This year's tot school Valentines Day week was so much fun! Even if mama was S.I.C.K.!! I went down with Strep on Sunday and it was a struggle throughout the rest of the week. I had to make adjustments in regards to my to-do list, but I refused to let go of our Valentines Day week celebrations for the sake of sickness! Thankfully my kiddos all pulled together and it was a truly blessed week.
Our sensory box included dyed rice, foam hearts, heart erasers, red and clear glass gems, tiny plastic valentine ducks, heart stickers and a small red basket.
Here's our Valentine's Day story books. We really don't have that many, which means I really need to get busy collecting some new ones.
Our first craft was to make torn paper hearts. I found a free printable which had an outline of a heart on it along with the words "I love you to pieces". When we have glueing projects, I always put the glue on their papers and then have them add the pieces.
Next we made heart stamped papers. I hot glued foam heart stickers to the bottom of a wooden clothes pin. Then the children stamped the hearts into red paint and stamped them onto white construction paper.
The littles ones pretty much just smeared the paint onto the paper, but my older ones actually did great and you could actually tell the papers were heart stamped, lol.
The little ones also made puppy hearts. I cut out a large heart with red construction paper and then a pink one of the same size. I cut the pink heart in half for the ears. I used various different sizes of heart punches for the eyes and nose.
Our last project was to make marble painted hearts. I cut out hearts then put the hearts in a shallow pan with three marbles. I dropped a few dollops of red paint on the hearts and let the kiddos tilt the pan in different directions to get the marbles to roll through the paint.
Last the children did a snactivity where they made punch and Valentines Day muddy buddies.
The punch included a 2-liter bottle of Sprite, a large can of pineapple juice, and a large jug of Hawaiian Punch.
I used this recipe for holiday muddy buddies, but used Valentines Day M&M's.
To close out our Valentines' Day tot school week the children watched The Princess and the Frog while drinking their punch and eating Valentines Day muddy buddies.
As is my custom for tot school ~ none of these activities were costly or took much time to do. It just took a little planning and coordinating of supplies. While I do NOT believe it is necessary to 'go all out' like this for holidays, it sure is a blast making such precious memories with my children. The little bit of work and energy it takes to implement these actives with my children is absolutely worth it to me. I am all the more aware of how short my time is with my children since my oldest has moved out. It is my deepest desire to make every moment count, especially the holidays.
With Love & Hope,
Jennifer
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