) to our classroom for a special tea and celebration!

Here's a look back at last year's tea party celebration.

Table Decorations

The kiddos helped me with everything!  I really wanted them to understand the responsibility and the joy that comes with hosting a party.  And they were so precious with how serious they were about setting this up just so! :)

We covered our group tables with a plastic table cloth.

Then, we added our gifts to each place setting.  The mother's would be sitting in the chairs while the kids stood and served their mommies!  The gifts that were at each place setting were the mom interviews (not shown), the "I love you because" picture and writing (each of these are found here)...

...And the mom portraits and frames!

In the center of each table, my firsties unfolded a paper napkin to add a splash of color in the middle of the table.  Then, they filled a plastic cup with water and added some fresh, knockout roses that I cut straight from my flowerbeds the night before.

At the end of our mother's day tea, we drew names (see the picture of the raffle container) for 6 moms to take home the arrangements in the middle of the table!

Food Table

I was in charge of decorating our food table...although I did enlist some help from some especially well-mannered firsties....*wink, wink*

I bought 2 flower pots as "grand prizes" to give away from our raffle.  I used one to decorate the food table and the other went by the raffle container.  I unfolded a few extra napkins to add splashes of color to our table as well.

For food, we served nuts, grapes and strawberries, and cupcakes (which I ordered from Sam's club for $14 for 30 cupcakes).  I added yellow plates, stacks of napkins and a small jar of forks to fill up the rest of the table.  It really was super super easy...yet the moms just raved and raved about how special it was! #winning 

I ordered half chocolate and half white cupcakes with yellow icing.  Then, we made these cupcake liner flowers as souvenirs for the moms and they also made a beautiful topper!  Read the how to on these cupcake liner flowers here.

As the moms arrived, my firsties instructed them to fill out a raffle card with their name on it.  Then, the first graders were to turn in the raffle card for the mom.  Next, they went and prepared a plate for their mom after asking them what they wanted to eat.  Finally, they shared their gifts with them and visited with their moms while the moms ate...no, my firsties did not eat!  We talked about it before hand and they were given strict instructions that this was all about mom!  {...but for those amazing hosts and hostesses, I did have cookies that I bought for them to eat after our celebration was over!}


This was such a fun tradition and I was so thankful I got to be a part of it!  My first graders were so proud and learned that it truly is better to give than to receive!

Find these crafts and tons more activities in my Mother's Day packet. {And get Father's Day crafts here!}
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