Friendship and Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  We had a great week at school celebrating friendship.  We heard several really good books about Clifford the Big Red Dog and Valentine's Day.  We also heard a book called Our Peaceful Classroom about a Montisorri School with illustrations all done by children.  We heard several books about Care Bears.  Aftter we read those we listed all the Care Bears we could remember on the white board.  Then we reread the story to check back for any Bears we may have forgotten.  The kids thought this was fun and it was teaching them the reading comprehension skills of recall as well as how to skim through a book to recheck for information when needed.  

Carter told the class that each Care Bear has a special superpower which has to do with it's name.  So we decided that each of us should pick a name of a Care Bear and have that super power too! We wrote it down on special heart necklaces.  

Parker was Share Bear because he likes to share things with people.  Knox was Grumpy Bear because he likes to do nice things for people to take their "Grumpies" away.  Charlie was Sunshine Bear because he likes to make people happy.  Carter was Share Bear because he is so good at sharing things with his friends. Zoefii was Love a Lot Bear...that name says it all.  Emma was Moon Bear and she likes to help people fall asleep and bring them good dreams. Tori was Rainbow Bear because she draws rainbows and makes people feel happy.  Brooke was Rainbow Bear because rainbows make people happy!

We had music on Wednesday and Mrs. Jenkins had us up and dancing to some dinosaur songs!!  Thursday was our Valentine's Day Party.  We made our Valentine Bags earlier in the week so they were all set out when we arrived.  We each had fun passing out our valentines to our friends. We had morning activity time, circle time and then it was party time!

Our room moms, organized everything.  Thanks so much...the room looked so pretty and the kids had so much fun.  Thanks to all the parents for sending in the treats and other supplies to make the party a success!

We frosted our sugar cookies and put pink sprinkles on top.  We had popcorn and apple juice too!  Then it was time for our relay game!  Heidi put 2 raisins on a spoon and handed it to the first person in line who had to walk around a giant square of tape without dropping the raisins and then put the raisins into the next person's spoon.  Meanwhile the kids were all cheering for each other.  So much fun!

Aftter our class relay we broke into small groups.  Betsy had a valentine craft for us to do, Heidi had a bean bag toss going, Joan had a coloring activity, and I had playdough with cookie cutters, a mini play dough oven and a play dough grill.  At the very end of the party we played a game called "Valentine, Valentine, Where's Your Heart?"  I wonder if the kids could tell you how we played it?

We heard the book called My Heart is a Zoo on Friday.  We took the idea from the book and each child picked an animal they'd like to make out of hearts.  Then we practiced cutting and glueing and put together different animals.  Zoefii made a frog, Jayme made a bear, and Charlie made a coyote. 

Could be a fun activity to do at home on a cold day too! We also used model magic, paint, and beads to create a really special heart.