Valentine's Day Activities
We saw a lot of cute Valentine crafts and activities on some of our favorite blogs and Pinterest this year. So many in fact, that it was hard to choose what we would do with our class. We knew that the kids would do some sort of craft as a present for their parents and I had seen an adorable card on Facebook that I really wanted to do with the kids. Heather and I found a cute name puzzle that we thought would be great for a small group literacy lesson. Heather had a great idea for the home center.
I Love You To Pieces
This great card came from the blog called I Can Teach Teach My Child.
The only change we made from the original blogger was for the stained glass effect. She had used clear contact paper and we loved the look, but we didn't have any contact paper, so we used snack size baggies instead. We are all about using what we have on hand and if we have to purchase something, we try to do it on the cheap!
Here are the materials and steps we took to make these cute cards:
We had the kids tear small pieces of red, pink and purple construction paper from our cutting center to add to the baggies.
Next we added a few drops inside the baggie and sealed it shut. Then the kids used their
fingers to spread the glue inside the baggie.
Next we added a few drops inside the baggie and sealed it shut. Then the kids used their
fingers to spread the glue inside the baggie.
Then the kiddos put their torn scraps into the baggie and sealed it shut. They like this part!
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After the kids chose what color they wanted for their card, they folded the card hamburger style and the adults cut a heart through both sides of the card.
Then they taped (with a little help) the baggie inside the heart and glued the two sides together.
We think the end result is adorable!
Some of your students are able to copy and write their own words. We also have some who are still on a tracing level, so we used a highlighter and wrote the words for them to trace.
We think the parents will LOVE them!
The heart name puzzles we made came from a pin we found on Pinterest.
We loved how this activity incorporated literacy, fine motor and spatial awareness.
We
let the kids pick chose what color they wanted for their heart and then
we folded the construction paper hamburger style and then traced a
heart from a template we made. We made an executive decision to cut out the hearts ourselves before we did the small group. We drew the jigsaw lines on the hearts before we gave them to the kiddos. We tried to only have one letter per jigsaw piece, but some of the kids have SUPER long names, so some kids had two letters per piece. Those who could, wrote their own names and then we used a highlighter for the kids who needed to trace their names.
Some of the kiddos needed hand over hand help to cut their puzzle and others zoomed right through.
They then put their name puzzles back together and then they glued them to a piece of copy paper.
Aren't they cute!
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The last thing we did this week was adding Valentine party plates and cups to the home center. Heather just got the plates and cups from the Dollar Tree. Who knew that the kids would love something so simple? They had a blast having Valentine's Day parties every day!
They set the table all on their own!
Your blog spot is so cute and clever and can be used by any parent or teacher for either instruction or inspiration. Your ideas for this one are terrific and I can imagine how the kids enjoyed their Valentine's Day celebrations. BTW, I love the use of 'stickers' over the faces of the children. So much cuter than the usual fuzzy gray spot on their faces we see on the TV news! I can see that your students are very blessed to have the two of you as their teachers. And in later years, they will come back and remind you of the many things you did to enrich their lives.
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