You Drive Me Wild, Valentine!

Just tuck this in your back pocket for next year.

Amazon Prime add on stickers + Avery design and print online = You drive me wild, Valentine. 

Factor in that I didn't have to take four to the store in tundra weather and you have a winner, folks. 

There's More

I was looking over my blog and realized that in February I had a bad case of "Mommy Brain" because I didn't post some of the activities on our shelves.  The pictures were taken and uploaded, but they have sat unused.  So in an effort to play catch-up here are a few more left-overs.

Math

One-to-one correspondence - The Wee One put one heart on each of the stickers.

Mister and Ladybug covered their board with hearts and subtracted the number rolled.  The first person to clear his or her board was the winner.

Make a stamp pattern.

Art/Literacy

Mister and Ladybug folded their paper make a heart, traced the pattern, and cut it out.  They designed a valentine for a friend.  We also took dobbers and made designs on our paper using the doilies.

Word list created by the kiddos for their valentine cards

Practical Life

Cutting out hearts

After reading "It's Raining Hearts" they punched and glued their own hearts.

Valentine pony beads and pipe cleaner bracelets.

The Wee One Shelves

Another goodie from last year - It's Raining Hearts tree

Strawberry hauler for one-to-one correspondence

Okay, I think that's it...really.

February Leftovers

A little of this and a little of that from February.  By the way it was really cold last month, which meant zero motivation to get dressed and less laundry for me!

Practical Life

This was a great activity to practice the pincer grasp.  

Math - What is Valentine's Day without candy heart activities?

Sensorial

Candy heart sorting.  How many do you think were ingested during sorting?

Literacy - A lot of sight word practice this month.

The Wee One's letter practice - Letter M

Art - Watercolor coffee filter hears

You're Out of This World - Valentine Cards

Mister and Ladybug's teacher requested that the valentine day cards did not include food this year.  Last year we did Love Bugs and Pocket Full of Kisses and since they have many of the same kids in their class we I decided we needed a new idea.

Mister is really into space and I found space stamps at oriental trading.

Ladybug is really into princess, but I didn't think the boys in her class would love to get a wand, although I  might be surprised, so I went off Mister's stamps.

And for their teachers.  Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to combine two ideas.  I will swap the kisses for valentine colored kisses.  I know this goes against the no food thing, but it's not for the kids.  Right?

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Raining Hearts

A new Goodwill opened by my house and it was stocked with new and gently used books.  They had a so many Valentine's Day books to chose from and when I paid the cashier asked me if my kids liked to do anything other than read.

I picked up The Day It Rained Hearts and all of us enjoy this simple story.  On the last page there are hearts hanging on trees and when I saw a heart tree I knew we could make the story come alive and they could be Cornelia Augusta.

The Wee One even put on a few hearts.


The tree should still be at Target's Dollar Spot and the hanging hearts were purchased last year.  It has been a fun literacy extension.



And For the Boys

We try not to stick to typical gender stereotype toys here.  Mister might be found in a tutu playing cars or Ladybug wearing Batman undies. BUT Mister is definitely gravitates toward cars, trucks, bugs, and rough and tumble play.   I wanted to give Mister his own Valentine's Day cards and my goal was to make it more boy.  When I asked my husband if they were boyish he laughed and said, "Nothing screams boy like pink and hearts....very boy." I stammered back, "But, but there are insects...see!" 

What can I say I like hearts and pink and here are Love Bug Valentine's.

Do you have a pocketful of kisses?

I have always loved A Pocketful of Kisses and when I was trying to think of Valentine's Day card for Ladybug to give out at preschool I came across a heart purse tutorial I knew I what I wanted to do - A Pocketful of Kisses Valentine! My mini purses are bigger so they can hold a few kisses.

The pocket closes with velcro so it's easy for little hands. 

Up next are Valentine's cards geared towards the boys.

Once Upon a Time - Part 1

Here's our work for the first part of the month.  It is mostly Valentine's Day theme right now, but will change as we move farther into the month.  Enjoy!

Math

This game idea came from My Montessori Journey.   Ladybug was over the moon with all the purple.

Practical Life

This is tray is on the Wee One's shelf because she loves transferring activities.  However, Mister and Ladybug have taken turns doing it too.  The hearts are from last year's sensory bin and I saw them in Target's $2.50 section this year.

Valentine's bracelets - Pink, purple, or red pipe cleaners would have looked better, but this is what I had on hand.



Flower arranging - This is one of my favorites because I love to see the concentration on their faces as they get it just so.


Sensorial





The yellow and green stamps are letters that spell "LOVE" and "XO"  This has been the Wee One's favorite activity.

Literacy - Story retelling with Goldie Locks and the Three Bears

Books I can read - I found all these books at the Goodwill.  I am not a huge fan of any of them, but it gives Mister and Ladybug confidence to be able to read something.



-ap, -at, and --an sight word review

Art

Color the heart and cut it out.  We used their hearts to decorated the windows for Valentine's Day.

"You put this out for me because you know I LOVE to sticker!"  Yes, Ladybug I put this out for you.



Berry Cute Valentine

G and H celebrated Valentine's day at preschool this week.  When I started thinking about the cards I just couldn't bring myself to buy the store ones.  I am one of THOSE parents who doesn't let the kids watch a lot of television.  They get 1-2 episodes of Super Why a week so the thought of buying some random television show Valentine's Day card held no appeal.  Also H loves to craft, so I thought we should make them.  Yup 20 Valentine's Day cards the day before the party. 

I came up with "You are Berry Sweet!" cards with a felt strawberry on the front.  To be fair the picture in this post is not the ones I sent to school because 20 cards less than 24 hours before preschool turns into a rush job.  We used the felt strawberries, but it wasn't nearly this cute.  IF we had had the time this is what we would have made.

February Sensory Bin

I never did Blog about my January sensory bin, which is too bad since it was really cute.  G and H also didn't get to really use it either because it seemed like the month came and went with a blink of an eye.  Anyway here is February's bin.