Valentines Storytime

My son is in a preschool storytime group and one of the moms did a crackerjack job the week of Valentines. This is what she said when I asked for more info about what they had done (it was two storytimes- Tue, Thurs 9-11am. Then on Thurs at 11 they took a field trip to the local retirement home to deliver Valentines to the residents and sing 'Skinamarink'

Skinamarinka dinky dink
Skinamarinka doo,
I love you

So cute! I also put a photo of the Valentine that her daughter handed out at their playgroup- a heartshaped lollypop with heart wings and a little face drawn on with a sharpie and little antennas.

She says:

The books I chose were placed on top of the bookshelves at the library by the librarian. I'm sure there are lots of valentine books available that may be cuter than what I used. I just worked with what I found.

On Tuesday we read two books. I don't remember the name of one of the them it was just generic about a class having a valentine's party and a girl giving valentine's to her family. The other was called "1,2,3 Valentine's Day" by Jeanne Modesitt. I really liked this one because there was counting, rhyming, and repetition. So the kids could chime in and say some of the words with me.

On Thursday we read "Secret Valentine" by Catherine Stock and "The Valentine Express" by Nancy Wallace. The Secret Valentine was shorter and more at the level of the boys' attention span (the boys are 3yo and very active), but the Valentine Express is a cuter book which Miriam (4 years old) really enjoyed. Both of them relate to making valentines for older people who may not get any valentines. This inspired the idea to make them for the people at Sunrise (retirement home).

Here are the directions that inspired the valentines hat.

Valentine Crown added 1-26-00 Original Author Unknown

Need: paper, tape, glue

Directions: Cut a 2" wide strip of red paper long enough to fit around your head. Tape or staple the ends together. Cut two more strips of paper, each 1" wide and 12" long. Fold one strip in half and make a 2" cut in the center. Glue that strip from one side of the headband to the other. Glue the second strip on so that the band is divided into quarters. Tuck and glue the center of the second strip into the cut of the first. Cut a heart and glue into the center. Decorate the crown with white and pink hearts.
The pipe cleaner heart was my own variation. And we used potatoes to stamp the hearts. You cut the potato in half, then push a heart cookie cutter down into it, trim away the outside, and then take off the cookie cutter. Dip it in paint and you have a fun and easy stamp.

For games we played "Hug, Hug, Kiss" (duck,duck, goose). It amazes me how this game never gets old to them!

We also played a bean bag toss. I cut out a big heart and put it on the floor and they took turns standing behind a line and throwing the bean bag, trying to land them on the heart.

Another game I wanted to play was stack the conversation hearts. I bought Sweettart hearts because I don't really like the flavor of conversation hearts, but it turns out that they are slightly rounded so it was impossible to stack more than two high. But I think if I had flat traditional conversation hearts, they would have stacked. I was going to give them each 30 seconds to see how tall of a tower they could make.