Valentine's Day Celebration ECE

Here are a few notes from our week of Valentine Fun!

We continued with our Songs, Verses & Movement for classroom routines.

Circle Time

#1 - "Good Morning, Dear Earth" verse

#2 - "Morning Verse"
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 13

#3 - "We Stretch Right Up to the Star of Our Birth" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 56

#4 - "Bear Has a Snout" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 93

#5 - "I'm a Tall, Tall Tree" song

#6 - "Wintertime" verse
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 70

#7 - "Beehive" verse
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 118

#8 - "Ten Bright Candles" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 84

Monday

• "Missy Mouse and Bitty Bunny," page 6
  from Valentine Tales by Suzanne Down
• Melting Ice Science Experiment with Salt and Liquid Watercolors
• Heart "Pop-Up Cards" from Earthways by Carol Petrash, page 129
• Handmade Seed Paper Valentines - make pulp

We are making pop-up cards for friends (learning the accordion fold for the pop-up heart element was so much fun) as well as handmade seed paper valentines for parents. Today we tore red and pink construction paper and white copy paper into tiny pieces and soaked them in a large basin of water.

Tuesday

• "The Little Valentine Fox," page 11
  from Valentine Tales by Suzanne Down
• Handmade Seed Paper Valentines - pour shapes

The Handmade Seed Paper Valentines take three days to make, but they are one of my favorite Valentine's Day projects and well worth it!

First, we blended the pulp in my blender in small batches (with plenty of water) and poured it into a large bowl. Then we stirred in two packets of organic thyme seeds.

I stacked four thick folded bath towels on top of each other and placed a linen dishcloth on the top (this is important so that the paper has a smooth finish and the gooey pulp doesn't get caught in the top towel's terry loops).

I placed a heart cookie cutter on top of the dishcloth and we used a slotted spoon to spoon some of the pulp into the cookie cutter. Each child got to make one. They used their fingers to spread the cloud-soft pulp in an even layer and completely fill the heart shape, then pushed downward as hard as they could to squeeze out all of the excess water into the towel pile below.

When they were satisfied, we carefully lifted up the heart shape to reveal the piece of pink heart-shaped handmade seed paper.

When we were all done (we made about a dozen) I placed them on a drying rack to dry completely.

Thursday

• "The Valentine Baker of Pink," page 25
  and Valentine Baker Finger Puppet (pattern on page 48)
  from Valentine Tales by Suzanne Down
• Handmade Seed Paper Valentines - assemble

Today was in our in-class valentine exchange. We had the loveliest time, and I served strawberries cut into hearts for us to enjoy alongside our Soup.

We also finished our Handmade Seed Paper Valentines to take home for parents, attaching the handmade paper hearts to beautiful lacy paper doilies. The note for parents was, "You're in my heart all the 'thyme'!" I copied the planting information from the seed packet and sent it home as well.

And, of course, today was also Stone Soup Day! Here was our list of group contributions this week:

red onion
carrot
celery
Swiss chard
fennel
apple
chicken stock

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