my valentine to preschoolers this year was an i spy bottle.
inside there are white beans, heart beads, mini valentine erasers, jewels and mirrors.
plus a secret message.
i’m counting on the preschoolers leaving the bottles taped up tightly! : )
to the tune of “if you’re happy and you know it…”
when you mix red and white you get pink
when you mix red and white you get pink
when you mix them you will see
a new color magically
when you mix red and white you get pink
with a squirt of red and a squirt of white in a sealed baggie, we squished and squashed them.
then we snipped the ends and squirted out the pink paint (kind of like frosting!).
there were lots of different brushes and rollers to choose from (and extra bathroom clean up after handwashing). : )
also discovered was that the other end of the paintbrush can be used to “write” in the paint.
in this color blending experiment, we discovered what happens with extra red….
when the paper dried we cut hearts from it!
some of the hearts went to the valentine station and some of the hearts were turned into valentines for the grandma and grandpa friends.
by the way, my favorite moment was when i brought out the ketchup bottle from k week (with red paint in it…which i highly recommnend…as well as yelow paint in a mustard bottle, white paint in a milk jug, etc.) and poured it on the paper. oh, funny stuff. some of the preschoolers gave a preschool version of rolling their eyes at me.
i drilled holes in thrifted wooden hearts then set them out with watercolor paints.
each heart had a name on it so first the preschoolers worked on name recognition (which they are very good at by now!).
after the heart was painted, we rubbed on regular school glue and sprinkled glitter.
once dry we added a string and made a necklace!
quite simple and using several media, we made pretty plates.
rick rack, lace, crayons, glitter and paper hearts.
the lace and rick rack pushed and pulled through the holes.
learning how to tie a knot.
getting excited about p-p-p-pink and p-p-p-purp-p-p-ple (p sounds).
adding layers of glitter.
using them to sing our alphabet song
(we sang “p is for pretty plate” instead of “p is for peanut” like our alphabet card shows)
oh my, they are pretty.
whooooooooooooooooo loves you?
these owl friends do.
each preschooler cut the eye shapes (since it was O week, this was a good time to practice cutting on a circle line…hard to do, i must add). we discussed shapes and then gave each preschooler a pile of pre cut shapes along with their circles. it was fun to have preschool moms and dads here to help us while ms. vilia is away. this dad-teacher was told he was a “VERY good preschool teacher.”
they used them to create an owl. we included a heart shape in honor of valentine’s day.
it was interesting to give no guidance but just ask them to use them all somehow. it wasn’t long before one little girl said, “hey! i made an owl. everyone just do it like this.”
nurturing group dynamics.