Grandparents' Day Crafts and Activities

Grandparents' Day is the first Sunday after Labor Day

This day has a threefold purpose:
To honor grandparents
To give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children's children.
To help children become aware of the strength, information and guidance older people can offer.


Books to read:
Just Grandma and Me
The Berenstain Bears and the Week at Grandma's
Going to Grandma's
Grandma and Grandpa
Grandmother Bryant's Pocket
Grandpa Putter and Granny Hoe
Max and Grandma and Grampa Winky

Ask students to bring in pictures of their grandparents as children. Create a bulletin board with these photos. See if the class can match the grandparents' photos to the correct classmate. It may help to have pictures of the students as well. This promotes an understanding of growing up and the aging process.


Have students take home a short list for grandparents to complete. Ask prices of candy bar, movies, etc. from their childhood days. Compare costs then and now. Use real money to demonstrate differences.

We have a grandparent's day. We invite the children's grandparents to school. We share a story & a song with them. We let the children give a tour of the room. And we serve cookies and a drink. The children & the grandparents have fun. Then we give each grandparent a bookmarker that the children make out of construction paper (any color will do), and the children decorate the bookmarkers with stickers. Then I cover it with contact paper. The grandparents seem to love it!

Play the game:

"I am going to Grandma and Grandpa's house and I am going to take a/an __________." The first child picks an object that starts with the letter "a." The next child picks an object that begins with the letter "b." The game continues alphabetically until someone reaches the letter "z."

NOTE: You may have the children repeat the objects already given before adding their object. This is challenging for older children.

Have school age children interview their grandparents. Should include the following in their interview ?'s:
-Birth date
-Where did they grow up as children/teenagers/adults?
-Did they have both parents raising them?
-How many siblings?
-Did they have any pets?
-Who was their best friend as a youth/adult?
-Who was their favorite teacher?
-What is their favorite food?
-What did they do for fun as children/teenagers/adults?
-What scared them as a child/teenager/adult?
-What was their most embarrassing moment as a child?
-What was their funniest moment?
-What was their happiest moment?
-What was their saddest moment?
-What was their favorite music/group/band?
-What things do we have today that were not in existence when they were young?
-What was their first job?
-If they found a magic lamp w/a Genie granting 3 wishes what would they wish for?
Once the interview is over child(ren) can post the Q & A on poster boards w/a picture of their grandparent(s) and themselves. Or the questions can be put into a story form.


If a grandparents day is scheduled have the GP participate in show and tell by bringing something that they have saved from their childhood. Even better if they can do this w/their grandchildren doing the same. Example: Grandpa brings his baby shoes and granddaughter brings her baby shoes for show and tell.

Photo copy or scan pictures of all the children's grandparents baby pictures and grandparents resent pictures. So you would have two sets of each grandparent. Label the grandparent baby picture "Then" and the grandparent current picture "Now". Do the same w/the children's baby pictures and current pictures. Take copies and have them displayed on poster board. See if the children can guess who's baby picture goes w/the current picture. They can also see if the grandparents baby pictures resemble the grandchild's baby picture.

Contact management at a local retirement home to see if your group of children could visit the home's elderly. The children could play games, read or do arts and crafts making this a fun fieldtrip for both the youth and young at heart. If your group is talented a talent show could be put on with songs and a short skit. This would need to be approved by management.

Grandparents can tell us a lot about historical events that occurred before we were born in a much more fascinating way than we can read in a text book. Several ideas can really make this a fun week. Start the week with an assigment to interview grandparents about an event that occurred while they were kids and what affect it had on them. This is a great history tie-in. Students can either write down the interview or record it on audio or videotape. A visit to a nursing home to bring joy to elderly patients is also fun for the children and the patients! Grandparents' Day can be held at the school as a picnic on school grounds. Family trees can be explored. Another good thing to do is to have a writing contest in which students write why theirs are the best grandparents. The best writer can award their grandparents with a certificate and have them honored at the Grandparents' Day picnic.

Read the book "Just Grandma and Me" by Mercer Mayer. Then have each child talk about what they like to do with their grandmas. They can also draw a picture of themselves doing something special with their grandmas. And write on the top of their drawing"Just Grandma & me"

Let's Go See Our Grandparents

(sung to "Take Me Out to the Ball game")

Let's go see our grandparents,
Take us there for a while.
Mommy and Daddy both need a break.
We'll play games and we'll stay up real late!

Oh, we want to thank our grandparents
For all the things that they do,
So it's time..to..say you're the best
And that we love you!

GRANDPARENTS H.U.G. (Heart Uv Gold) AWARD This is to certify that you both GRANDMA & GRANDPA HOGAN are hereby entitled to the GRANDPARENTS H.U.G. AWARD

For your heart of gold, your cheerful smile, Your thoughtfulness and style. For your good advice and understanding, too- But most of all for being you!

Signed this 12th day of Sept. 1999 by _______________________________________________
HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY

I added visuals from clipart and a photo of each child, placed them in a frame from the dollar store....BIG HIT!!