487 Questions....: Valentine's Day Activities and Graphing Fun

We had some fun this week, doing some Valentine's Day activities. I don't really like to make a huge deal of most holidays, but we do recognize them and try to tailor some of our activities to reflect them.

We did some graphing using conversation hearts. I was a little surprised that EVERY child in my class had success with this; it's a pretty advanced concept, but this just proves that children will always surprise you with what they can do. (Disclaimer: we have done graphing before in our classroom, so this was NOT their first exposure). First, we sorted the candies into colors, although some of us preferred to leave them in a big pile. (As we all know, there are many ways to get the same job done.)

Next we counted each color and graphed it in the way that made the most sense for each of us. We could put the hearts in the boxes, make X's or both.

Then the good part...WE GOT TO EAT THEM!

We did some pretty cool art this week--first was marble rolling in an old heart-shaped candy box. Put the paper in the box, dip a marble in paint, and roll it all around the box

This is what the finished product looks like (still in the box).

We also did some outdoor art, cutting and pasting and drawing from seed catalogs while we were outside playing.

We decorated Valentine's Bags so our friends have someplace to put all of our valentines. We spent several days making valentines for our friends, and we had some extra store-bought ones that we signed and passed out.