Holidays are such a fun time in the classroom! We are excited about Valentine’s Day and looking forward to our Valentine’s Day party on Friday. One early childhood classroom began this week by using coffee filters and markers to make a tie-dyed heart garland to decorate the classroom. After we colored the coffee filters, we sprayed them with cold water to get a tie-dye effect and then cut them into different sized hearts. After stringing them together we now have a creative window decoration for our party.
One fun and cost effective activity our class enjoys is necklace making. This is a great activity to sharpen fine motor skills and practice math skills like color recognition and pattern making. We made Valentine necklaces using red, white, pink and purple beads. This is an easy activity to do for any holiday and develops lots of skills for young kiddos.
During all of these activities children developed fine motor skills. We also worked on language skills and turn-taking. Fun activities like these are a great opportunity to help young children expand their vocabulary and make meaningful connections to their world. When working on activities that involve patterning or colors, we incorporate math language and math skills. All of these are important in terms of kindergarten readiness and are easy to incorporate into any activity.
Because giving is a big part of celebrating Valentine’s Day, the children created cards to be delivered to special friends at the end of the week. While thinking about giving to others, they also worked on patterning and language skills.
We hope everyone takes time to enjoy a little Valentine fun this week.
By Taelor Pentecost, Early Childhood Special Education Teacher
