Try this easy dress-up Mother’s Day singing time activity called “What’s Different About Mother?” What’s great is this activity can be done with ANY song(s) so feel free to review your program songs or sing any Mother’s Day song you like!

The ideas for this post from HERE. Below are also several variations so make sure to scroll down to those as well.
Mother's Day Songs
As mentioned, this activity can be done with ANY Primary song! Feel free to review program songs or Mother’s Day Primary songs. Those include:
- Grandmother p. 200
- I Often Go Walking p. 202
- My Mother Dear p. 203
- Mother, Tell Me the Story p. 204
- Mother Dear p. 206
- Dearest Mother, I Love You p. 206
- Mother, I Love You p. 207
- The Dearest Names p. 208
Mom Dress-Up Items
- Hat
- Scarf
- Lipstick (the brighter, the better!)
- High heels and tennis shoes
- Broach or pin (do you like my “Mom Off Duty” pin!? I do!!)
- Purse
- Apron
- Rubber gloves
- Hair ribbons/clips/curlers
- Coat
- Jewelry (rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc.)
- Belt
- Cookbook
- Sunglasses
- Car keys
- Wallet/Phone
- Watch
- Headphones
What am I missing? Help add to the list by commenting below!
Find a Mom to Dress-Up
Then you need to find yourself a “mother.” Someone who’s a good sport in your ward (Primary president, yourself, a Primary child, etc.).
Have your “mom” put most of the items on! Keep items off that would be good to switch (like a purse for a cookbook, heels for tennis shoes, rubber gloves for gardening gloves or eventually adding lipstick).
Then create a space where your “mom” can swap items – either out in the hall, or behind the board, piano, etc.
Mother's Day Singing Time Activity

Variation
On the board write out your Mother’s Day Song (any song) with most of the words missing with lines instead of the missing words. For example (this is for the song Grandmother):
You _______ ______ a __________. You ______ ______ a _______. You _______ when you ________ me _________. I _________ every ________ in the ________ _______ _________ had a _____________ just ________ you.
Divide the primary into 2 teams and each team picks a “mom” (can be a child or adult). Assign each team a chalk or dry-erase color (other than what was used to write the words on the board).
Give each team 30 seconds to fill in as many blanks as they can before the other team fills them in. After a child fills in a blank, he/she must place an item on their team’s “mom” and then sit down. Here are the rules:
- Only one child can go up at a time per team
- The same child cannot fill in 2 blanks in a row
- Words must be filled in order – no skipping blanks
After 30 seconds, sing what was filled in and make sure the “mom” has the correct number of items. For instance, if in the 30 seconds time the red chalk team filled in 4 blanks with their red chalk, there should also be 4 items on their “mom”
Sing the song through again to review
Repeat 30 second intervals until the blanks are all filled in and the “moms” are dressed.
You can then go on to another song or erase all the blanks and start over with a new mom to dress, etc.
Another Variation
Pick a primary child to come get an item from the basket and have them go sit back down with the it.
Start your song with everyone singing and have the item passed along to each child. Have the pianist randomly stop (similar to hot potato).
Whoever has the item must say the next word. If they can do it, they can come “dress mom” with the item. If they can’t tell you the next word, the item continues to get passed around until the pianist stops again and someone else can do it.
TIP: Be real lenient with Jr. Primary possibly having everyone say the next word together. And the child holding the item gets to come dress the mom.
Repeat until your “mom” is “dressed” and your song(s) are well learned.
More Mother's Day Singing Time Ideas

2 thoughts on “What’s Different About Mother?”
"Or simply dress up yourself" LOL! This made me chuckle. Tempting. . . but our Bishop might not like hearing about Brother Stevenson dressing in drag in primary. 🙂
Great lesson plan, though! Thanks for sharing it. (Yes, I got a real mother to help.)
Hi Jared!
Thanks for the good laugh – yeah, probably a good idea to avoid dressing as a drag queen in primary! Haha!
~Camille