Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

We've had lots of fun getting ready for Valentine's Day this year! Here are some of the things we have been doing.

Tie-dye Hearts

This is a fun and simple activity with beautiful results. The children painted coffee filters with watered down paint. As they painted, the colors ran together to produce a lovely tie dye affect. When they dried, I cut them into heart shapes and we hung them on the window.

Glitter Hearts

This one is also easy but can be messy. Our class loves glitter and glue so they had a blast making these. I cut out heart shapes and had the children glue a smaller heart onto a large heart. Then they put glue all over and sprinkled glitter on top. We hung these from the ceiling in our classroom and I must say they look very pretty!

Sorting Valentine Shapes

I bought most of these shapes at Target last year and decided to bring them out again this year. There are some hearts, Xs, Os, and other shapes. Last year we used them on the sticky board but this year we decided to sort them in bowls.

I also found these heart shaped bowls that are fun for sorting.

Valentine Art Center

I set out art supplies, hearts, and stickers so that the children could create their own Valentines. This free art encourages creativity and was a big hit with our little artists.

Pink Rice

I added pink rice to our sensory table along with some more of the shapes we used for sorting.

Pink Play Dough

I love this microwave play dough recipe because it is easy to whip up in the classroom with the children. We made a batch of pink for Valentine's Day and used heart cookie cutters with it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Valentine's Day Mailboxes

This year we made our Valentine's Day mailboxes out of empty cereal boxes. I cut the cereal boxes in half and covered them with white paper before giving them to the children to decorate.

We set out bowls of glue, 

 heart shaped doilies, 

and shiny foil hearts. 

 With these supplies, the children decorated the boxes however they liked. 

 Of course we used glitter too. 

Lots, 

and lots, 

 and lots of glitter! 

 When they were dry, I poked holes in the back of each box and threaded pipe cleaners through the holes...

 so that we could attach them to the backs of our chairs. 

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Letters and Mailboxes

 As part of our unit on Valentine's Day, we have been talking about letters, mail carriers, and mailboxes. I found these mailboxes in the dollar section at Target and wrote the numbers 1 to 5 on them with a magic marker. I also numbered some envelopes, and the children put the corresponding envelope in the mailboxes.

We also made a large mailbox out of a cardboard box. 

 And I brought in this mailbag that I made at home. 

 The writing center is stocked with cards and envelopes that the children write on and then either deliver to their friends in the mailbag...

 or drop in the mailbox. 

Marble Painting

 We first tried marble painting a few weeks ago and the children enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again this week. This time we used it on hearts for Valentine's day. I decided to set up the supplies on the floor since it requires a good deal of shaking to get the marble to roll around. Each child was equipped with a plastic box, a heart cut out, and a marble. I set out little bowls of red, pink, and purple paint for everyone to share. We placed the hearts in the boxes and got ready to paint.  

The children dropped the marbles into the paint of thier choice and either dumped the now paint covered marble onto the paper or used their fingers to fish it out. The second method was by far the most popular because two year olds love to get their hands all painty. 

 Then it was time to shake, 

shake,  

 shake!

 Once the paint on the mable was all used up, the children dropped it into another color and did some more shaking. 

So pretty!

Heart Sun Catcher

 Every once in a while I like to do a group art project, something that everyone works on together. It's true that no one gets to take it home to share with their family but it teaches teamwork. It's also nice to look at it in the classroom and talk about how we made a beautiful piece of artwork together. Our proje t today was a heart shaped sun catcher. 

I cut out a large heart from contact paper and taped it to the table with the sticky side up. I set scissors and red and pink tissue paper on the table too.  

 The children set to work cutting up the tissue paper and sticking it to the heart. Some of them quickly grew tired of cutting the paper and resorted to ripping it, which ended up being much more fun. 

 When the heart was completely covered, we stuck it to one of the windows in our classroom and admired our work.