valentine's day
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Valentine’s Day Math Center Activities
I’m back with some more Valentine’s day ideas! Math centers can be tricky because we want children to enjoy the activities and WANT to do them, while also being able to use the materials independently. Here’s what’s in my Valentine’s Day math center: It doesn’t get more exciting than chocolate! This game is one that your students will definitely want to play – although you might have to monitor the game pieces or they’ll disappear. To play, children pick a candy and match the number on the bottom to the number on their mat. It can be done individually or you can print two sets and have a partner game.…
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Valentine’s Language Center
Valentine’s Day has a special place in my heart (see what I did there). January can be a long, dreary month and having something fun to look forward to can really change the mood. If you’re like me – looking forward to a holiday that’s all about warmth and love – and you’re planning what this will look like in your classroom, then I have some materials that might be just what you need! Here’s my Valentine writing center: I want children to get excited about using these materials, and I do that by making them inviting – adding decorations, related textiles, and touches that create a homey and comforting…
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Friday Freebie – Valentine Family Activity
Happy Friday! It was a long week – holiday weeks always feel long. Today’s freebie is one that you can stick away for next Valentine’s Day. This Valentine’s Day Family Project is from Teacher’s Breathing Space. I love the concept – send home a heart that the entire family can work together to decorate, and then display everyone’s project in the classroom. What a wonderful family engagement activity! Go download yours and have an amazing weekend!
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Love Tree
There are a ton of ways that you could create a love tree. The basic idea is to take some kind of tree branch – or you could even decorate a small Christmas tree – and hang paper hearts from the branches, similar to a thankful tree that you might do for Thanksgiving, but in this case ask parents, family members and your students to write down the things or people that they love. It’s an easy enough way to create a visual of all the things and people that are important to us. I’ve got a little twist for you. Instead of just writing down the names of things…
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Family Valentine Station
Valentine’s Day is the perfect holiday for celebrating families because it is all about love. Focusing on the love between family members is also a great way to make Valentine’s Day relevant for our youngest learners. I always spent a lot of time helping my students understand that Valentine’s Day is a special day where we get to make sure the people that we love know how much we love them. We would make valentine’s for our family members, friends, and the special people in our lives. I recently thought of a way to extend this that I wish I would have done when I was in the classroom –…
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Beyond the family survey
As a teacher I was a huge fan of the family survey. It helped me learn the answers to very specific questions about children and their families (who lives with you? Is your child afraid of anything? What are your child’s favorite foods?). As a parent, I just filled out one of these surveys for my daughter’s class the other day, and when I was done it felt like I hadn’t really given her teachers a lot of information. It certainly wasn’t going to help them get to know her better, and at this age the answers change so regularly that they may not even be relevant in a month…
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Family February
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ve probably noticed that I often dedicate each week to a specific topic, and when I started planning for this week the topic that I had in mind was engaging families in classroom activities. But of course, as I started thinking about that specific topic I came up with way more than a week’s worth of posts. So I’m going to try something new, I’m devoting the entire month of February to topics related to partnering with families and promoting strong families. I think the timing is perfect, so much of what we talk about in February is related to love,…
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Friday Freebie – Valentine Movement
Happy Friday! This week has been all about movement activities, so it’s only fitting that this freebie goes with that theme. These Valentine-themed movement cards are from Play Learn Teach and there are a ton of ways that you could use them. Download your set and get a couple days of fun out of them before February is over, then stash them away for next year! Have a wonderful weekend!
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Friday Freebie – Visual Social Stories
Happy Friday! This felt like an extra long week, I think holidays have a way of making the rest of the week stretch out. I know that Valentine’s Day is over, but I wanted to share this so that you can save it for next year. This awesome freebie is a set of Visual Social Stories all about Valentine’s day. This would be amazing for helping your students prepare for your party and have a better understanding of how the day will go. Go download your copy from Creating and Teaching, and have a wonderful weekend!
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Ideas for leftover candy hearts
I know how popular candy heart activities are in the days leading up to Valentine’s day, but I’m a huge fan of using them after the holiday is over. For one thing, you can get them on clearance, and for another I always take full advantage of an opportunity to reflect and transition out of a holiday – otherwise it can be a bit of a let down for little ones who have spent so much time looking forward to the big event. If you’ve already used your candy hearts for all of those fun printable activities that are out there, here are some different ideas that would be easy…
