Valentine's Day

We are full force Valentine's Day this week.  I think I will be able to finish by Wednesday, so we can start President's Day Thursday.  Whew...  February is FULL of special activities.  It feels like I have hurried through each one to get to the next.  The good thing is Febrary has flown by so far...  6 weeks until Spring Break.  I have a feeling I am going to need it.

I sent home a list of foody type items that I would like for our classroom and I was flooded with wonderful, fun stuff. (Like 4 big bags of conversation hearts!)  The problem was how to use it other than the standard graphing.  So this is what I came up with for the hearts...

I went through them all to make sure that they were not inappropriate for first grade, (like anything that said SEXY, HOT STUFF, etc... ) or that was hard to read because it wasn't placed right or was blurred.  The difficult to read ones were placed in a container in the middle and the rest were out on the table.  The kids had to read through the hearts on the table and pick their favorite ones to write.  I added the incentive that after they wrote 3 they could eat one from the container in the middle so they didn't sneak the ones that people had handled.  (ICK!)  They LOVED it!  They stayed on task the whole time and were helping each other read and write.  It was wonderful.  Not quiet, but controlled noise- which is what I try for!  :)  You can download a copy of the activity HERE! 

I also ended up with Marshmallow Hearts and Gummy Hearts.  So I came up with this cute little VENN DIAGRAM to compare and contrast the two.  Gotta love the VENN!

Can't wait to do this!  The kids always love the activities that involve food!

I am hoping to keep up with the students' candy consumption so that I am as hyped on sugar as they are!  If you can't beat em...  Hope your Valentine's Day is lovely!

Julie