Be My Valentine (R, 15, Pink)

Our theme for the week of Valentine's Day was, of course, "Be My Valentine" and we focused on the letter R, number 15 and color pink.

*Two more snow days!!! Ahh! Good thing I'm flexible! =] Some of these activities we actually did the next week on Monday.*

We read this week: Happy Valentine's day, Curious George by HA Rey
                              Love Monster by Rachel Bright
                              Always by Alison McGhee
                              The Night Before Valentine's Day by Natasha Wing
                              Love, Splat by Rob Scotton

Our question of the week was "Who would you like to give a valentine to?"

For our theme of the week, we spent a lot of time getting ready for Valentine's Day. We started by making out Valentine's Mailboxes. I like to use these bags from Michael's (they come individually or in a pack of 13) because of the number of kids in my class, and I know we always have some little goodie bags. (like from me =]) Plus they have handles which make them super easy to take home!

Here are the little Valentine bags that I made for my kids. Between Walmart, Michael's and the Dollar Tree, I always find great little toys and trinkets to put in class goodie bags.

The kids also made Valentine's to give to their parents. I found the idea here. I pre-cut the plates and the poems for the middle and the kids got to decorate them however they wanted.

We had our Valentine exchange and party! =]

We talked about the color pink, and we sang "I'm a Little Piggy"

"I'm a little piggy, with a round nose.
I am all pink from my head to my toes.
Here's my piggy tail, as you can see.
It's pink and curly as can be."
I got it from here!

When we focus on a color I love to do "color hunts" in our classroom. Each child takes a turn to walk

around the classroom and bring back something that they found that is pink. Here is what we found.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 15.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

I "tested" their knowledge of the number 15 by asking them to draw 15 bows on the tail of a kite. They had to make sure they were counting while they drew, and checked their work.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Rr from this book.

The kids practiced recognizing the letter R and r.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter R.

We turned a R into a Rabbit! This book is great.

I cut all different color and size rectangles and the children made robots with them!

The kids also made a book about all the things that a robot would bring on his rocket.

We acted out a poem from the book Phonemic Awareness.

"Come on racoon, run in place. (run slowly in place)

Are you ready for the race? (run in place at a moderate pace)

Racoon, run and ramble along. (Run quickly in place) 

Run, run, run, the race is long! (Run more slowly in place. Pant as if tired.)

Run, run, run! Pick up the pace! (Run quickly in place)

Now Rejoice! You won the race!" (Smile with arms up in victory)

For our alphabet wall we made rain! They painted the rain drops, and then I attached them to the clouds that we made in the beginning of the alphabet.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Music" and a focus on the letter Ss, number 16 and color black.