It has been super busy...and full of unexpected weather... at my preschool and I fell behind with updating the blog! Sometimes the Winter can just be like that :) But, I wanted to take the time to share a few ideas that made our Valentine's Day celebration extra fun this year! I do not have school on Fridays so we had to celebrate a day early.
Valentine Gift (with No Candy)!
We had been working on patterns as a weekly theme recently and the kids loved making patterns with all sorts of objects- so I thought it would be fun to give them a heart pattern game for their Valentine Gift this year.
I found some "snack cups" at Target that looked like hearts. These work as a great container for the pattern game. While this isn't the cheapest gift to make, I think it is so much more meaningful than candy.
I also found these colorful heart links in the Target Valentine's Day section. I made sure to get enough packages that each child could have at least 30 hearts. What is extra fun is that kids can line them up to form a pattern, or link them together to make a chain.
I added a cute label/card and tied it on with a ribbon...and it was ready to go! Cute, educational, fun, and not full of sugar :)
Valentine Food Ideas!
Fruit and Yogurt Parfait with Raspberry Jam Bites
For snack we enjoyed yogurt and fruit parfaits and heart jam sandwiches. Yum! I liked that I could pre-make the parfaits in mason jars and keep them in the fridge until snack. I just layered vanilla yogurt, raspberries, and in the middle I added a few crumbles of home-made shortbread. I think the sandwiches look the cutest with the crust cut off (and my chickens appreciated the snack!).
Heart Shaped Strawberries & Letter V Red Bells
This is one of the easiest snacks to make with one of the biggest effects! My school is called The Strawberry Patch so we totally needed to have some strawberry hearts :)
Cutting red bell peppers into letter Vs was a little more time consuming but I did it the night before and had it all ready for our celebration :)
Kid-Made Heart Pizzas!
These were the cutest pizzas, and the kids did a great job making them on their own!
I am lucky to have some local, fresh, handmade pizza dough available at my neighborhood market. I gave the kids a small ball of dough and let them go to town flattening, flipping, and stretching it out.
When they had it in a nice circle I went around and cut a V from the top to make it look like a heart :)
The kids got to paint on sauce and add cheese, heart pepperoni, pineapple, or olives to the top.
I used a small cookie cutter to form the pepperoni hearts. I had to cut it twice to get the top and bottom on there since my cutter was bigger than the pepperoni!
Yum!!
Have a Meaningful Valentine Exchange!
I find that exchanging Valentines at preschool is the most meaningful when the kids get a chance to share what they made, pass them out with the attention of the receivers, and when we work on giving meaningful "Thank You"s to the givers.
Each year I have the kids make some kind of mailbox, or bag, to collect Valentines.
Each year I have the kids make some kind of mailbox, or bag, to collect Valentines.
This year the kids made bags because I had a bunch left over from another project.
One at at time, the kids bring their Valentines to pass out up to the front of our circle. They get to explain what they made to give out and then they pass them out one by one to all the kids. This gives us a chance to really look and appreciate what each friend gave us. When they are done passing out we all give a very loving "thank you" to the gift giver...and you can tell the kids really mean it and the giver feels a lot of joy in return :)
Read The Day It Rained Hearts
by Felicia Bond AND Enjoy some Crafting!!!
I LOVE this story. We read it several times this week and proceeded to make it "rain hearts" several times during our projects :)
We had a pretty crazy snow and ice storm and trees and branches fell down all over my neighborhood. While that was scary, it was fun to go out and collect some small branches to be mini trees. At the end of The Day It Rained Hearts it shows that one of the other ways Cornelia Augusta found hearts was on trees-too cute! So we went ahead and glued some hearts onto some branches to make a cute Valentine's Day decoration!
We used old cans for the container at the bottom and wrapped it in construction paper. To make the stick stay in place we shoved it into a styrofoam ball that fit snuggly into the bottom of the can and then covered it in cute tissue paper :)
We used old cans for the container at the bottom and wrapped it in construction paper. To make the stick stay in place we shoved it into a styrofoam ball that fit snuggly into the bottom of the can and then covered it in cute tissue paper :)
Cute Pinterest-Inspired Ideas we Tried!
Conversation Heart Patterns!
Valentine Counting Tray!
Mini hearts, corks, and eyeballs, and a red marker...
Equals a LOVE BUG!
Heart Sponge Stamping!