Fall in love all over again: Valentine's Day ideas.With teaching, of course! Let these inspired reading, math, science, and social studies activities guide the way. IN LANGUAGE ARTS language arts pl.n. The subjects, including reading, spelling, and composition, aimed at developing reading and writing skills, usually taught in elementary and secondary school. , TRY ... We Are Family Word Sort Put away the flash cards and practice word families with this fun literacy center activity. To prepare, label decorated dec·o·rate tr.v. dec·o·rat·ed, dec·o·rat·ing, dec·o·rates 1. To furnish, provide, or adorn with something ornamental; embellish. 2. valentine bags with different word-family endings, such as -ot, -ake, and -ug. Write words that belong to each of the word families on the back of valentine cards. Then place the bags and cards in a center. Invite children to draw a valentine, read the word, and place it into the corresponding word-family bag. Later, have children choose a bag of word-family valentines and use the words inside to create valentine rhymes or stories. IN MATH, TRY ... Place Value Hearts Place value couldn't be sweeter when you practice with candy hearts. You'll also need paper cups, a four-column chart, and four paper heart cutouts that match the candy colors (pink, green, yellow, and purple, for example). Divide the candy into the cups. On the cutouts, write "Thousands," "Hundreds," "Tens," or "Ones." Attach the "place-holder" hearts to the top of the columns on the chart. To use, children choose a cup, group the candy by color, and place each group in the corresponding column. (For example, three pink hearts in the pink "Thousands" column, five green ones in the green "Hundreds" column, two yellow in the yellow "Tens" column, and one purple in the purple "Ones" column.) They write the number represented by the hearts (3,521, in the example above) and then return the hearts to the cup. To make the activity self-checking, write the answer on the bottom of each cup. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN SOCIAL STUDIES, TRY ... State of Love Take a cue from those "I (Heart) New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of " T-shirts and have kids declare their devotion to the U.S.A.--and geography. Cut out 50 pink hearts using a die-cut. On the hearts, write "I love ...," completing each sentence with a different state name. Put the hearts in a decorated valentine bag. Then display a large map of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Invite children to draw a heart out of the bag, read the sentence, and locate the state on the map. Have them use removable adhesive adhesive, substance capable of sticking to surfaces of other substances and bonding them to one another. The term adhesive cement is sometimes used in place of adhesive, especially when referring to a synthetic adhesive. to stick the heart to the matching state. For smaller states, attach the heart on a nearby border and use yarn to connect it to the corresponding state. As a variation, write state abbreviations or state capitals on the hearts. IN SCIENCE, TRY ... Magnetic Attraction There's no better time to talk about "instant attraction" (between magnetic objects) than Valentine's Day Valentine's Day: see Saint Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day Lovers' holiday celebrated on February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine, one of two 3rd-century Roman martyrs of the same name. St. . Place an assortment of small items, both magnetic and nonmagnetic, in a shoebox shoe·box n. 1. An oblong box, usually made of cardboard, for holding a pair of shoes. 2. Something resembling or suggestive of such a box, as a plain, rectangular building or a cramped room or dwelling. Noun 1. . Cut out one large and one small heart from red paper. Attach the small heart to a magnet wand A handheld optical reader used to read typewritten fonts, printed fonts, OCR fonts and bar codes. The wand is waved over each line of characters or codes in a single pass. . Ask children to predict which items in the box are magnetic, remove those objects, and place them on the large heart. Then wave the magnet over the objects remaining in the box. If an object is attracted to the magnet, remove it and set it beside the box. Then wave the wand over each object on the large heart. If the object is not attracted to the magnet, set the object to the side of the heart. When finished testing, encourage kids to examine how accurately they predicted. IN MATH, TRY ... Handful of Hearts How many hearts can you hold in your hand? Invite children to find out with this estimation activity. Place a bag of candy hearts in a center. Ask children to trace and cut out an outline of their hands. To use, children estimate how many candy hearts it will take to cover the hands, writing their guesses on the cutouts. Then they cover the cutouts completely with candy. When finished, have them remove the hearts one at a time, counting as they go, and write and circle the actual number next to their estimates. How close were their guesses? Compare and share with the class. IN STUDY SKILLS, TRY ... Whole-Hearted Concentration Use this Valentine's Day version of Concentration to practice patterning and visual skills. Have kids create the game pieces by tracing a heart template onto red paper. Have them cut out their hearts and decorate them with shape stamps, using one of these predetermined pre·de·ter·mine v. pre·de·ter·mined, pre·de·ter·min·ing, pre·de·ter·mines v.tr. 1. To determine, decide, or establish in advance: patterns: ABAB ABAB Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology (journal) , AABB AABB American Association of Blood Banks. AABB American Association of Blood Banks A professional, non-profit organization established in 1947 and dedicated to the education, formulation of standards, policy and other facets of , or ABCABC. Then ask them to cut their heart in half. To play, place the pieces in a bag, shake to mix them up, and then lay the pieces pattern-side down on a table. Invite children to take turns flipping two pieces at a time to try to find two matching sides of a heart. Once children have found all the matches, you might mix and match the pieces, and put them together to create an interesting and colorful valentine quilt display. RELATED ARTICLE: WAIT! THERE ARE MORE IDEAS ONLINE Giddy-Up Kindergarten kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be Yee haw! Make the trek to the Old West with cute cute adj. cut·er, cut·est 1. Delightfully pretty or dainty. 2. Obviously contrived to charm; precious: "[He] cross-curricular activities, like an ABCABC-patterned bandana. teacher.scholastic.com/K Fun With Geometry Lots of ideas for introducing your kids to basic shapes. Don't miss the booklist! teacher.scholastic.com/1-2 |
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