Love Is in the Air: Ideas & Freebies for Valentine's Day

It's only a couple of more days until Valentine's Day and I'm the final prep phase for the big day.  I have a few new activities planned, as well as some old favorites.

To begin with, we are working a bit with initial blends this week.  The new phonics program we are using this year seemed to (in my humble opinion) slide right past blends.  So, my class is spending more time with them over the next couple of weeks.
I made a Valentine's themed L blends and R blends sorting center to go along with these adorable mailboxes I scooped up at Target's dollar spot.

This center is part of a free packet I just put together called Cupid's Helper.  If you would like to use this activities with your students and do not have the mailboxes, no worries.  I included a couple of sorting mats to use instead.

Another literacy activity we'll be doing is Valentine's Day Spelling Challenge.  Students have to build as many words as they can using the letters in Valentine's Day and then write them on their recording sheet.  My students will work with a partner on this activity.

I started writing down the words I could make with Valentine's Day and there are a ton.  I'm curious to see how my first grade friends do with this challenge.

As part of our math time students will review skip counting by 2's.  The number cards in Cupcake Counting fit perfectly into some heart shaped tins I also found at the dollar spot.

Before moving on to the final center in this packet, I want to share about a wonderful book that I picked up a few weeks ago, that we will be reading on Valentine's Day.  It is Love Monster by Rachel Bright.

Monster lives in a world of cute, fluffy things which makes finding love very difficult for him.  He searches and searches and in the end . . .   Well, you'll just have to get your own copy to find out.

It's a sweet story, with fantastic illustrations.  We'll be making our own Monsters.  I think the boys will really enjoy a Valentine's craft that is not overly "girly."

Monster was also the inspiration for the final center in Cupid's Helper.  In Monsters Love Math, students will sort the missing sign equations according to if they are adding or subtracting equations.  We have not practiced this skill in a while, so it should be a good review.

If you would like any of the centers featured above, they are all together in my FREE Cupid's Helper packet.  These centers are my Valentine to all you sweet and hard working teachers.  I hope you enjoy.

I also want to thank my little helper.  A  sat down with me and worked out all of these centers.  She is my #1 quality control inspector and my favorite Valentine.