Valentine Theme

What do I teach my child about Valentine’s Day?

I teach my children about kindness, friendship, and show acts of love for one another. Invite your family to do a Kindness Challenge. These days a lot of us are cranky from being inside so long due to the pandemic. Lack of socialization has taken its toll on our children as well. I decided to do a friendship theme to remind my children to play and speak nicely to one another. Doing a family Kindness Challenge can remind your children of the importance of being kind to one another. The list I compiled is Covid Friendly. Use the list as a guide or create your own Random Acts of Kindness that’s unique to your family.

This week is jammed packed with tons of heart filled activities. The Hearts theme is endless during this time of year, ranging from symmetry activities to Conversation Heart graphs.

Valentine Math with Conversation Hearts

There are so many activities you can do with Conversation Hearts. Here are just a few ideas

Matching games: Place 20 or so random Conversation Heart candies on a surface and allow your child to find hearts with the same color or phrase. You can also review same/different concepts using Conversation Hearts. Have your child explain why candies are sorted together. Are these the same? Why are two hearts not the same or different?

Conversation Heart Patterns: Create your own 3-D patterns using Conversation Hearts. If you are introducing patterns for the first time, have your child match the patterns you create. Once your child gets more familiar with patterns you can have them continue the patterns you created. As your child becomes a pro at patterns, they can then create their own patterns!

Conversation Heart Measuring: Use these yummy candies to measure heart shaped objects or have your child measure their sibling if they can lay still long enough!

Conversation Heart Addition and Subtraction- create your own addition/subtraction stories with the candies as the stars! For instance, there were two green hearts sitting at lunch. Then, 2 pink hearts came and sat down. Count how many hearts were there altogether! Children can create their own word problems. Older children can use the candies to solve addition and subtraction equations from a worksheet.

Conversation Heart Graphing- Sort the candies by color using a graph. See how many of each color you can find!

Conversation Heart Estimation: Without counting, have your child guess how many hearts there are. Alternatively, you can place a heart shape in front of your child and have them guess how many hearts can fit inside. Then place and count the candies to see if their guess was correct!

Roll, count, and Fill the Heart- This is a fun game if you have dice and a heart shape handy. If not, you can easily make your own die, (shown here). For a younger child, start with a die and for older children you can have a pair of dice. Lay a heart shape onto a surface. Roll a single die or a pair of dice. Count how many dots you landed on. Then count that many Conversation Hearts and place inside the heart.

Love and Friendship Book List

Snuggle up with a good book this Valentine’s Day! Here are just a few of the most popular books. Youtube links are provided in case you want to read them aloud.

Peanut Butter and Cupcake By Terry Border

Be Kind By Pat Zietlow Miller

The Pout, Pout Fish By Deborah Diesen

The Day the Crayons Quit By Drew Daywalt

Llama, Llama, I love you By Anna Dewdney

My Heart is Like A Zoo by Michael Hall

Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Conversation Heart Stem:

Lottsa Love Experiment (love potion ) This experiment is extremely fun and messy. Make sure you have towels or baby wipes handy as the Kool-Aid will stain your hands. As with any experiment, adult supervision and play clothes are required! Your child will love this activity and ask to do it again and again!

Materials

2 containers ( glasses, vases, jars)

Shallow tray or pan (to contain explosion)

2 tbsps baking soda

Red or Pink colored Kool-Aid

1-2 tbsps Vinegar

Glitter

Optional:candy conversation hearts

Directions:

Container 1- Place 2 tbsps of baking soda and glitter. Place the conversation hearts into this container if you have them.
Container 2- Place vinegar, glitter and Kool Aid.
Place both containers into the shallow tray. Assist your child to place container 2 (the container with the vinegar) into container 1 (with the baking soda).
Watch it EXPLODE!! Discuss the observations with your child. For older children, invite your child to draw their observations. Label the drawing with their name and date.

Floating Dry Erase Marker Experiment for Kids

Materials

Dry Erase Marker

Water (Regular Temperature Water)

A glass plate (a follower friend told me she tried it on ceramic and it worked also!)

Straw (optional)

Its just 2 ingredients and 2 steps! Can’t get any easier than this! Use a dry erase marker. We used red for Valentine’s Day. Draw heart shapes using the dry erase marker onto a glass plate (ceramic also works). Add room temperature water to the dry erase hearts and watch them float!

Why Does it Float?

The dry erase marker’s ink is insoluble OR NOT DISSOLVABLE. As the water is poured over the dry erase marker’s ink, the ink is propelled to float to the surface. Provide your child with a straw to blow the hearts across the water.

This activity can be done for any theme!

Fizzy Valentine Heart Craft

This stem activity is a variation of the Lottsa Love Experiment. The difference is making baking soda in paint and adding vinegar afterwards. This activity can be done as a surprise or intentionally as a science experiment.

Materials

Paint

Tray (to contain explosion)

Pipette

Vinegar

Baking soda

Paint brush

paper

Surprise Option or Intentional Activity:

Before your child paints: Add the Baking Soda to the Paint.
Provide your child with a piece of paper with a heart shape drawn on it. Have your child paint normally onto a heart shape.
Invite your child to add drops of vinegar onto the shape after painting.
Watch the explosion.

Discuss your child’s observations. What did you see during the explosion? Why do you think this happened? What happens if you add water instead of vinegar?

Valentine Themed Educational Activities

Gross Motor Games

Hearts Hopscotch- write numbers on hearts and place in hopscotch formation.

Large Hearts Color Match- have your child find objects of that color and place onto heart before music ends!

Musical Hearts- Write numbers, letters or even sight words on hearts. Place the hearts in a circle. Have your child select the number, letter or sight word you call out after the music stops.

Heart Twister- Use hearts in a Twister Themed game.

Heart Balance beam- Practice balancing one foot in front of the other in a balance beam activity. Place heart shapes in a straight line onto the floor. Have your child place one foot in front of the other onto the heart shapes. Make it fun by saying the ground is lava!

Valentine's Day Songs

Kiboomers 5 Little Hearts

I love You from Barney

Skinnamarink Song

Love is a Circle

Fine Motor

Hearts cutting practice- Create dotted lines on heart shapes for your child to practice cutting. After cutting, you can use the heart halves in a lesson on Left and Right.

Jelly Heart Stem- invite your child to build using toothpicks and jelly hearts!

Noodle Letters- Draw letters onto a piece of paper. Provide your child with noodles to form the letter shapes.

Dot Sticker Heart- Draw a Heart Shape onto a piece of paper. Invite your child to place stickers onto the heart shape.

Arts and Crafts

Celery Heart Painting- Dip the bottom of a piece of celery into pink, purple or red paint. Use celery and paint to make prints onto paper.

Love you to Pieces Ripped Art- Draw a heart shape onto paper. Provide paper for your child to rip into pieces. Assist your child to glue the ripped pieces into the heart shape.

Sun Catcher Heart from Happiness in Homemade :

Groundhog Craft:

Strawberry Scented Cloud Dough Recipe

1 part strawberry scented conditioner

1 part cornstarch

3-5 drops of red food coloring

Place all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix with your hands. Knead well for about 5 minutes or until it forms a ball. The cloud dough has a whipped icing consistency. Add a little flour if you want to thicken it.

Crafts that Teach

Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar . Read the story and create your own caterpillar in the shape of hearts!

Llama, llama I love you - Read the story and create this cute Llama craft by Simply Every Day Mom

snack

Jello hearts- follow the directions to making jello. Use cookie cutters to shape the jello into hearts.

Sensory

VALENTINE’S CONVERSATION HEART SQUISH BAG

Materials

Quart or gallon sized freezer bag (2 )

Clear packing or masking tape

Clear hair gel

Bag of conversation hearts or heart sequins

Permanent marker (optional)

Directions:

Draw a heart shape on a freezer bag using a permanent marker.
Place the hair gel into the freezer bag.
Add conversation hearts and other valentine themed objects into the bag.
Close the bag and tape together. For durability, place the bag inside another freezer bag and Enjoy!