Mother’ s Day, sometimes known as Mothering Sunday, is held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday and usually falls in the second half of March or early April. People usually buy a card and flowers. It is common to treat your mum with a meal out. Mothering Sunday was originally a time when people returned to the church, in which they were baptized or where they attended services when they were children. This meant that families were reunited as adults returned to the towns and villages where they grew up. In time, it became customary for young people who were working as servants in large houses, to be given a holiday on Mothering Sunday. They could use this day to visit their own mother and often took a gift of food or hand-me-down clothing from their employers to her. In turn, this moved towards the modern holiday, on which people still visit and take gifts to their mothers.
Lesson Plan
Stage 1 Ask the students to think of a word to describe their mum. Write down the words on the board and ask some of your pupils to tell you why they have chosen this word.
Stage 2 If possible, bring a picture in which you and your mum are doing something special, for example, she is teaching you how to cook or knit.
Students love to hear our stories so why don ´ t you tell them a story about a precious moment that you shared with your mum.
Stage 3
Put the students in groups of four and show them the pictures. Ask them to imagine they are one of the children in the photos. They have to imagine they are old now and tell you a story about the time this photo was taken. Where were they? What were they doing? Why is it a special moment for them?
1 2
Mother’ s Day
To practise Speaking and Listening skills. Talking about past events teenagers / adults
3 4
Spice Girls’ song“ Mama” The lyrics to the song
Before the lesson ask the students to bring a photo of their mum and themselves
Created by“ Inspirational English”.
Image credit: Picture 1: James Goodman, Flickr. com, Creative Commons
Picture 2: Lou Bueno, Flickr. com, Creative Commons Picture 3: AJ. Mat, Flickr. com, Creative Commons Picture 4: es1123, Flickr. com, Creative Commons
22