Valentines Week

Happy Valentines Week!

Literacy:

A simple 8 page book with a Valentines Day Poem.  We worked together to cut it our, read it together and then coloured the pages.  He was so proud of his reading, he read it to his dad and his big sister when they got home.

Sensory: Valentine Soup

Water mixed with some red food colouring to make pink water and I added in some foam sticker hearts from the Dollar Store.  I gave them plenty of kitchen tools and they kept busy for almost an hour.  Funnels, strainers, ladles, mixing spoons, measuring cups and spoons, bowls and cups. 

Literacy & Sensory:

This week we added some red food colouring to our shaving cream bin and sprinkled in some foam sticker hearts from the Dollar Store.  They drew their names, other letters, numbers and many shapes.

Valentines Day Poem:

Five Little Valentines

Five little Valentines were having a race

The first one was covered in lace

The second one had a funny face

The third one said, "I love you"

The fourth one said, "I do too!"

The fifth one was sly as a fox

And he ran the fastest to your Valentines box

Literacy:

Lowercase alphabetical order on candy heart shapes.  This activity was more challenging for my little guy, he did mix up the b and the d, however when I pointed it out, he quickly fixed his mistake.

Math:

I printed the numbers on the candy heart shapes and he used small foam sticker hears from the Dollar Store to count our how many hearts he needed.

Baking:

We made simple heart shapes sugar cookies.  We baked the cookies and once they were cool enough, we made some icing and finished them off.  We use paintbrushes to ice cookies because it is easier to spread the icing compared to using a knife.  Here are the recipes that we used!

Cookies

1/2lb butter, softened

2 1/2 c. flour

1c. white sugar

1tbsp milk

1tsp vanilla

PREHEAT OVEN TO 325F

1. Mix the butter until it's light and creamy.  Add the remaining of the ingredients.

2. Knead the dough until it's smooth.

3. Sprinkle some flour on the table and roll out the dough (you may want to do a third of the dough at a time) until it's approximately 1/4 inch thick.

4. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter and place them on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until light brown on the bottom.

Icing

Experiment with the ratios - YOU DON'T NEED MUCH MILK

Icing Sugar (1 cup)

Milk or Water (1tbsp)

Artificial Almond Flavouring (1tsp)

Red Food Colouring (a couple drops)

Craft: Coffee Filter Hearts

1. Cut a heart out of a coffee filter.  Use whatever size you have.

2. Get your child to draw lines and other shapes using different colours all over the filter.

3. Using a paint brush and a cup of water, the child paints water all over the filter to make the colours bleed together.

4. Allow filters to dry on a piece of paper.

Super Fun: A Valentines Day Treasure Hunt

I blew up some balloons the night before and wrote on the balloons different clues to guide the kids on a hunt.  Once I had written on the balloon, I let out the air so that they would be easier to hide.  When they found a balloon, I would blow it up so that they could read the clue easier.

Gross Motor:

We played MANY fun games of "Musical Hearts".  I simply cut heart shapes out of a piece of construction paper and we turned on the music and had a blast!  We laughed hard, fell hard and of course, played hard!