Love is in the Air...5 of My all Time Faves for Valentine's Day Plus Some Other Ideas

YES...it's February 8th and YES I am late blogging, but I have the BEST excuse and some of you know what it is and others...well...maybe you are not following me enough to know my personal life, but I am going to share some of it right here...right NOW!!! My 4th grandchild was born on Thursday, January 26th...so now I have Brady (9), Marra (almost 7), Aria (4) and Ava (almost 2 weeks old).  YES...I am the proud Mimi of 4 beautiful, talented grandkids that light up my life everyday.  Yes...I was away from my business life a bit in order to hang out with my middle daughter, who BTW was born on Valentine's Day in a snowstorm almost 39 years ago, and help her care for Ava, her second child.  YES...my heart is full...YES... cupid has brought another bundle of love and joy to our family and YES...I am finally ready to share some of my all time favorite Valentine's Day Activities.
Some are freebies that can be found in my TpT shop Sunshine and Lollipops while others are inexpensive paid resources from my shop and yet others are ideas that I have used throughout my many years of teaching pre-k, first and second grade.

1.  Valentine's Day Crown and OptionalCard:   

This my all time favorite craft and it can be differentiated as needed in that you can pre-cut the various pieces and set them up so each child can create the crown independently
(I did it this way for my younger granddaughter).  You can have them color the center of the crown and then glue it to a sentence strip or pre-cut paper as there is a black and white copy of the "BEE MINE" that can be cut out or you can give each kiddo what they need to make the crown and have them cut and glue everything (great for OT) or maybe you would even want to use all the images as tracers and go with it in that direction.  Whatever way you choose, there is one thing I am certain about and that is that your kids WILL LOVE MAKING THIS! 

   

                                                                                           
                                                                           






Be sure to check out the Dollar Spot at #Target to pick up some foam heart stickers and Valentine's Day stickers to add some additional fun!

   

Even a 4 year olds can have some fun creating this crown with stickers while working on fine motor skills to get ready for #Kindergarten!!

Everything you need is included in this Freebie...well...I take that back...you will need glue, scissors, stickers(optional),pipe cleaners (optional) and LOVE!




















Optional Card:  The option to make a card is also included. If you take a picture of each child wearing the crown, you can then either glue the picture onto the frame provided, add some stickers and have your kiddos write a message on the inside or add the picture electronically to the frame and add stickers...the choice is yours!

2.  Free Beginning Sound Matching Fun  Here is another Free resource that I created for my daughter's SpEd Kinders.  It is a fun way to reinforce matching letters to beginning sounds that your kinders or pre-schoolers will enjoy completing.  Simply color the hearts that show a match of a beginning sound to the picture that begins with that sound in the same color. For example:  A and apple would be colored the same.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                             

  

3.  Valentine's Day Fun Packet or Math and Literacy Activities  Fun packet of Valentine themed activities for first grade that can be used as morning work, quiet time work, for early finishers or any other way you might want to use these sheets!  

 This can be used a s a cover and the packet can be made into a booklet for each student!

Here is a photo with a compilation of the some the activities that are included in this resource!

















4.  We are Good Friends  This is a mini unit on friends and friendship that can really be used anytime during the school year.  When I taught first and second grade  I used it during the month of February. It would also be great to use in the beginning of the school year when students are beginning to get to know each other or at the end, when they have established some great friendships. It includes ideas for use and directions on how to implement this into your curriculum as well as a parent/family letter.

Here is a sampling of some of the ideas included with this resource.

6.  I LOVE you More Than...  I love this more than chocolate candy and the beach so sandy...such a fun activity to think about what you love and then make a Valentine for your family or someone special. It contains an original poem for Valentine's Day and lots of other goodies! It can be used for Mother's Day as an original poem for Mother's Day is also included. Check it out...it is a DOLLAR DEAL!

                                                                                This the page for students to use to write their ideas for Valentine's Day! Below is an computerized sample!

7. New Valentine's Day Math and Writing Activities for 1st Grade

This new resource is right off the press and ready to go for Valentine's Day. 

It includes math addition and subtraction up to and including 10...there are a few that have sums that are 11 and 12.  A word Search with answer key, Writing frames including poetry type frames and lots of fun for you kiddos. It can be used for math and literacy stations as well as guided math even work on writing, writing workshop and more!  Enjoy!

8.  Two Other Great Ideas to Try  

• Have a Compliment or Kindness Jar during February or any month, for that matter.  I always placed the "jar" on a counter where it was easily accessible so children were able to write compliments about a classmate.  At the end of the day, I would simply pull a few out and read them to the class. This was also done during our morning meeting.  The jar I used was decorated for Valentine's Day and I simply had a pencil/pen and heart-shaped sticky notes or paper next to the jar for students to write their compliments. If you notice that not everyone is getting a compliment, be sure to add some of your own so there are always smile!

         Here is one I made for Kindergarten that was created from a clear flexible plastic container.

         Easy Peasy!

This ties right in with another post about Kindness on my blog. You might want to check this out as well!!

• Fun with Candy Conversation Hearts: There are tons of ideas to use conversation hearts. You can measure with them, count them, graph them by color, write sentences using the words on them, put them in a jar to guess how many and....drum roll pleeeeaaaase...my all time favorite for Kindergarten is to give each child or pair of children one box of conversation hearts.  
  
  Then have each pair guess or predict how many hearts are in the box and write their predictions or guesses on the top of a paper heart that you have created.  After they make predictions and write them down, have them count how many WHOLE hearts are actually in the box to check their predictions and write that number down. Next have them sort the heats by color on their heart. After, discuss the results of their predictions and numbers of colors they have the least or most of in their box.  As numbers will vary, ask the kiddos why they think the numbers are different. You can also do this as a whole group or make a whole class graph of the colors found and then count how many there are of each color and ultimately how many hearts there are all together.  
  

There you have it...some ideas to bring the LOVE back into teaching.  Happy Valentine's Day and if you have some ideas that you have used, please give them a SHOUT OUT in the comment section. Happy Valentine's Day!  Don't forget to share the love!!