Valentine's Day and Letter A Activities

Valentine's Day and the letter A kept us busy for quite awhile!  We had the Valentine theme trays out for a little more than a week and I think we were both a little tired of them - well maybe mostly me.  Tootsie was still wanting to play one that allowed her to eat conversation hearts!

Here's what we were up to:

I received a gift certificate to Kaplan Early Learning Company and one of the items I chose was these Geoboards.  There are quite a few in an order so I was able to take some to school and leave a few at home for Tootsie.  They have been a hit in both places.

Once she got the hang of the using the rubber bands, there were surprisingly few finger snaps!
 

This activity wasn't a favorite at all.  I added small figures and Model Magic to the tray.  I recently put this activity out in my classroom and it was the most chosen one for at least a week.  I figured Tootsie would like it too but not so much.  She immediately swapped the Model Magic for playdough and only played with it for a very short time. 

This was by far the most favorite tray!  I really wish I could find where I printed this from so I could give credit but I haven't been able to.  If I find it I will post!

I cut the sheet apart into individual cards and then spread them across the floor and set a baby food container (I am SO glad I saved some of those) on top so Tootsie had to move around to sort the hearts.  

After she did it once, I gave her a small dish of conversation hearts to sort.  She loved it!

After we sorted into dishes for awhile, I gave her a graph to sort them on.  We continued to talk about how many of each color there were, which had the most, which had the least and if there were any colors that had equal amounts.

I found this little Valentine tree at the Target Dollar Spot.  Getting the heart ornaments on was pretty easy for Tootsie but taking them off took a little more work!

The heart sticks came from the Dollar Tree.  I collected pink, red and purple beads from several of our activities and added them for stringing.  

Tootsie strung them a few times and thought they looked "beautiful" but then decided it was more fun to stack the biggest beads and then knock them down.

I don't have a photo of the finished product but I hung the pink piece on the wall and Tootsie ordered them by size and glued them on.  

Our Valentine sensory bin contained white beans of two different sizes, heart containers, a heart ice cube tray, pitcher, bowl, scoops and a few other odds and ends. 

Tootsie filled up the ice cube tray and a a dish and decided to cook them in her kitchen.  She is still cooking beans.  I have a feeling I will be finding these for quite awhile.

I also made Tootsie a letter A sensory bin.  I have taken a three drawer storage bin and turned it into alphabet activities.  The top drawer is this pom pom bin, the second is an "A is for Alligator" magnet page and a sand paper A, the third drawer contains her Animal ABC's binder from 1+1+1=1 as well as her Tot Time Notebook and some dry erase markers.

Here's a little better look at what's in the drawer with the pom poms (we just remove the whole drawer when she wants to play with it).  I collected upper and lower case A's made from different materials.  Below are the ones that I sewed from felt for her.  There are alligators, angels, airplanes, apples, tongs and a few dishes and bottles.  I wrote the object's name on the back so she could see that all items start with A.

I'm planning to make an entire alphabet of these stuffed felt letters.  Very simple and quick and it gives Tootsie another way to experience the letters.

We mixed Karo Syrup and food coloring to paint our
letter A.  It took forever to dry but the results
are very shiny!

Tootsie painted this heart with chocolate pudding!  Smells delicious and I didn't even mind if she licked her paint brush!  I noticed today that this heart is missing a few candies!

We made these cute Valentines that I found on Pinterest for Tootsie's friends at school.  She didn't break any of the glow stick - momma, however, broke four!

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Kate