Valentine's Party 2014

I really love Valentine's!  I know it's not everybody's thing, but I just love the colors, the cheesy lovey stuff, the chocolates, candy, flowers, the baked goods, mmmm.  I think it's just great!  Even when I was single I was one of the few people in my group of other single ladies who loved it.  SOOO of course I enjoy having a fun V-day party!  Here are some of the activities we did. 

Sweetheart Patterns

 One of my fabulous mom helpers came and read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose.

 She also brought in this darling Valentine's version of the game Don't Eat Pete.  She had the kids use valentine colored candy corns as markers.  This game never gets old for preschoolers!

 One of my other incredible mom helpers sent in homemade sugar cookies and decor for the kids to make Valentine's cookies with.  They were so excited to get there decorating on!!!

 We played Pin the Heart for Cupid.

 We passed out Valentine's and put them in our homemade heart baskets.  My husbands sweet aunt made these for me a few years ago for the kids to decorate.  I was excited to have the chance to use them!

Heart Bean Bag Toss. I've been wanting to make this game for many years now.  Yes, I said many years.  I procrastinated, because I knew it would require some sewing.  I am not super experienced in that area so I finally mustered up the determination to make the little heart bean bags.  I am SOOOOO excited to have them finally and the kids loved the game so it was very worth it to me!  I know I get excited about small things.  I really do love adding to my preschool collection! 

 Love Ping Pong....  I made the paddles with small paper plates, large popsicle sticks and packing tape.  We used pink and red balloons to make it more festive. 

 Tricky adding/subtracting game.  Considering that this ended up being pretty tricky, the kids did quite well.  Basically you roll both dice and then either add or subtract the amount of hearts the dice tell you by either placing them on the dots or taking them off. The tricky part was where my preschoolers were confused about how many hearts could be on the mat at any given time.  If we added five then added 4 more, they were confused that there were 9 on the mat instead of just the 4 new ones added on.  They thought it should only be 4.  I think this was a little advanced concept for most of the kids this age, but who knows, with a little practice I'm sure it could get easier. 

Our Love monster ate up all the sight words we knew.

 Valentine's number game.  For this game the kids randomly picked a number and told us what it was.  I then read the back to determine which Valentine's task we would do as many times as the number said.  Ex: for number 4 it said to give yourself 4 hugs. 

 The kids who came to Morning Light Preschool last year were excited to have our Valentine's sensory tub back out again!  I added a few more hearts and accessories to the box for a little added fun and variety.