Love Is In the Air!

Valentine’s books are hard to find in my school’s library.  Anyone else experience the same thing?  But, I read this to my class today and they LOVED it.  Olive is quite the character!  Be sure to read this with your Valentine J

LISTENING - Tell your child to listen out for the word HEART.  Every time you say it in the book, have him/her do some sort of action (hug you, jump up and down, etc.).

RHYMING - Although not every line rhymes, there are several sentences with rhyming pairs: “One, TWO off she FLEW,” “Stop!  No!  Don’t go!” and “Just then, down the RUT rolled a NUT,” etc.  Cut a heart out of red or pink construction paper  Choose one of those sentences, and see how many other rhyming words your child can think of to match.  Write these for your child on the heart.  You can make several hearts using several rhyming pairs.

WORDS/SENTENCES -  Keep that red construction paper.  Write one word of a sentence on a smaller heart.  Use a sentence from the book, or one like “Happy Valentine’s Day my love,” “I love you ____” or “Be my Valentine ____.”  You can even use conversation hearts to think of a message.  Show your child how to mix up the words and arrange them back in order.  Have your child try this!

SYLLABLES -  Use conversation hearts for this activity.  Try to figure out how many syllables are in these words by pushing a heart out each time you hear a syllable: LOVE, VALENTINE, OLIVE, HEART, CHOCOLATE, etc.

INITIAL/FINAL SOUNDS -  How many objects in your house can your child find that start with the V sound for Valentine (vase, vacuum, etc.)?  Can your child find any that end with that sound (glove, stove, TV, etc.)?

PHONEMES - Back to those conversation hearts.  Use the word VALENTINE, which could be very tricky, push out a conversation heart for each phoneme you hear (V-A-L-EN-T-I-NE).  If this is too hard, try LOVE (l-o-ve) or CANDY (c-a-n-d-y).  Be sure to model it before you have your child do it!

LETTERS/SPELLING - Recycle and keep using those conversation hearts.  Help your child read the short messages.  Can he/she make a story using the hearts?  Glue them onto a paper and help your child add words in between to fill in the story.  Another activity- write VALENTINE on scraps of paper (or hearts).  One letter per sheet.  How many smaller words can your child make from it (van, in, eat, etc.).  This sheet  can help!

Other activities to do with conversation hearts: graph the colors, sort them by colors or make patterns with the colors.  I wouldn’t suggest eating all the conversation hearts in one sitting, but enjoy!