Happy Valentine's Day! Spread the Love

Happy Valentine's Day - Dydd Gwyl Hapus Falentaen Sant  

Here it is, folks - Valentine's Day. I hope you've all had armfuls of red roses and boxes of delicious chocolates and all sorts of other wonderful bits and bobs. Valentine's Day is a biggie in school, but not for me this year - we're on our half term break! But wherever you are and whatever you're doing I really hope you have a great time.

Spread the Love

A couple of days ago Debra from Primary in Idaho dropped me a line about her new Google+ community. Debra is trying  to find 365 primary teacher blogs that inspire her this year and share them on her blog. I think this is a great idea! Why not pay her a visit at her google+ community by clicking the button below.

Or hop along to her blog here - I'm sure she'd love to see you!

Looking for Last Minute Valentine Ideas? Or a Valentine FREEBIE?

. . .then look no further

Here I am, your Valentine Fairy Godmother! I've seen lots and lots of fantastic Valentine resources out there, and a good many Valentine blog hops too. So we're all spoiled for choice. But if nothing has yet tickled your fancy then perhaps this will help. It's a small but perfectly formed pack of activities that you can use tomorrow, either in the classroom or with your own kids. It's made up of a cute heart craftivity and three word games. 

The craftivity is a Guess Who activity, where children make a heart with a secret door. They write a clue for their secret valentine on the front of the door, and when opened their picture is behind! The hearts are then mounted on colourful cardstock and strung up for display making a cute and unusual display for your classroom or hallway. 

The sound sort word game uses short a phonograms -at, -ap and -ack. Children sort the words onto the sort cards, sounding and blending each one as they go. I have included a sheet of blank hearts for you to use for other phonics skills.

The match makers game does what it says on the tin. Children turn all the hearts face down and try to find matching pairs. Simple.

Hidden words is a fun way of finding other words using a long word. I have included letter tiles that spell the word "valentine" and a record sheet for children to write down their finds. You could laminate a few copies of the record sheet and wipe clean to use over and over.

The pack is available at only $2 from my TPT and TN stores - that's just 50c for each resource!

Snag yourself a free sneak preview

A sneak preview freebie is available for members of my SOS-Supply Freebies Group. Don't panic! If you're not already a member, you can sign up quickly and easily on the Group page. And it's free! Click on the button to take you there.

Valentine Bird Buddies

Today we break for half term. It doesn't seem long since we went back after Christmas, but a 5 week half term is pretty unusual. Even more unusual is the fact that when we go back it's only 5 more weeks until we break for Easter! All well and good, but we'll pay for it eventually - probably with two 8 week half terms in the summer...

I wouldn't say that there was a problem with a half term holiday, except this time it's come at a pretty awkward time. Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) is on 12th and Valentine's Day on the 14th. But I'm not one to let my kids miss out, even if I don't have a class of my own. So this week we're doing some fun Valentine's activities.

Bearing in mind that all of my kids are at various stages of learning English, it's been quite a challenge to come up with activities that have a curriculum base rather than just fun craftivity that they can make and take home. I wanted to assess how well they could understand spoken English and follow directions, so some of my younger children followed instructions to make Valentine glyphs. Some of the instructions were straightforward, like "draw a blue triangle if you have any pets." Others required just a touch more understanding, like "draw a pink circle if you prefer ice cream, and a purple one if you prefer chocolate." They loved this activity, and it gave them something to take away too (I usually have to keep all their work as evidence).

Just look at this cheeky chappie - he always manages to make me smile.

Some of these children preferred Christmas to Easter - see the fab Christmas tree...

Some of my children are further forward with their English acquisition, and were ready for more of a challenge. Cindy's fantastic "How to Make a Valentine Bird" was the perfect thing.

I started by telling the children their Learning Objective: to listen, understand and follow verbal instructions to make something to do with Valentine's Day. I explained that I would not be showing them what their craft should look like and that the only clues would be the verbal instructions I would give them. They would know how successful they were at the end of the project when I showed them the diagrammatic instructions and an example of the outcome. They were raring to go!

Most of the birds turned out just fine, although there were some legs sticking out of some very odd places...

Here are some of our Valentine Bird Buddies:

Some of the children then went on to write up the instructions using sentence strips to scaffold their writing.

Well done, guys! Great job!

Happy Valentine's Day...!

Happy Valentine's Day y'all! I started my day off by hitting the gym at 8am - then promptly diving into Costa for coffee (decaff of course...) and toast - yum! Don't think my day is going to get any better than that...

What is Valentine's Day bringing for you?

In the UK we have half term, so won't be celebrating today with the kiddos. Although the subbing is going quite well, I miss my own class. It's difficult, especially at special times of the year like this when there are so many really great things that I want to do with the kiddos. I really must now try especially hard to find a class of my own, but with no work out there at all in Welsh schools, it's proving very difficult. There is a job that I am quite tempted to go for - trouble is, it's in Gran Canaria! OK, the weather is great, but he commute home might be a little on the long side....

My blogging keps me going, though. It's great to touch base with teachers from all over the world, and I get a real kick out of making up activities and resources that I hope are useful in some way. I've started thinking about St Patrick's Day, which I know is very big in the USA as well as Ireland of course. Before that we have our own Patron Saint's day - Saint David. If anyone is interested in developing inter-cultural awareness I'll produce some stuff.

Have a wonderful day, filled with love - and of course, chocolate...!

For those of you who are looking for some last minute activities for today, I have reduced all my Valentine-themed resources in my TPT shop. There are also a few freebies there for you. Why not check it out.

Teaching Blog Addict's Want To Share Wednesday

My freebie posted today on the wonderful Teaching Bog Addict's Want to Share Wednesday, a cute set of Valentine Teddy teacher's cards. Enjoy!!

Valentine Bookmarks

Phew...! My third resource today... A set of Valentine bookmarks - one page with messages designed to motivate young readers, one with lines and one blank for you or the kiddos to write their own messages. I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them.

Sue