Magic and Mayhem

Valentine’s Day: theme by theme….
Here’s ways to work the holiday into every subject. I wrote this for my newsletter a few years ago & I haven’t rechecked the links yet, so apologies if any are dead.

Art:

This site has instructions on how to make a beautiful little heart shaped scrapbook
http://crafterscommunity.com/view/220/Valentine_Scrap_Book from garbage bags, card stock and embellishments. This craft can be made by older children or moms can premake the books for little ones to decorate.

Use painted hearts to teach about symmetry. Fold pieces of paper in half and show the kids how to draw a half heart shape, cut it out and unfold it to form a heart. Give them some small dishes of tempera paint and ask them to drop various blobs of it on the inside of the heart, then fold it shut again. When they open it up again, they’ll have a pattern that is symmetrical — the same on both sides. Talk about what else is symmetrical — some shapes, our bodies, lots of trees…. and then ask them to find examples of things that are and are not symmetrical around the house or in magazines.

Cooking/Home Ec:

Make festive ice cubes by filling ice trays with water and then dropping in red hots, raspberries or other red goodies.

Kids can make easy Valentines biscuits by reshaping canned biscuits into heart shapes with their fingers before baking. Alternately, you can make homemade biscuits and cut them out with a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Math:

Chocolate Chip math. My girls have loved this after dinner treat for years. I get a little pile of chocolate chips and just take turns asking them math questions. Each one they get right earns them a chocolate chip. You could use Valentine’s candies as well.

Use M&M’s to make a graph. Have the kids poll friends and family about their favorite colors. Ask lots of people and write down the totals for each color. Then lay out the M&M’s on a piece of paper to represent how many people liked each color. You may have to use dimes to represent “other” since some people will pick colors that aren’t in standard M&M packs, like pink and purple (or see if you can find an Easter pack, since those generally have pastels). Eat the results!

Science:

Valentines Science– Buy some white carnations and put them in a glass of water with some red food coloring. Watch what happens and talk to the kids about what’s going on.

If you live in a warmer climate that still has insect activity outside, do some nature studies. Have the kids leave several types of Valentines candy outside in an area where they’ve seen ants. Also leave a few natural sweets like fruit, and protein like small bits of nut. Have the kids watch to see if the ants have a preference for what they choose to try to carry off. Talk about why they might choose one type of food over another. Leave some seeds in the area and watch to see if birds will visit and take any of the types of food. Did they pick different treats?

Assortments:

This page has ideas for homemade Valentines fruit jigglers, crafts and more:
http://www.garvick.com/annual/valentines-day/crafts/

You can find lots of crafts and activities for Valentines Day here:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/valentine/
(some pages may require membership but there are lots of free ideas)

Here’s a neat page of learning ideas related to this tasty holiday. You can find a list of chocolate related books and movies, play “You ate my chocolate bar!” (a variation of Battleship), explore links about things like how chocolate is made and where it’s grown, do a taste test of different kinds of chocolate and more.
http://www.homefires.com/articles/valentine_curriculum.asp

And here’s lots of great ideas for Valentines Day fun for preschoolers:
http://www.universalpreschool.com/how-to/valentines_day.asp