Well, whatever the case, we definitely made love and friendship our theme for the day. I always take advantage of any holiday because it is so easy to pack in a lot of fun activities - and so much fun, the kids don't even realize they are learning.
We started off the morning with a Valentine's Word Hunt. The kids used magnifying glasses to find the teeny tiny sight words that were hidden in the pictures. Once they found them, they recorded them onto the worksheet. They absolutely loved this activity and did a great job helping each other with the more difficult ones.
Every year the kids are so excited to pass out their Valentine cards - and every year those cards find their way in the trashcan or balled up at the bottom of bookbags. This year I decided to center my activities around the Valentine cards we received and then make a little keepsake at the end of the day.
First, we made Valentine folders so we had something in which to store all of our Valentines. The kids went around, four at a time, depositing their treats in each of their friend's folders. Ms. Norfleet noticed a few of the treats that were addressed to her were put in other kid's folders - oops. If she didn't like candy so much, she might've let it slide :)
After lunch, we read Love, Splat - a story about a cat named Splat who has a special valentine for a certain someone in his class. Her name is Kitten, and Splat likes her even more than fish sticks and ice cream. But Kitten doesn’t seem to like him at all. And then there’s Splat’s rival, Spike, who also likes Kitten. We read to find out if Splat’s heartfelt valentine wins Kitten’s paw in the end...and it did!
We discussed that love can mean a lot of different things. Not only can love mean how you feel about your mom or dad, but it can also mean having a deep affection or fondness for a certain sport or a particular season. We brainstormed what love meant to each one of us and wrote our thoughts on chart paper.
The kids really took this activity seriously and came up with some great definitions that personally fit them. We created a class book with each of their writings that is now displayed in our classroom. It will soon be part of our classroom library.
Later, we gathered on the carpet with our envelopes filled to the rim with Valentine cards. We began sorting our cards into four categories - superheroes, characters, animals and candy. After we sorted, we graphed, analyzed our data and wrote about our graph.
We then collected all of our Valentines and created a scrapbook where all of the cards could be displayed. The cover of each scrapbook had a poem titled I Like You. The poem reads, "Valentines, I like you. I'm glad that you're my friends. We have lots of fun together. We are a perfect blend."
We of course ended our day in a sugar induced coma - thank you to all parents who contributed something for our party. We had plenty to munch on! And also, thank you for the sweet gifts I received as well. My heart swelled with love! I must share a few Valentine cards made for me...
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