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Friday, January 22, 2016

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! ...well, almost! I ran across a few of my Valentine photos from past years as I was prepping for this year's event and thought I'd share a few... I'm so glad I rummaged through those Walmart clearance carts the day after Valentine's Day last year! I scored paper supplies and cute banner for this year. Each year we host a Valentine's breakfast and it's such a fun event! 

Students create the table centerpieces and we attach dollar store balloons to them! 
We usually start out eating our breakfast first which consists of Krispy Kreme heart donuts, tator tots, mini eggo waffles, sausage patties, and juice boxes. The hot foods are kept in a warmer on the counter. Students also enjoy fruit kabobs or fruit cups. I love having a breakfast party for Valentine's day...it's usually a much milder event and a nice change from a pizza party! 
After we eat breakfast, we play a game of Valentine Bingo. We play till everyone wins, it is pre-k after all! : ) Prizes include valentine pencils, stickers, or small trinkets. The last activity we do is usually a game or play-doh.  Last year we played a game where students raced to fill paper cups with candy hearts using chop sticks. Our homeroom mom came up with this idea and the kids loved it! This was also great fine motor practice! This year we plan to have red play-doh and heart cookie cutters/rolling pins. Our homeroom mom is making the play-doh and having parents donate the cutters. During our winter party, students ate then played games at stations. During Valentine's festivities I like to do things a little differently.  Play-doh is definitely a class favorite!


These Valentine bags were purchased at Hobby Lobby and bought during one of their discount days. Students bring their Valentine's in and place them in their own cubby. During our rest time, my aide and I fill the bags and staple them shut. With pre-k it's pretty difficult to make sure every person gets a valentine from..well..every person! I've found over the years that this way works best for my classroom..no mess..no fuss. I also pre label the bags and place them on top of their cubbies,..I can simply go down the line and fill the bags up! 
Here's another Valentine bag idea. Students watercolored paper heart doilies then glued them on their red Valentine bag. It was super cute and all the hearts looked different...

Each year the students get to make the Valentine's Day party centerpieces. I absolutely love my crayon melter! I cannot tell you where it's from. It was passed down to me and is so useful on many projects. Melted crayons are just such a different look and the kids love experimenting while swirling the colors. We use cotton q-tips to apply the melted crayons to cardstock hearts. After they dry, which takes just a few seconds, we attach the hearts to small wooden dowel rods. A couple hearts are placed in a mason jar with some filler and voila...cute centerpiece! For filler in the mason jar we've used crumpled colorful paper, tissue paper, crayons, and/or plastic beads. 


We also attach a balloon to the jar. Here's a tip: Have your students peel the crayons for the crayon melter themselves! It's a great arrival activity and helps fine motor skills! 
Here's another great fine motor activity! Yarn wrapped hearts...I bought the wire twine at Hobby Lobby. I cut all the wire about 10-12 inch lengths then bent into heart shapes and twisted them closed at the bottom. Students chose their yarn colors and wrapped and weaved to their "heart's" desire!  We hung them from the window with string..it's such a sweet keepsake and also could be used as a Christmas ornament. 
Valentines Day Broken Hearts: This is a game that could be played during your whole group math lesson or even during your party. I simply cut out construction paper hearts, wrote numeral on one side and drew matching chocolate kisses on the other. I cut the zig zags a little different on each. I scattered the broken hearts all around the room and students worked together to match them up! 

Students pucker up to the frog prince during Valentine's week! Students sit in a whole group circle and pass the frog as music is played. When the music stops..they have to pucker up! : ) : ) : ) It's a silly game and yet such a great time filler! It also is a great game for an opening activity at your Valentine's event!
Our fairy tale unit flows nicely with Valentine's week!  My students love to graph! We graph our favorite fairy tales, characters, and different versions of stories that we like best. We read a few different versions of Princess and the Frog...one of our projects was this Pucker Up! graph... There were many giggles during this math activity! The original idea for this graph came from: http://perciousperks.blogspot.com/2011/10/if-i-had-fairy-godmother.html

None of our class parties would be complete without our festive photo booth! Our pre-k assistant, Mrs. B, does a a fantastic job of decorating it to fit our themes! It's been a Seuss booth, 50's car, Christmas booth, and of course a frog kissing station! Parents LOVE receiving photos of their kiddos during the year in the photo booth...this also is a fun activity to do during your Valentine's event!  For photo props, we bought a few foam Valentine cut outs and glued them onto sticks. 




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