Valentine's Day Preschool Fun

Miss Sweetie had a great time decorating Valentines for her friends yesterday.

When we were little my Grandma let us come over,

she would open up a very old tin

full of old fashion Valentine making treasures.

Now every time I see doilies, it feels special...

I think my favorite one of M.'s Valentines was to the only little boy in her class.

My favorite part is: you're just the greatest guy ever.

What a nice vote of confidence.

When preschool got started it was a free for all,

with everyone passing out their Valentines.

Check out this one, isn't it adorable?

We learned about the letter Vv

And I found some heart shaped cereal.

We used confessions of a homeschooler's do a dot Vv page.

We did it first with heart cereal,

And then with candy hearts dipped into paint.

We also used her letter Vv word hunt page as well.

Loved it!

We read The Day It Rained Hearts

By Felicia Bond

Cute, cute story about how Cornelia makes Valentines out of hearts that rained out of the sky.

It is amazing how many Valentine's books have references to the post man, office, or box.

So we made our own post office.

(Just like JDaniel4's Mom)

So so so fun.

They could have been writing letters for days!

We took a break for snack.

I cut Twinkies on a diagonal

and they matched it together to make a heart.

We garnished it with cherry pie filling.

It was so decadent!

I wish I would have had them eat off fine china.

{I really do, it would have made it more of an occasion.}

We went downstairs and did some counting, sorting and graphing.

Graphing was a perfect challenge for these guys.

We used the worksheet found here.

Thanks for Deb for such a nice round up of all things Valentine's!

It made finding things so much easier!



The Queen of Hearts

I thought this poem would be a perfect way to link literacy to Valentines day.

I wrote it up on a little poster like this because M. is a pre-reader.
The pictures helped her recognize that words carry meaning.

I got out the old Lego table that we use as a water tub, sand tub, and play dough bin, and put all of our pink and white play dough in together. Along with some old pie tins.

We read from Disney's Mother Goose Rhymes
The Queen of Hearts
I had this book when I was a little girl,
I loved it, and my mom gave me the book and the tape!

I love the cute little illustrations.
While I was doing prep, she was listening to the rest of the book.

I found these little measuring spoons at target,
and she counted how many heart scoops it took to fill up her tart tin.

It was fun, and she is so sweet!
{Seriously.}

After this she got dressed up like a queen,
and ate lunch like royalty!

Instead of making pretend tarts,
wouldn't it be fun to make these yummy tarts!?
Maybe when I have a little more hand eye coordination!
{These are from Mad Baker}


Check out more ideas on my pinterest board.

Valentine's Love

We are feeling the love around here!

By second week of January I hung all of my Valentines decorations,

I was feeling the void of all those Christmas Decs,

So I decided to spread the LOVE!

And now we're ready for Valentines learning time!

We started by sorting these hearts by colors.

She was into this!

I have seen lots of fancy products out their for sorting,
and they are great,
and expensive,
So I was thrilled when I found these hearts at our craft store.

While she was sorting,

he was doing some fine motor work

by putting the hearts into a jar.

'

Sorting is so good for everyday life,

Think about it, when you are cleaning your house,

You are sorting.

 (This goes in the bathroom, this goes in my room, this needs to be thrown out.)

So it's a great life skill.

Here is a great book I recently found about sorting:

It's called Sorting by Henry Pluckrose.
It helps children understand the idea of sorting.

Next we did some fine motor skill,
and sharing work.

I found this canister and these hearts at the dollar store.

Both of them loved taking turns to put them in the holes.

They were so sparkly and pretty,
so that didn't hurt the appeal factor either!

So the great thing was, these two activities didn't take too long,
but it was a definite boredom buster.
Once I got them started on the last activity I went upstairs and started dinner. 
Because they got a little brain candy, they played together nicely for a good half hour.
And that, is why I do learning time!

So how do you start?
Pick a book, an idea, or an art project.
Read the book,
then extend the learning.
It could be as simple as getting out the playdough,
and retelling the story with playdough figures.
Simple good fun. :)