Valentine-o-rama!

Valentine's Day is heaps of fun! It's a crazy day that may appear to be silly, but take a closer look. Lots of opportunities to learn!

Together with our Grade 5 buddies we tackled Love Monster Mailbags! While flexing our creative muscles, we were also able to refine our fine-motor skills and practice following multi-step directions. 

We revisited a comprehension strategy first introduced in the fall, where we connect a story to our own experiences (remember this post?). We read Will You Be My Valenswine?, about a piggy who roams the barnyard looking for love. Then we made text-to-self connections by writing about a time we each felt loved. Such thoughtful work!

"I felt loved when my dogs kist me."
"I felt loved when my mom gave me hambgeres."

During this activity, however, one little guy put his head down. He wasn't writing. He wasn't drawing. He looked as if he couldn't think of a time he felt loved. But that wasn't his problem. "Mrs. Beliveau, I have too many ideas! I can't choose just one time I felt loved!". 

Nothing like using Valentine's Day to sneak in some practice with numbers to 100! Students hunted around the room armed with 100's charts. As they found numbers, they coloured them in to reveal a secret picture!

We delivered our cards to our classmates! We even remembered that names always begin with a capital. This activity was to blame for the noise in our classroom, which we prefer to call "joyful noise", rather than chaos. 

We also took time to make cards for the elderly at a seniors lodge. The winter months can be dark and lonely for many, so we wrote uplifting, kind messages and then added lots of "razzle dazzle"! 

To round out our day, we celebrated our friendships by playing Valentine Minute To Win It! Huh? We have to do WHAT in a minute? Yowza!

Here are the tournament highlights:

Candy Heart Stack - How high can you go?

Lava Heart - How far can you travel using only 2 paper hearts to step on?

Broken Heart - Can you gently pass a tissue paper heart with clothes pins?

As we enter into Lent, let us remember the true source of all love. 

Image courtesy of Decorate My Life

Love Monster Mailbags from The Teacher Wife. 
Minute To Win It games inspired by Mrs. Schmelzer's First Grade.
Will You Be My Valenswine? craftivity from Cara Carroll.
Hundreds chart mystery picture inspired by Lil Country Librarian
Valentine's Battleship from What The Teacher Wants