Valentine's Day: Home Daycare Style!

We had a fun little Valentine's Day celebration at the home daycare, complete with treats, balloons, heart decorations and valentines.

One of the activities the children did was matching coloured hearts. I made them each their own activity board by taping one red, yellow and blue heart (made out of construction paper) to white Bristol Board. I covered these with clear plastic tape, and placed a piece of Velcro over each heart. I then cut out corresponding coloured hearts from coloured Bristol Board. I wrote the colour name on each heart, and placed Velcro on the back. The kids had to stick each heart to its matching coloured heart on the board. It's a great starter activity for teaching colours. (I wish I had started to teach colours using this activity!) Using only 3 colours simplifies things, and primary colours are a good place to begin. It is also very hands-on, yet appropriate for a 2-year-old's level of fine motor development.

At morning snack I gave them each a very small treat bag with a few chocolates, and a valentine from me to them. (They are too young to get the point of giving each other valentines, but I figured this would give them an idea of how it works.)

Later that morning, the kids made heart-shaped cookies. (It was mostly Noah and M., with the others dropping in when something peaked their interest!) We followed the same recipe as when Noah and I made Christmas Tree cookies (http://highparkhomedaycare.blogspot.com/2010/12/recipe-for-christmas-tree-sugar-cookies.html).

We had fun making a big old mess. (Did I just say that? Boy, have I changed in the past year or so!) All of them went wild sweeping the flour all over the table with their hands. B. kept eating the flour. Noah kept sucking on the baking utensils. It was perfect chaos. 

They each had a plain heart cookie after their lunch, and then I iced the rest while they napped. As you can see, my artistic skills in this area are severely lacking. But hey, it's from the heart, right?

We have been playing with heart cut-outs for the past week. I drew happy faces on some of the hearts and wrote their names on others. Then I stuck Velcro to the back of them. We have been sticking them to the area designated as "The Alphabet Wall". I also wrote the numbers "1", "2" and "3" on 3 of the hearts so that the kids can practise putting them in order. The rest of the cut-outs have been everywhere! I was hoping the kids would help me to decorate the apartment with them, but they preferred to hold onto them, dropping them in random places, of course! Happy Valentine's Day to my little sweethearts!