We invite parents and other family members to join us for the Valentine's Day celebration. The children sit in a circle in the large group area. Then each child dresses up as a mail carrier and delivers his/her valentines.
A few days prior to the party, the children make valentine boxes or bags at the art center. Here is a picture of what last year's valentine bags looked like.
In the past, I have had the students make their boxes out a variety of things like milk jugs, cereal boxes, shoe boxes, oatmeal containers, etc. This year, a parent is donating large tins from her restaurant to paint and decorate for our party. I am looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
Teacher's Tip: To make the process runs smoothly, check the student's valentines the night before the party to make sure everyone has a valentine for each student. I also take out the teacher's valentines and have the kids hand-deliver them to the teachers prior to the party. This helps the students get a little advance practice and shortens the time required to pass out valentines.
Instructor's Insight: In advance, think about which students would be good models to deliver their valentines first. Have students who have a hard time waiting go toward the end so they spend their wait time anticipating the activity. If they go first, they might lose interest and have a difficult time waiting for their friends to deliver their valentines.
To support the students in being successful with this activity, I velcro a schedule to a paint stick as a reminder of how to deliver their special valentines. There is velcro on the back of the stick too so as the children do each step we can remove that step by velcroing it to the back. Turn the stick over and we are already to use it for the next student.
If you would like a copy of this schedule send me an email and I will email you a boardmaker version of it.
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