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! 

Check out all new Valentine's products from the Pre-K Tweets TPT shop below! 

Penguin Board Games...Perfect for Winter Math Centers!

Shake, Waddle, & Roll with printable penguin board games by Pre-K Tweets! Enjoy new winter board games with original Pre-K Tweets penguins! Students will have a blast playing these all new dice games & searching the room for number penguins! Click HERE to download!

Celebrate Valentine's Day with Pre-K Tweets Products!

Prepping for Valentine's week? Check out Valentine's board games, coloring pages, coupon books, decor, and more in the Pre-K Tweets TPT Shop! 

Multi-colored Valentine's Treat Tags ~ FREEBIE! Download HERE!  Perfect little circle tags to attach to goody bags..also makes cute cupcake toppers!

Valentine's Day Board Games ~ Printable partner games to keep in your math center or use during Valentine's Day festivities! Download HERE! 

Valentine's Monkey Math Roll & Cover Games PLUS Monkey Numbers! ~ Printable roll & cover game boards to keep in your math center. Use the monkey number cards to sequence, match to stacks of unifix cubes, or use as a number hunt around the room! Download HERE!

Happy Valentine's Day Banner/Bunting ~ Adorable pink heart and chevron bunting to use for your Valentine's Day celebration! Download HERE! 

Valentine's Day Coloring Pages ~ Great activity for morning arrival or early finisher activity! These coloring pages feature original doodles by Pre-K Tweets! Download HERE! 

Valentine's Day Coupon Books ~ Perfect little coupons for students to give to parents! Coupons are in color AND black & white! Blank coupons are included for students to think of their own coupon ideas! Download HERE! 

Krazy Kool Valentine's Cards ~ These cards come in two sizes..use simply as cards, thread through a lollipop, or attach to goody bags!  Download HERE!

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. 

Clothing Unit Resources & Ideas!

Gloves, socks, caps, & mittens! It's that time of year again..practicing buttons, zipping zippers, and putting on jackets! Clothing is something students are quite familiar with and therefore makes a great stepping stone into many different ventures about clothing..where it comes from..how it's made..how is it cleaned..how it's different around the world..etc.  

A study on clothing can be tied into any center or interest area.  In previous years, my students have created a clothing store or shoe store in the pretend center to go along with the unit theme and to learn about real world experiences..click HERE to view. A laundry room is another great pretend center idea. Students can color sort clothes into baskets, practice hanging and ironing, and even washing in paper box washers/dryers.  In the discovery area we set up a provocation with costume books & clothing from around the world books, large paper doll cut outs (similar to gingerbread men), yarn, glue, and scrap fabric and scissors. The math center was very busy with button matching, color sorting, and size sorting. In ABC center students would match upper & lowercase felt clothing letters (pants & shirts) together. In blocks, we had a set of dollhouse dolls with clothes. Students built clothing stores after a virtual tour video we watched about a clothing store. 

See how we integrated art into our clothing unit HERE. Art is a great way to learn about different textures and textiles from around the world! Process art and recycling fit in nicely with this unit study as well! 

Looking for more clothing or laundry unit ideas? Check out these awesome clothing unit resources & ideas below! 

I was given this Cra-Z-Art Spinning Art machine over Christmas and thought it would be a great rainy day activity. While reading A Pocket for Corduroy I was inspired to use it along with our clothing unit! There is a part in the story where an artist draws a sketch of the spinning clothes in the dryer..voila spinner art! This Cra-Z-Art spinning machine is awesome. It comes with pre-cut papers (which we traced to make more) and three paint tubes (which we refilled with regular paint when they ran out). The machine requires 2 C cell batteries. (You could also use a salad spinner if you wanted to do this project manually.) Students LOVED choosing their own colors and watching their creation transform! We also used a popsicle stick to drag the paint through as it was spinning for a cool effect!

Here is the part about the artist sketching the clothes in the dryer!

Spinned dryer art! 

I love this mini laundry basket sorting game by Wild Olive! I haven't tried this game yet but it would make a great math center game. Add a clothespin to the game and students can be working on even more fine motor skills! The laundry baskets are actually pencil cups and I think I actually have some of those in my art cabinet!  

My students loooove bingo games! This one focuses on winter clothing vocabulary and color words! 

Directed drawing guides are fun to keep in your art or writing center! I made a set and put them on a key ring to hang for easy access. Download them here! 

Preschool Plan It has an awesome collection of FREE Preschool Clothes Theme ideas for centers & lessons!

Graphs, graphs, and more graphs!  My students enjoy interacting with graphs and especially comparing their likes & dislikes! During our clothing unit we graph types of shoes, colors of clothing, clothing sizes, etc.  Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten  did an emphasis on buttons during her Cats, Buttons, and Colors Unit.  Check out her fun button games, graph, & activities here! 

An ordinary wire shelf from the dollar store makes great fine motor practice! Adaptive Tasks blog had students use clothespins to squeeze and clip paper clothing "to dry." I have two of these racks or shelves out during our clothing unit. We use one to clip and "to dry" the clothes (made out of felt) and the other to weave. Students practice patterning (over, under, over, under) by weaving colorful ribbon scraps through the wires! 

See how my students created their own pretend center clothing store HERE! 

Yarn Block Art - See here how we created these fun prints with items we already had! 

The Preschool Experiment has some very cool laundry themed tray game ideas including an alphabet match game, sock folding tray, washcloth folding activity, clothespin number match game, and more!

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In this class the students muddied up paper pants and then used bubbles to make paper shirts"clean." This idea comes from Doodle Bugs Teaching on Preschool Wonders.