Are you geared up and ready? I’ll bet your child is! People all over the world profess their love on Valentines Day, however, customs vary slightly. Our family has a tradition of making chocolates together.
Activity 1: Valentine’s Day Sayings
What You’ll Need:
• Heart-shaped Valentine’s Day candies with words on them.
When sitting quietly with your child each choose (eyes closed) three candies to start. Using the ones you have chosen make up a short story. You go first modeling the procedure. The older the child, the more candies to tie together into a storyline.
Think what a great story she can make with:
• Cool cat
• Purr fect
• Dream
• My pet
• Ur good
Activity 2: Graphing Activity
CEOs use them. City planners rely on them. And entire board room walls are devoted to their presence. And no, we aren’t talking about candy hearts! Let’s get our kids graphing early and often. Here is an activity to help your child get a leg up and dive into the sophisticated world of graphs.
What You’ll Need:
• Candy hearts
• 1” graph paper works well
Randomly take a handful of candies and sort using graphing paper. Sort by: color, broken or unbroken, how many letters on the printed word.
Questions you might ask:
• Why do you think there are more of those?
• Which has the least?
• If you do this activity again, will the results be the same?
Activity 3: Fact Games
We have put together 11 interesting facts to share that will make you look like the smartest parent EVER! Play a game? Perhaps make it into a family Jeopardy challenge or design your own family game.
- In Japan and Korea they observe on February 14 but ends on March 14 known as “White Day”. On the first day women present chocolate or gifts to the man to express feelings. In Korea however, they also have set aside “Black Day” for those young people who have no particular romantic partners.
- In Denmark white flowers called snowdrops are sent to friends.
- The earliest written valentine was 1415 years ago. Have the older child
figure out how many years ago. - Many believe the ‘X’ symbol became synonymous with the kiss in medieval times. People who couldn’t write their names signed in front of a witness with an ‘X.’ The ‘X’ was then kissed to show their sincerity.
- In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned onto their sleeves for one week for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression “to wear your heart on your sleeve.”
- Physicians of the 1800’s commonly advised their patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining for lost love.
- Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in the late 1800’s.
- Red roses are considered the flower of love because the color red stands for strong romantic feelings.
- Teachers will receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
- The most fantastic gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife. Find it on the map and find pictures.
- Every Valentine’s Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.
Valentine’s Day Thematic Read-Alouds
Happy Valentine’s Day, Curious George
George and his friends celebrate Valentines Day and in his traditional mischievous style causes trouble with balloons, glitter and frosting.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Little Critter!
Little Critters class is celebrating Valentines Day. Pull back the flaps and discover all the fun Valentine’s Day surprises.
Cornelia Augusta couldn’t believe her eyes as this unusual downpour began. Each heart was special and she knew just what she wanted to do with each and every one of them. The simple and gentle text is kept to a minimum.
iTrace | App Review & Activities