Ready, Set, Kindergarten! — Valentine’s Day

I had 29 people at this session! The most yet. I think the kids had a great time, especially with one activity which I’ll describe later. Who knew something so simple would be so effective?

I went over our mobile classroom items of the week (Color: Red; Shape: Heart (of course); Letter: D; Number: 14). I got the #14 card at This Reading Mama.

Then we started circle time:

Song: Days of the Week (to the tune of The Addams Family)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. (clap, clap)
There’s Sunday and there’s Monday,
There’s Tuesday and there’s Wednesday,
There’s Thursday and there’s Friday,
And then there’s Saturday.
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. (clap, clap)
Source: Ms. Brown’s Classroom

We looked at our calendar and discussed what day of the week it was, what month we were in, and what day of the month it was. Then we moved on to the weather:

Song: What’s the Weather? (to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine)
What’s the weather? What’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
Is it sunny? Is it windy?
Is it rainy? Is it cold?

What’s the weather? What’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
Is it snowy? Is it cloudy?
Is it stormy? Is it hot?
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/460563499387764713/

Then it was time for our theme discussion. Our first book was perfect for kicking off our Valentine’s Day theme:

Non-Fiction Book: Valentine’s Day by Trudi Strain Trueit

This book is teeny, tiny BUT I was lucky enough to find it on BookFlix so we watched it on the big screen which was really fun. The book highlighted certain words like “celebrate” and “tradition” so we talked about what they meant and I asked them how they celebrate Valentine’s Day. This was a really cool way to read a book to a crowd.

I read our next book the old fashioned way …

Fiction Book: Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson & Lucy Tapper

Horace and Hattie love to hang out. But they can’t hug! Can they find a way?

Then we talked about the letter of the week. We talked about the sound D makes and some words that start with D.

Then I read our letter D book: Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems.

When we were done with books, I reviewed the different stations I had set up.

Then we did our letter D craft. I got the dinosaur pattern from Fun with Mama.

When they finished their alphabet craft the kids could make their way around our stations. (I made all the center signs in Canva.)

I filled the tray with rainbow sprinkles this week which was really fun. I got the letter instructions here and the number instructions from Teaching Mama. I lined the tray with a laminated picture I got from Canva that I cut down to size:

I made red play-doh to match our color of the week. The letter and number mats came from Oriental Trading.

I borrowed the duck and dog from my son’s Little People stash. The door came from our extensive Lego collection. The dice we had from a Bedtime Math program. The library already had the little dinosaurs (and one had mysteriously gone missing by the end of our program …). The donut eraser came in a pack from Dollar Tree and the letters came in foam puzzles, also from Dollar Tree. I created the tub labels in Canva.

This bin was so fun. I filled it with a mix of rice and rainbow sprinkles along with pink and red plastic hearts I bought at Dollar Tree. Then I printed out and laminated a heart matching game I found at Tot Schooling. The kids sifted through the rice for the cards and matched them up. Some of the older kids thought it was too easy but I told them I was trying to have activities for our 3-year-olds too. I did notice it didn’t stop them from playing it a couple times though. 🙂

I got this idea from Mrs. Plemons’ Kindergarten. I constructed my own triangular prism, cuboid, cube, and pyramid cards in Canva. I bought the gummy hearts at Dollar Tree and we had toothpicks on hand already. I found the 3D shape poster at Teacher’s Pet in case they wanted to try some other 3D shapes on their own.

I used Sweetart hearts I found at Dollar Tree. I couldn’t find any traditional conversation hearts! There weren’t any orange ones in the pack but the kids made do. I got the pattern mats at Tot Schooling.

I found the I Spy sheets at Tot Schooling (this website is fantastic if you couldn’t tell!). I set out our magnifying glasses so the kids could look at everything closely and I wrote an answer key on the back of each sheet so they could see if they were right.

The last center I added it at the last minute because I thought we might not have enough to do and it turned out to be the biggest hit of the day: a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt. I found it on The Kindergarten Connection.

You can see the scavenger hunt paper at the left in this picture. I clipped sheets to whiteboards we had so they kids would have something hard to write on. Basically, I taped 10 pictures around the room (you can see the four hearts at the end of the table above) and the kids went around the room, identifying each card and counting the objects and writing them down (the littler ones just checked off each image as they found it). That’s it. They. Loved. It.

I gave them prizes (Valentine’s Day erasers and Starburst) when they were done. One of the kids did it twice even though she already knew where everything was hidden! I had no idea scavenger hunts were so huge. We’ve had them at the library a couple times and they’ve been well received but nothing like this. So lesson learned. I can’t do one every time since they’ll lose their novelty but if I find one that matches our theme I’m going for it!

Our session summary:

I also handed out a letter/number of the week worksheet for them to color at home and practice their writing. I got the letter worksheet from Easy Peasy Learners and the number worksheet from The Measured Mom. And lastly as homework I sent home a heart for them to color and give to their favorite valentine. I found the heart on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Next up: Fairy Tales!