Valentine's Day for Preschoolers - Part 2

Valentine's Day has come and gone and you're probably already preparing your St.Patrick's Day trays but I'm more of a last minute-type of person. Always have been. It always gets done but I work better under pressure when it comes to "curriculum". Anyhow, here are a few more "V" Day activities we enjoyed last week...

Craft / Fine Motor - Make a Valentine's Day Sun-catcher

I've seen the sun-catcher done with "contact paper" a lot. Unfortunately, I didn't find my sheets until after we had completed our craft. This is always the way it goes here. (Note to self: I really need to get around these school boxes and organize them better). Anyhow, this sun-catcher was made with a sheet of wax paper, pink and red tissue paper, glue and red construction paper. I personally pre-cut the heart made of wax paper and heart made of construction paper. I glued them together. All that was left was for Adrian to tear the tissue paper (fine motor) and paint some glue on the wax paper heart and then put the tissue paper on top of the glue he had just spread on the wax heart. Voila! A nice Valentine's Day decoration. He was so proud to decorate the window and his sister loved seeing "Adrian's heart" everyday.

Preparing a Valentine's Day Snack

Well, these don't look as pretty as my regular "tuxedo" chocolate covered strawberries but I had to make this activity preschooler friendly...As such, Adrian washed the strawberries, dried them, poured the chocolate chips into a bowl, helped with the microwave and the stirring of the melting chips and finally, coated all this red fruit with the melted chocolate. He then laid the strawberries on a waxed sheet of paper until dried (unless he decided to roll some into mini chocolate chips or sprinkles prior to drying).  When little Zahavah woke up, Adrian was very proud to carry out his tray of strawberries. I allowed him to choose two, and to give two to Z and of course I put the rest away. When his daddy came home on Valentine's Day, he was glad to offer him his freshly made treats.

Tweezing Candy Hearts into Heart Shaped Ice Tray

Using small candy hearts and toast tongs, Adrian had to tweeze the right amount of hearts into the right compartment. That's right. Under these candies is a number ranging from 2 to 8. Adrian had to tweeze AND count. Tweezing has become a bit easier so to add to the challenge, I decided to add counting. It definitely made things more interesting.

Mending Broken Hearts - A counting-puzzle Activity

Sherine at Trial and Error Mama had a broken heart activity like this (I first saw it first on Living Montessori Now) and I thought it was purely adorable so I made one as well. I wish I had had access to cuter craft materials to make it more presentable but it still served the purpose and Adrian still liked it.

Describing Textured Hearts - Enrichment of Vocabulary

I've been trying to get my boy talking lately. He's a little man of very few words, especially when describing so I put out this heart-shaped pan filled with hearts made of different materials. I then asked him to describe each heart with two words. At first, it was impossible difficult. He could not find much to say at all and I had to prompt him but towards the end, it was more natural. I was simply looking for adjective complimenting the size, color, texture, material of the heart. 

Hearts included:

Home-cut Foam heart

Home-cut Felt heart

Crepe Paper Hear (from Lauri Toddler Tote puzzle)

Wooden Heart (from Melissa & Doug Sweet Tower)

Plastic Heart (from Fisher-Price Tea Set)

Candy Heart

Foil Wrapped Chocolate Heart

Dare you add an ice shaped heart? I did not! :) But I sure thought about it! :)

This post was shared at Montessori Monday, Tuesday Tots, Mom's Library, We Made That Wednesday, the Weekly's Kids Coop, Show-and-Share Saturday, Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, Share it Saturday and Preschool &Kindergarten Community..