Valentine Fun!!

Can you believe that it is already Valentine's Day? It's hard to believe. Well, we have had fun at school getting ready for today. Yesterday I realized that I had forgotten to let the kids make their Valentine card holder. I know, I can't believe that!!! In my defense, we have been super busy with every day stuff on top of all the special activities going on in February. I about had a panic attack when I realized I had forgotten to do that. Long story short, we got it finished in time thanks to Mrs. Shelton- our student teacher for 10 days. She ran to the work room and die-cut hearts for me so that they could make a dog and glue that to a paper plate. It is not fabulous, but considering it was last minute, it turned out pretty cute. Now, on to more important things-according to the kiddos. For those of you that do not know me well, I am ADDICTED to Pinterest. I feel the need to check it every night to make sure I haven't missed anything. I know some of you are in the same boat as me so you may have seen the awesome tie-died hearts on there. Here is the website:  http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/01/valentine-craft-tie-dye-hearts.html This was the activity of the century in my room. They thought it was awesome. Again, I was told how great I was for "letting" them do this. All we did was fold a coffee filter in half and draw a heart shape-well, half a heart shape. That was easier for the kids. Then they cut it out. Tada, a heart!! We folded it back in half. Then took the bottom (point) and folded it up the straight edge until we reached the curved part. After we accomplished that we folded it in half again. Some needed help with all the folding. They got all of our bingo dotters and gathered at a couple of tables and dotted away. We had all different designs. I must admit, Mrs. Shelton and I made several also. An hour later they had made I don't know how many each and were begging to do that the rest of the day!!! Actually, a couple of teachers came in my room during this activity and ended up going back to their rooms and doing it also! They wanted me to let their parents know how to make them!!! Good luck with that. It took some scrubbing to get all the ink off our tables. It was worth it though.

 Another idea I found on Pinterest. They got to choose the paper from our Valentine scrapbook paper. The hearts were from the day we learned how to make hearts from folded paper. I saved them for this activity.

 So, on to Valentine's Day. Whewww I am tired!!! They were hyped up today. All I heard was "when is the party?" Looking back, had I been smart, I would have done cards and the party first thing this morning. They were looking so forward to it. I have to say, this group needed very little guidance while exchanging cards. Every year I try a new way to sort them and let the kids be in control of handing out their cards. Usually it is difficult because there is only 1 of me and lots of them. This time I made everyone sit in their seats and called 2-3 children at a time. Most of my kiddos were able to pass out all of their cards with little or no help from us. The ones that did need help were on names that looked similar. I was so proud!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentine's Day.