Valentine's Day
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Valentine Post Office : At this time of the year it is fun to turn your writing center into a "Valentine's Post Office". Add envelopes, stamps, pastel colored paper, heart shaped paper, valentines, metallic valentine pencils, etc. Your children will LOVE this center!

Conversation Heart Writing : Place a small bowl of conversation hearts in your writing center. Also place a worksheet with several heart shapes on it in the center. Have child copy the words onto a sheet of hearts.

Alphabet Hearts: Use 26 sheets of a Heart notepad. Laminate and cut them in half using different cuts or using fancy edged scissors. After cutting, write an uppercase letter on one half of the heart and the lowercase letter on the other half. To play the children match each uppercase letter to the correct lowercase letter.

Alphabet Heart Partners: Make a necklace for each child by cutting a heart shape out of posterboard, punching a hole in the top and tying on a loop of yarn. Divide the heart necklaces into pairs. On each pair print an upper-case letter and a matching lower-case letter. Give each child a necklace to put on. Help the children identify the letters on their necklaces. Then let them walk around to find their " alphabet heart partner."

Class Book : Make a class big book about love! Write I LOVE.... on the cover and on each page, children illustrate and add their own words.

Sorting Conversation Hearts: Program a worksheet with several heart shapes on it (1 heart for each color conversation heart in a bag). Give each child a small scoop of hearts. Allow the children to sort the hearts by color by placing them in the heart pictures. Next have them count each group and write the amount inside the heart. They can also color each heart appropriately. Have the children share with the class which color they had the most / least of. Graph the results. And now the best part . . . eating them!

Heart Art Project : Paint both hands with red or pink paint Have child put all fingers together, with hands overlapping to form a heart. Add the poem below:
Heart People: Provide each student with a large heart shape template (trace once) and a small heart template (trace 4 times). Provide them with red, pink, or purple construction paper to trace onto. The large heart is the body/head and the small hearts are the hands and feet. When the large heart is cut out add facial features with markers or crayons, and/or wiggly eyes. Then, accordion fold four strips of paper and glue on for arms and legs. Glue the small hearts to the end of each.

Valentine Magnets : Empty a box of Conversation Hearts that come in the individual boxes. Insert a child's picture in the heart-shaped "window" on the front of the box. Hot glue a magnet to the back of the box.

Valentine Surprise: Have each child make a special Valentine. Give them lots of craft supplies and allow them to be as creative as they want to be - this valentine is completely up to them. Place all the Valentine's in a box and allow each child to come up to the box one at a time and pick out a Valentine. Make sure they don't peek so it will be a surprise!
A piece of me I give to you.
I painted the heart to say, " I love you!"
The heart is you, the hands are me,
To show we are friends the best there can be.
I hope you will save it and look back some day,
At the heart I made for you on this special day.
Valentines for Mom: Draw a simple puzzle using a black sharpie marker on paper and copy it to tag board
for each child in your class. Let each child paint a red heart in the center of the puzzle and write a Valentine's mesage to their mom on the top. Then they'll cut out the pieces and put them in a ziplock baggie for mom to enjoy on Valentine's Day.

Heart Vests: Cut out a heart shaped vest for each child to wear home. The children used stickers and foam hearts to decorate the vest. This poem is printed on the envelope glued to the front:
I am a big, pretty heart.
I'm being sent to you.
I'm bringing hugs and kisses
To show that I love you!