Tot School: Valentines Day

E is 24 months, C is 22 months, and B is 4 years

I originality had planned to kick off our transportation month learning about trains this week, but at the last minute I was swayed by all of the cute valentine ideas floating around the web and decided to push most of our train activities to next week to make room for some valentine fun. We did do a couple of train activities on Monday though so you will see them scattered about.

Arts and Crafts

Shape Train

    Both E and C are into identifying shapes right now so I thought this craft would be a fun way to build on their interest. I cut a bunch of shapes out of construction paper and the kids pasted them on their paper to create a train. We labeled the shapes together and I encouraged the kids to think about what shapes resemble the different parts of a train. 

Valentine Play Dough

    Play dough was definitely the activity of the week here. E and C spent nearly an hour playing with regular play dough so I though it would be fun to make some homemade valentine play dough with E on Wednesday. We made sparkly red cinnamon play dough and The Imagination Tree's chocolate play dough. E has spent nearly every waking hour at home playing with this!!!

mouse holes

Secret Message Watercolors 

    I wrote secret valentine messages in white crayons for the kids to reveal as they painted. They stuck heart stickers on their papers (which I intended to have them remove afterward for a relief effect, but it didn't work well so we left them on) and then used watercolors to paint their paper.  Again, I forgot to bring watercolor paper so we had some rippage and I should have mixed the colors to be darker but the kids had fun none the less. 

I Love You

You Are Sweet

You Are Special

Heart Stamping Valentine Cards

    I saw this cute and simple idea on Prudent Baby the other day and had to give it a try for ourselves. It was an excellent project all around. The kids loved it, I loved it, it was very low mess, and it resulted in a really cute project that we can send as valentine cards! 

Gross Motor

Musical Hearts

     No Time For Flash Cards has a ton of great gross motor activities for toddlers and this one just happens to be perfect for valentines day! On foam hearts I wrote out a variety of physical tasks and laid them out on the floor in a circle. We danced/ walked around the circle to music and when the music stopped we each did what was on the heart we were standing on. It was a great way to burn off some energy, work on gross motor skills, and also self control (stopping our bodies when the music stopped ) and following directions! B LOVED this activity!!! E had fun too, participating on and off throughout the course of the game. C participated for a short time but mainly wanted to carry the hearts in his mouth like a kitty. It is fun and interesting to see the difference in ages. 

balancing on one foot

crab walk

 E's high kick

B's high kick

Literacy

Letter T Train Track

    To help the little ones recognize the letter T, I taped out a train track in the shape of a T on the floor for them to play with. They had fun with this for a short while but it wasn't as big of a hit as I had hoped. Oh Well...

To see how other tots are playing, check out Tot School on 1+1+1=1