Valentine's Day at School

Valentine's Day is always a fun time at school.  As the kids get older though, I wasn't sure if it would be quite as fun. I had to email both Grant and Loren's teachers to find out whether they would be exchanging Valentines because I hadn't heard anything.  Thankfully, their teachers said they could exchange valentines if they wanted.  For Grant's class, we made yoda sugar cookies and put them in little bags.  For the girls classes, we used wilton chocolate and dipped pretzels.  I designed a cute topper and we put them in cello bags.  Wish I had taken a picture of the girls' valentines.  

This year has been so fun to be the room mom in Mrs. Maynard's class.  My sweet friend, Emily (Hannah's mom) and I have worked together to plan some fun art and activities for these sweet kids.  For Valentine's Day, we decided to do a fun art piece using the children's own hands, drawn together to form a heart in the middle.  We thought it would be a fun gift for their parents.  The kids were pretty attentive and worked hard on their pieces.  It was definitely a challenging piece and some kids were frustrated.   We persevered though and everyone got theirs done in time. 

After art, we quickly changed the classroom from an art studio to a party place.  I led the kids in some fun "minute to win it" type games using conversation hearts and chopsticks.  One of their favorite games was to see how many conversation hearts they could get into their bowl using only their chopsticks to pick up the hearts.  I encouraged the kids to improve their own number rather than compare it to how many their neighbor could do.  The kids had a great time.  They ate treats after the games and then got to open the valentine's they exchanged with their fellow students.  I think they were all on a sugar high by the time they left there, but that's valentine's day for ya!