Valentine's Week Activities!

I stayed late (on a Friday!) in preparation of ...Valentine's Week!  If there is anything your lacking on your teacher wish list, it is this: A HEART DIE CUTTER! Every year I forget about how many hearts are needed for each every activity. Thankfully I borrowed one for one of our art projects last week..but sadly I gave it back too soon not thinking about rhyming hearts, sight word hearts, math game hearts, etc! Anyways, my Friday night was very productive..all of my lessons, activities, games, art projects, and party planning are all done and I feel like a ROCKSTAR! (You know that feeling where you can just enjoy the weekend?) Well, if you are still looking for some fun activities for your Valentine's week, I'd LOVE to share mine with you! Happy Valentine's planning! 

How many letters in your conversation heart graph? ~ The original idea for this graph came from http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/2013/02/old-valentine-freebies.html Chalk Talk blog has tons of great Valentine's math and literacy activities for early childhood. She also has a freebie download for this graph idea on her TPT store.  I hand drew mine and cut the hearts out of construction paper and the big heart out of butcher paper.  I love this activity because it's both math and literacy! 

Rhyming, yes or no ~ SIMPLE! Give each student a heart (smiley on front, and frown on back...or you can use 2 hearts) and call out rhyming words and non rhyming word sets. Students will determine if sets of words rhyme and show smiley for yes and frown for no. I use my vocabulary rhyming cards and hold up the pictures so they have a visual as well. 

Cupid's Arrow ~ This is a fun party game and can be a math game as well! I do this game in small groups with close supervision. The game is made of large smoothie straws (cut in half), q-tips, and a bucket or box of some sort. Students blow and aim q-tips into the bucket/box and count how many make it in. I first saw this idea on http://hopefulhomemaker.com/2012/02/21/cupids-arrow-game/

Mystery Bag Hearts ~ Thank you to my homeroom mom who made this mystery bag. We use it weekly if not daily! For Valentine's week I have sight word hearts inside. Students draw them out and spell them with letter tiles, plush letters, letter cubes, etc. and sort them into groups that start with the same letter. 

Heart Doily Prints ~ EASY! Stick a heart doily on construction paper with a small loop of masking tape. Students can watercolor over it or use Bingo daubers to stamp over the heart. 

Heart Play-dough - This is a great activity for your Valentine's Day party or put a handful of heart cutters, rollers, and dough in your sensory tub! Here is a link to Rose Scented No Cook Play-dough by Danya Banya: http://www.danyabanya.com/rose-scented-cook-play-dough/#_a5y_p=4001552

Valentine's Writing Center ~ Students love to write notes, cards, and greetings to each other! I found this mini mailbox in the dollar aisle at Target and it holds our Valentine's vocabulary cards. Students copy the words with a variety of writing materials and also look at Valentine books for inspiration! 

Melted Crayon Hearts ~ We use these as our Valentine's Party centerpieces...see HERE! 

Chopstick Candy Race ~ This is a great math activity or party game that focuses on fine motor, coordination, and counting! Students race to fill paper cups with candy hearts while pinching chopsticks. These handy plastic chopstick helpers were purchased off of Amazon. 

Watercolor Newspaper Hearts ~ Newspapers can be cut into practically any shape and provide a great lesson on recycling! These painted hearts can be hung in a chandelier collage from the ceiling or simply stapled onto construction paper. 

Here are a few of our favorite Valentine books!  I like to incorporate at least one book into every center. 

Valentine Letter I Spy ~ I attached paper heart letters to doilies and posted around the room. Students use mini clip boards and colorful markers to spy out the letters and practice writing them. I also pair this activity with heart glasses for an extra bit of fun! 

Candy Heart Graphing ~ This game is free from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten February Math & Literacy Centers! I inserted the matching hearts into a foam die and students love to see which colored heart reaches the top of the graph first!  I laminate all my games and keep them on trays in the centers for easy clean up. 

Spin a Sound ~ This game is free from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten February Math & Literacy Centers! This game is adorable and focuses on beginning sounds AND graphing! For game pieces, I used plastic heart beads.  

Heart Measuring ~ Students measure a variety of different size construction paper hearts with bears, pattern tiles, unifix cubes, etc. 

Heart Size Ordering ~ After measuring, students put the hearts in order from smallest to largest and vice-versa!

A few of our favorite Valentine videos! 

Valentine Bingo ~ I downloaded this game long ago and I wish I could tell you were it's from. There are plenty of Valentine Bingo games to choose from on TPT. Bingo is a great Valentine party game and a fun math game! For game pieces we usually use some sort of Valentine candy. 

Valentine Heart Collages ~  Students can use fine motor skills to heart punch and then glue stick hearts to their "heart's content" in collage form to a larger paper heart. We paired our art with some leftover Bath & Body Works red ribbon!

Here is the finished heart collage "chandelier" hung from a wagon wheel.  I hope you enjoyed these activities and I hope you find them helpful to you in your planning! Happy HEART week! 

View all Pre-K Tweets Valentine's posts, games, activities HERE! 

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