1.29.2013

V is for Valentines Lesson Plan - Preschool and Elementary Class Party Ideas too!




Here is a copy of my lesson plan from when I taught "V is for Valentine" in our home preschool group. I gathered some of these ideas online and made up others:

Introduce: 
the letter V/sound

Song:
I Love To Make The Letter Vv
Tune: Pop! Goes The Weasel
I love to make the letter V
For everyone to see.
(Form V with 2 fingers.)
V is for valentine, V is for veggies,
And V is for victory!

Play a Word Guessing game:
All the words you guess should begin like "valentine."
a. I like ice cream. My favorite flavor is ________. (vanilla)
b. When we moved, our furniture went in a moving ________. (van)
c. Pumpkins grow on a _________. (vine)
d. Peas, carrots and corn are __________. (vegetables)
e. When mother cleans the rug she uses a _________. (vacuum cleaner)

Play a Listening and Thinking game: 
Vivian is a girl who likes the letter "V v" and all things that begin with the "V v" sound. Answer the following questions:
a. Will Vivian eat vegetables or fruit?
b. Does Vivian like chocolate or vanilla ice cream?
c. Would Vivian wear a jacket or a vest?
d. Does Vivian play a violin or a guitar?
e. Would Vivian play basketball or volleyball?

Discuss:
Valentine’s day –  You can read the book, The Story of Valentine's Day or just tell in your own words. February is a month to celebrate love and friendship.  We do this by writing letters and valentines.  Some of the symbols are hearts, cupid/arrow, flowers, chocolates, etc.  Why do we use hearts?  The heart is the center of our body and is how we live.  It stands for love. 

Finger Play/Action:
Hold up 5 fingers to start and then progress to 4, 3, 2 and 1 finger. 
5 little valentines waiting in the store
______________(Child's name) bought one, and then there were 4.
4 little valentines for you and for me
___________bought one, and then there were 3.
3 little valentines wondering what to do
__________bought one, and then there were 2.
2 little valentines thinking up some fun
_________bought one, and then there was one.
1 little valentine said, "Buy me and run!"
___________did that, and then there were none!


Hearts
 Distribute 3 different colored hearts to your preschoolers.  As you all their color, they should follow your instructions.  Fun lesson on following directions and listening.
Red hearts, red hearts, take a bow
Yellow hearts, yellow hearts, take a bow
Blue hearts, blue hearts, take a bow
Now all hearts jump up right now.
Yellow hearts, yellow hearts touch the ground
Blue hearts, blue hearts touch the ground
Red hearts, red hearts touch the ground
Now all hearts turn round and round.
Blue hearts, blue hearts, sit right down
Red hearts, red hearts, sit right down
Yellow hearts, yellow hearts sit right down
Now all stand and run to town! (run in place)

Love Bug
It begins with a grin (smile Broadly)
It turns to giggle (put both hands on mouth and giggle)
You start to laugh (throw head back and laugh out loud)
Your legs start to wiggle (put feet in the air and shake)
You look all around for someone to hug (move eyes back and forth)
What can you do (shrug shoulders)
You've caught the love bug (hug another child or yourself)
ACHOOO!


Songs: 
My favorite songs to sing around Valentines are
Love Somebody, Love is Something if you give it away, Skidamarink a dink a dink.  They are just so cute!
Here's another cute one...

10 Little Hearts

Sung to: "One little, two little, three little Indians"

One little, two little, three little hearts,
Four little, five little, six little hearts,
Seven little, eight little, nine little hearts,
Bring love on Valentine's Day.

Here is a list of songs I sent home to the parents to reinforce at home!
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Science:  
Show the kids a real heart (probably out of a book) and talk about how it pumps blood through our body to help us live.  It is a very important part of our body! You can further this discussion by talking about things that can make your heart strong and healthy like eating right and exercising. Then teach them the following chant to have it make sense:

I'm Your Heart
I am your heart and I go beat, beat (clap hands)
I pump blood white you are asleep (pretend sleeping).
I pump blood when you jump up and down.
I pump blood when you run around.
Pump blood when you move your feet (march in place).
     I pump blood as you tiptoe to your seat.

Language:
You can do quite a variety of things by cutting hearts in half and having the children match up. You can do it with uppercase and lowercase letters or numbers.  The domino heart numbers mentioned below.  If you have advanced students, you can do it matching up site words to each other or even compound words that fit together.
 
Math:
Valentine Counting: Give the children conversation hearts and using the counting sheet, have them place one heart by the number 1, two hearts by the number 2, etc.
 
Heart Shapes: Talk about the heart shape and compare it to other shapes.  Then show the kids that heart shapes can make other things.  Using a flannel board, you can make a person, caterpillar,  bumblebee, bunny, etc. out of hearts.  You could further this in art time by having them make their own heart shaped animals!

Heart Dominoes:matching the 2 sides: give each student half of a heart and see how long it takes them to find the classmate who has the matching half that will enable them to "mend" the broken heart.  I made heart dominoes for my preschoolers to take home so they could do it themselves or with their family.

Heart Patterns: Talk about patterns.  ABAB, AAB, ABB, etc.  With candy hearts, construction paper and glue, make up patterns for the children to try to match. After they have matched your patterns allow them to make up their own patterns for others to follow.

Craft: 
1.  We made a homemade valentine for their parents. Each child put their thumb prints on a cut out heart in the shape of a heart and we wrote 'Thumb"body loves you.  The kids decorated it with stickers and conversation hearts.  Then they signed their names. Above is a little fancier version my sister made, but it gives you the idea of how to make hearts out of thumbprints.


2.   One of my favorite activities was a heart tote made out of paper plates that they gathered their valentines in. I just loved the simplicity mixed with a fun ribbon to hold it.   This is so cute for the kids to collect their valentines from fellow preschoolers and me for valentines.  A very SIMPLE way of making a valentine box for preschoolers.
You can find directions here.

Games:
Play Hot and Cold with Valentine Hearts.  Hide a heart while one child is out of the room.  Have them come back in the room and as a group call hot progressively louder as they get closer or cold progressively louder as they get further from the heart.  Eventually they should find the heart and a new child can go out.  


Valentine Exchange:
Each child can share valentines in their new totes.  I also gave each child a valentine with their name written big on the top.  We practiced reading and identifying each other's name and would say "Hooray, Hooray, Hooray, Johnny gets a valentine today!"

Story Time:
 Here's our favorite Valentine books all though there are many more!

Take home: 
My students took home their homemade valentines, valentine totes, heart dominoes and a list of valentine songs.  

Here are the printable documents  have provided in the lesson plan:
Check out our other preschool lesson L is for Love



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