Homeschool Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day!

As you can see, I am still running a bit behind on the posting - but better late than never, right?
Here's the fun Valentine snack my daughter enjoyed recently!

Snack details:

Nutella and strawberries in heart cookie cutters.

Red muffin cup 1:  vanilla yogurt with heart sprinkles.

Pink muffin cups 2 and 4: raspberries and dried cranberries mixed together.

Red muffin cup 3:  yogurt covered raisins and heart sprinkles.

Garnishes:  candied hearts and heart sprinkles.  

Our Valentine's Store was a sweet success!  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed selling and even purchasing Valentine packages for members of the household.  People would come to her and tell her what they wanted to send and dictate a message.  She would add up the cost on her little receipt form, give it to them, check the payment or help them come up with the correct amount, and then we would package it all up and set it on the shelf to await delivery for Valentine's Day.  Oh what bliss when the heart-filled event finally rolled around, and she delivered all of the packages!!!  It was fun for her as well as for the rest of us, AND it gave her practice with life skills, money, and writing (the dictated messages).  

To download your own deluxe store setup (there are two designs in the deluxe version as well as some fun extras not available in the free version) for only $1.50, head over here (I also have a smaller free version in my TPT store)!

Window clings are so much fun - but I wanted to do something extra with them so I glued some rhyming words to a few of the hearts and cut them apart.  My daughter then had to match the pairs that rhymed.

We were also working on compound words a bit this week, so I wrote some compound words on heart doilies, cut them apart, and let her match them up correctly.  Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photos of this activity.  :(

This was a fun matching symmetry lesson using mittens.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it would make a cute winter or Valentine activity.   I drew a design on each of three mittens and then my daughter had to try to copy the design on another mitten to make a matching set.

For some handwriting practice, I had my daughter complete each "You are" sentence with the words from a candy message heart she randomly picked from a small bunch I had given her.  She would then write the words on the line to complete the sentences.

We graphed some candy hearts by color and.....

by message.  

And I leave you with a fun craft that is a great companion to the book "Guess How Much I Love You!"  I think these pictures show what we did better than I could tell in a bunch of words.
My daughter decorated this to look like herself.  We glued traced cutouts of her hands to the accordian fold sentence strip arms.  I wanted to make handprints and cut those out instead to attach, but it didn't happen.

She brainstormed her own way to say how much she loves mommy and daddy ("as fast as I can twirl"), and we wrote that inside the paper.  I loved her response  - it just sounds so much like her.  :)

BTW: I am participating in a blog contest for the top 25 creative mom blogs and would LOVE it if you would cast a vote for me!  :)  The button is on the sidebar and you don't have to be a member or sign up or anything to vote - just click the button which takes you to the site and cast your vote.  You can vote once a day so if you feel extra generous and want to cast a vote on another day - I would LOOOOVVVVEEEE it if you would!  Thanks so much!
(Note:  Since I posted this, I have been informed by some that they are unable to cast their votes for some reason - I contacted someone from that particular site, and they suggested trying a different browser which seemed to do the trick for at least one person that I am aware of.  Sooo, if you attempt to vote and it will not allow you to do so, it could be a browser issue.  Thanks so much to those who have tried and let me know!)

Linking up to:
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/
http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/
http://www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
http://www.diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
http://www.makingtheworldcuter.com/
http://www.tipjunkie.com/
http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
http://www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/
http://www.polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.com/
http://www.momontimeout.com/