Valentine's Week

I have heard many different opinions of whether or not we should celebrate Valentine's Day, particularly from my husband :), but I like to spend the week talking about tolerance and celebrating people who we love, but forget to tell. This lesson has a lot packed into one, but we start out with the word of the week, TOLERANCE and how that relates to love. Then we read the book, When I'm Feeling Loved by Trace Moroney.

I particularly LOVE this page in the book. We stop and talk about what makes someone feel loved and how we can make others feel love. We make hearts with our hands, put them over our chest, then bounce it out to someone else. I model by drawing this on the board.

It starts with ME!

 After reading the book, I have the students stop and close their eyes for a minute and think about all the people that they love. I encourage them to count them on their fingers as they go (ASSETS, ASSETS, ASSETS!) After about a minute, I have them think of one person they love, but have failed to tell for a long time. We go around the room and each person names who that one person is. Then we go back to our discussion about HOW we can show love, and I teach them how to cut out a perfect heart from a folded piece of paper. Then we turn it into an animal and come up with a cheesy phrase for our Valentine.