Valentine's Day Lesson Ideas

February Preschool or Toddler Math and Reading Lesson Plans

Jan 12, 2009

Math and reading activities for the Valentines Day Theme that are fun, educational and interactive.

Have fun with your preschoolers this Valentines Day by having them play games and participate in activities that further develop each child’s skill level as well as embrace the meaning of love and giving for this famous February holiday.

Incorporate phonics and literacy into your Valentines lesson plan with these following ideas. Introduce some of these ideas in your Circle Time, or when it best fits your class routine.

Make up an emergent reader for your dry erase board, pocket chart or simply tape it to the wall. Follow the Valentine’s Day theme by covering emotions, using words your class is currently focusing on or creating new ones. Refer to the example picture below for some ideas on how to create your emergent reader.

You can also follow this activity up with a Poster Board Pocket Game listed in the above link. Have the words on the pockets with the pictures as the manipulatives, i.e. “Happy” would be the word on the pocket, and a happy faced heart would be the manipulative the child needs to place in the pocket.

Further the activity of emotions by letting each child create his or her own heart shaped book. For each page write a question about the emotions you’re talking about, i.e. “What makes me _____?” and encourage your child to draw or cutout pictures from a magazine. Visit the Valentines Day Craft article for more fun arts and crafts ideas.

Introduce to your toddler, or enhance your preschoolers perception of emotions with this fun, adult supervised activity. Ahead of time, cut out four different colored hearts about four to five inches wide. At the table, have a few magazines available and scissors.

Begin the activity by asking what they think each emotion means. After guiding the discussion, write an emotion on each heart. Say the letters and sound them out as you write the word. Then encourage the children to find pictures of people or children who look happy, sad, angry or sleepy.

When all the pictures are cut out, let each child glue the faces onto the appropriate labeled heart. Hang the hearts somewhere visible and return to the topic of feelings and emotions daily throughout the month. For teachers, you can create a bulletin board theme around this activity!

Valentines Day Math Games and Activities

For this game you’ll need boxes of candy hearts and a chart on either poster board, or regular sized paper for individual use. Have the chart graphed by the different colors offered with the candies. Talk with your toddler or preschooler about the different colors, and ask them to sort them by same color.

After the candies have been sorted, show them the graph and explain that you’re going to see which color has the most candy hearts. For older children, encourage them to begin counting and help as needed. For younger children, count with them. Graph each candy using a crayon or marker that resembles the color of that group. Discuss the results, and be sure to let them have a treat in the end!

Using a heart pattern (from Preschool Express), choose a skill to focus on with your preschoolers. You can play this magnet fishing game by having the children match the hearts by size, pattern, numbers, colors, or letters. You can also incorporate these ideas with a File Folder Game.

The copyright of the article Valentine's Day Lesson Ideas in Kids Educational Activities is owned by ChristaCarol Jones. Permission to republish Valentine's Day Lesson Ideas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.