Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day can get quite crazy in 27!  In my personal life Valentine's Day is not a huge deal, we usually stay home, have an out of the ordinary dinner (this year it was juicy steaks, cheesy potatoes, salad and a little high-class vino) and that's about it.  But in 27, we jazz it up a bit.

I purchased Doodle Bugs Teaching's Valentine Crafts! product from TpT.  It has three crafts for $3.  So worth it!

I thought this was a really cute coincidence.  Their two little owls are making googly eyes at each other, just like they do.  We used extra large lunch bags (50 bags for about $2) which worked out perfectly.  I made the name cards with these free valentine themed frames and Word.  I showed the kids my example and we wrote the how to instructions before making the bags as a reinforcement of our functional writing.

Next, we sorted and graphed conversation hearts.  The super cute graph template and analysis sheet is from The Daily Alphabet on TpT.

Before passing out the hearts, we talked about different ways we could sort the candy.  Most kids chose to sort by color, pretty quick and easy.  Two of my over achievers sorted by the sayings on the hearts!  High five for challenging your awesome brains!  We had to (literally) cut and past two blank graphs together to get enough spaces, but did my heart beat with pride!

We created a class book from Cupcake for the Teacher's "Love is..." free printable.  Seriously, love is finding this seller on TpT!  Great stuff.  My favorite  is "Love is...holding hands crossing the street so you don't get hit by a bus." That girl cracks me up!

The printables are in color, but I printed the cover in black and white and colored it with markers.  We don't have access to color printers at my school.  When the kids were finished I glued their page on purple construction paper, stapled the pages together, glued on a red binding and glued our colored cover to the front.  Easy peasy.

For six and seven year olds we see a lot of dramatics in 27!  I adore my "Hurt Feelings" mediator!  She has has the long, curly hair.  I don't know why Pink Kitty and Brown Stripes are upset with each other.  It could be anything from he accidentally touched her to he told her one of her math answers was incorrect to he said something unkind to her.  Thankfully the Hurt Feelings mediator can take control of the situation, listen to both sides and offer a suggestions on how to avoid the situation in the future.  She's amazing and very highly respected.

 Pencils are like gold and diamonds in 27.  One of the little valentines I gave the kids included a Valentine's Day pencil with a name flag.  It warmed my heart that they understood the play on words.  I love this time of year in first grade.  Everything is really starting to click.

I hole punched the flags and slid the pencil through then secured it with a sticker.  It worked OK, but if I do it again I'll make the flags a bit bigger and laminate them for more durability.

At the end of the day the kids passed out valentines and ate a cupcake (one of the kids brought them as her valentines to pass out).  Not a bad day. =]