I’m so glad Valentine’s day is here, my class has been desperately waiting for a day to indulge themselves in candy, chocolates, and craftiness. Christmas and Valentine’s Day, the two holidays when glitter bombs the classroom. As soon as the Valentine themed calendar display went up, the kids have been counting down!
I read this headline in the newspaper today: “There’s No Gift Problem Chocolate Can’t Solve”. Yep, that about sums it all for me. Honestly, I’d take chocolate over jewellery any day! Last year, I made myself some chocolate covered strawberries for the first time. They were so much easier to make than I expected and oh so good! You just have to melt chocolate chips and dip the strawberries in it. Yes, that easy! “What is that? Oh yes I’ll have another, don’t mind if I do”.
Okay enough about chocolate, let’s go to the classroom. Like I said, glitter glitter all around. Here’s a decoration we made to hang in the room. It was very simple, we just cut out hearts and then finger painted with the brightest pinks, reds, and whites we could find. Finger painting is so good for those kids who can’t control themselves. They go nuts with the paint… which in the end makes their project look so beautiful!
I also printed out x’s and o’s on which they glittered any which way they wanted. Another great thing for the kids who can’t control themselves, but not good for you or your custodian as glitter gets into every corner of the room and every orifice on your body. Watch your kids when they glue the letters on, we got a few gluing “ox” instead of “xo”! Here’s an XO template you can print off. This was harder than I thought it would be to find on the internet, so I just made up one myself (which probably took less time than the time I spent Googling and Pinteresting!).
In our literacy centres I included the following activity. This was the first time my class did a words around the room job. I thought it would be chaos, but the groups worked well together and enjoyed the challenge of finding as many words as they could.
Enjoy Valentine’s Day and the love and friendship around you!
Happy Teaching,
Iram