Valentines!

Story Hour this morning was all about valentines, love, the color red and the number 2.

The morning began with most of the children arriving early [doors open at 9:45] and enjoying some social playtime until 10:05. We then started our morning with our "wiggle song" and the children are beginning to sing along with the actions.

After that we discussed the weather for today. We decided today was cold, snowy and cloudy with no sun showing in the sky. This would be a good topic to discuss on the way to story hour each Thursday.

We had a little difficulty with the color red, but finally decided that the two hearts and Mitzi's sweater were red things. We learned that valentines represent love and then learned hand signs to show "I love you" and practiced doing them with our adult. The most difficult part of this was understanding "you", so this is another topic to work on with your child.

We read two books [click the link to find it on LINKcat and check it out for yourself]:

Valentine Mice! by Bethany Roberts. 

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff.

As we listened to the story we talked about the silly mice in Valentine Mice! who threw their valentines in the air, slipping and sliding on ice, and how sad the mice felt when one of them was missing [but happy when they found him later]. We acted out words like skip, hop, looking high and low and calling for someone who's lost, and being happy and shouting "Yay!", when he's found. We also found a red cardinal, red mittens, and red valentines in the book.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! was about a cute mouse who makes and gives valentines to all his friends; then they surprise him by coming to his house with valentine cookies. Mitzi then gave each of the children a valentine cookie in a sandwich bag, so they could take it home for after lunch [or some couldn't wait and ate theirs right away].

Our activity was to make a "love tree" to hang up at home or give to someone we love. We did this by having our adult trace our arm and hand on a sheet of brown paper and then cut it out. We then learned to use a glue stick in a circular motion and glued the tree to a sturdy white paper. We then had plates of punched hearts that we could glue onto and around the tree like leaves.

Next week we will have a guest who will talk to us about teeth and their care.

In two weeks when we have a snowman theme I would like the children to bring one or two pictures of a snowman. It may be one they helped make, one where they are making a snowman, or just a picture of one they like. Please encourage them to be ready to talk about their picture, if possible.