Preschool: Valentines

Our Valentine’s Day theme was be filled with friendship and love. I can’t wait to share all of our preschool Valentine’s Day fun and learning. Get ready for pink, red, glitter and sparkle overload. 😉

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Here were our plans for our Valentines theme:

And here are the details for each activity:

Love, Splat! Comprehension

It’s no secret that we love Splat the Cat in this house, so we started off the week with Love, Splat! by Rob Scotton. After reading, we talked about why we give valentines. Then I had Madelynn draw and write to show what kind of valentine she would make? And who she would give it to.

ValentinesLady Retelling:

Our next story was all about our favorite silly old lady, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose by Lucille Colandro. We started by reading the story. After reading I gave Madelynn 8 pictures from the story with simple sentences underneath. We read through them all together and then I prompted her to find what happened first, second, third, etc. She then glued them to her page in the correct order to retell the story. I kept the book nearby so she could check the pages if she was stuck, and it was also an easy way to double check her work.

Valentines Learning:

Next we read The Story of Valentine’s Day by Nancy J. Skarmeas which is a nice little board book introduction to why we celebrate Valentine’s Day. After reading, we talked about what we learned. Madelynn drew a picture of a card to show that we send cards to people we love.

Valentines Comprehension:

Next we read How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague. After reading, we talked about the ways the dinosaurs showed they loved each other. Then I asked Madelynn, who she loves and what do they do to make her feel loved? She choose her Daddy, so we made him a card and she wrote ” I love you because you give me hugs.” Mommy heart melted. 🙂

Tracking Print:

Our last book was this letter V for Valentines alphabet reader. Madelynn identified the picture then pointed to each word as she read. We switched to the more difficult version this week so that she could work on learning new sight words each week. Afterwards she colored all of the pictures in.

Valentines Letter Writing Tray:

Our first literacy activity this week was a Valentines themed letter writing tray. To make this fun sensory activity I filled our shallow tray with pink scented rice. Madelynn used heart letter cards as a model and chose which ones she wanted to practice. Then she used a light up heart wand and/or her finger to write letters in the pretty themed tray. We found our light up want in the Target dollar spot but you could also ouse heart stir sticks instead!

Valentines Sound Stamping:

Next, for more letter practice we used our dot stampers. We started out stamping inside the letter to make a V. Then Madelynn had to find the upper and lowercase v’s in the heart, stamp them and make the “V” sound each time. Then she stamped the other letters different colors and tried to make the sounds for each one.

Valentine Syllable Sort:
I found these adorable mailboxes in the Target Dollar Spot this week so I knew I had to find a fun way to use them. Since we are working on syllables this week I printed small valentines with pictures on the front. Madelynn chose a valentine and clapped the syllables for the picture. Then she wrote the number of syllables on the inside of the card. Finally she placed it in the correct mailbox.

Valentines Name Craft:

For this week’s name craft we created a valentines themed caterpillar craft. First, Madelynn cut the craft pieces out. Then she wrote the letters in her name on each heart. After she finished writing, she glued the caterpillar pieces together in order to spell her name. Then she added the legs and antennae. Finally she used a marker to draw a mouth and glue googly eyes to the heart to complete the face.

Valentines Journal Writing:

For our journal this week Madelynn chose to draw something that makes her heart full. She decided to draw food, haha. She might have been a little confused about the concept of a full heart vs. full tummy, but I can’t blame her, food makes my heart full too. 😍 After drawing I asked her what she wanted to write about her picture. She said, “I eat food.” So I drew 3 lines, then we worked on writing the sounds together. She wrote “i e FF.”

Color By Shape Valentines:

We worked on identifying more shapes for our color by the code activity this week. Madelynn worked on identifying and naming 5 different shapes, including hexagon this week for a little challenge. I told her the color for each shape and she had to search and color each one in the picture.

3D Shape Puzzles:
We started learning about 3D shapes this week with this set of foam shapes and a few shape puzzles. After exploring the foam 3D shapes and talking about the names, I printed and cut apart 8 heart puzzles. Madelynn matched the 3D shapes to the real objects and we practiced reading the names of each shape.

3D Shape Bingo:
For more 3D shape practice we played a few games of 3D shape bingo with valentines candy to make things festive. Madelynn and I each chose one of the 3D shape bingo cards. Then we took turns choosing a a shape card and identifying the shape. Each time we chose a card we found and covered an object on the bingo card with the same shape. We continued to play until someone got 5 in a row before having a little candy as a treat.

Valentines Bingo:
Our last 3D shape activity was some Valentine’s themed hands on 3D shape building. I printed 3D shape cards for Madelynn to use as a model and she used jelly hearts and toothpicks to create each shape.

Valentine Number Sense:
We used these mats to practice numbers 11-20 this week. First, Madelynn identified the large number. Then she made it with play dough and counted the hearts in the ten frame. Next, she used a dry erase marker to practice writing the number, and finally counted out heart candy to cover each heart.

Valentine Slime:

If you are slime challenged like me, I have the BEST no fail slime recipe for you. Because for whatever reason borax and/or liquid starch recipes just don’t work for me.

Here is what you need:

•1/2 Tbsp Baking Soda

•1 1/2 Tbsp Contact Lens Solution (w/boric acid & sodium borate in it)

•6 fl oz Glitter Glue

•Heart Cookie Cutters

How to make your amazing slime:

•Pour the entire bottle of glitter glue into a bowl.

•Add 1/2 Tbsp baking soda to the glue and stir.

•Add 1 Tbsp contact solution to the glue mixture.

•Mix until slime begins to form.

•Take slime out of the bowl and use hands to finish mixing.

If slime is too sticky, add few more drops of contact solution. Then use cookie cutters to pretend and play.

Valentine Play Dough Cookies:

On this play dough tray: red, pink, and purple play dough, heart stamps, heart gems, heart buttons, heart cookie cutters, and rolling pins

Blow Paint Hearts:
For this fun art project we started out tracing and coloring in hearts with white crayon on cardstock.
Next, Madelynn used an eye dropper to drip liquid watercolors on the paper. After the paper was covered in drops she used a small straw to blow the drops of paint all over the page. Then, she continued to add more colors and blow until the whole paper was covered and the hearts began to show through.

Valentines Water Play:

In this bin: pink dyed water(use food coloring), heart sponges, mini heart boxes, mini cups, scoops, silicone cupcake cups and eye droppers

Heart Stamping:

Our last project for the week was a heart stamping and resist picture. First I hot glued a few foam hearts to clothespins to make heart stamps. You can also find heart stampers here, but we didn’t have any on hand so I improvised. Then I used removable double sided tape to stick a large foam heart in the center of a piece of cardstock. Then I set up a tray with pink, red, purple and white tempera paint. Madelynn used the stampers to make hearts all around the page. When she was done, I pulled off the foam heart, there was a beautiful heart left in the center.

Want all of this week’s printables and plans? You can grab them here:

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans here:

And that’s it for this week. I can’t wait to share all of our learning and fun with you this year! Here are our tentative plans for weekly themes if you want to follow along!