Valentine's Day: Love and Laughter

Valentine's Day is a wonderful time to celebrate friendships! We had an action packed week! Check it out!

Earlier this week, we spent time with our Grade 3 buddies making Love Monster Mail Bags! Aren't they creative and unique?

We revisited a comprehension strategy where we connect the story to our own experiences, called "text to self connections". We read Will You Be My Valenswine?, where a piggy feels as though nobody loves him ... until he realizes his mama adores him! We recalled a time we felt loved and added a few piggy details!

Not only did Valentine's Day give us the chance to sneak in some writing, but it was also a chance to sharpen our math skills, too! We played a BINGO game that gave us practice identifying and naming numbers to 100!

We had a blast delivering our cards to each other!

We finished the day enjoying the friendships we've made by playing Valentine's Minute To Win It! 

The first challenge was Heart Stack! How many candy conversation hearts can you stack in a minute?

The next challenge? Lava Heart! Using only two hearts to stand on, can you make it across the room? Don't fall in the lava!

The final challenge was Broken Hearts. Students passed a tissue paper heart using clothespins! Careful, don't tear it!

Our Valentine's week was filled with learning, friendship and fun! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love Monster Mailbags are from The Teacher Wife.

Our Valentine's Minute To Win It was inspired by Mrs. Schmelzer's First Grade. 

Will You Be My Valenswine? craftivity from Cara Carroll.

Happy Hearts!

Valentine's is a spectacular day to celebrate our wonderful friends! We had an action packed day! Check it out!

What better way to begin Valentine's than by heading off to the gym for some healthy heart-pumping gymnastics!

We revisited a comprehension strategy where we connect a story to our own experiences, called "text to self connections". We read "Will You Be My Valenswine?". The little piggy feels as though nobody loves him ... until he realizes his mama adores him! We recalled a time we felt loved and added a few piggy details!

We got crafty and made Love Monster mail bags for our valentine cards! This task helped us refine our fine-motor skills and practice following multi-step directions. Hard to tell who is crazier, the kids or the monsters!

We played a few crazy Valentine Minute To Win It games together! Huh? We have to do WHAT in a minute?!?

Here are a few tournament highlights...

Candy Heart Stack - How high can you go?

Broken Heart -
Can you gently pass the tissue paper heart using a clothes pin?

Lava Heart -
Can you travel across the room using only 2 paper hearts to step on?

Using a variety of lines and details, we made painted love monsters in art class! 

First we drew a variety of lines and then we painted!

With a few details, we were able to turn them into Love Monsters!

We also did a number hunt, colouring in the numbers we found on a 100's board! Look at the hidden picture!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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 LibrarianValentine's Battleship from What The Teacher Wants

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