This week Preschool Co-op deviated from the construction theme to celebrate a fun holiday, Valentine’s Day!  While the students did not exchange valentines, they did participate in several fun holiday related activities.  I’m sharing both activities completed in Preschool Co-op as well as some of my favorites I’ve found on the internet.

Theme: Valentine’s Day

“Bee” Mine Bumble Bee – Students made this cute bumble bee craft using construction paper, doilies, pipe cleaner, and googly eyes.

Yarn Hearts – Babble.com has a great selection of fun Valentine’s Day crafts (15 in all), including these neat yarn hearts.  This is a great fine motor activity for preschoolers, but also an appropriate activity for anyone toddler to adult. Photo from babble.com.

Valentine’s Day Themed Books:

Here are some of our favorite Valentine’s Day themed books:

Reading

Phonemic Awareness Skill: Initial Phoneme Isolation: Initial Sound – Students practiced listening for the first sound in words.  Say a word, (preferably a one syllable word), emphasizing the first sound.  For example: Red.  /rrr/ed.  what sound do you hear at the beginning of the word red?

Phonics: Letter Kk – Students learned to identify the letter Kk and it’s sound.   The participating mom  used several color photos beginning with the /k/ sound.  Examples: kangaroo, kite, key, kiwi, etc.  Students practiced saying each picture name, emphasizing the /k/ sound at the beginning.

Letter Sound Position – Once students felt comfortable with the /k/ sound spelled k, they then practiced identifying the location of it’s sound within a word.  for example, students had to identify if the /k/ sound in book came at the beginning or the end of them word.  This was repeated several times with various words, but the /k/ always falling at the beginning or the end of the word, never the middle.

Math

Valentine Patterning Hearts – Prekinders.com has a wonderful selection of Valentine Day printables, including this patterning heart activity shown below.  (Picture by prekinders.com).  The students really enjoyed this activity.

Valentine Heart Sorting, Counting and Graphing – This is another great set of activities found at prekinders.com.  This multi-step activity was more difficult for some students, but working with candy hearts and coloring with markers makes up for the challenge.

Writing

Fine Motor Writing Practice – While the students did not do this activity from moffatgirls.blogspot.com, it is always one of my favorites which I refer to with frequency.  For a Valentine theme, students can decorate hearts and other holiday icons, or traditional Valentine words. Photo from The Moffat Girls.  Check out the original post here, for more fine ideas!

Coming Next Week:

• phoneme isolation practice: final sound position
• letter Oo (short sounds only)
• construction themed math activities