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Friday, February 8, 2013

LOVING STANDARDS


As Valentine’s Day approaches, I thought of some ways to tie in the holiday with Core Standards.

How many ways can you say, “I love you”?  Teach children sign language for the term, and then challenge them to demonstrate other ways to say “I love you.”  (For example, curl in your fingers and then touch your thumbs to make a heart shape.  Hug yourself and then point to someone.  Explain that people put “X O” at the end of a letter to represent a kiss and a hug.) 
*Make a list of all the school helpers that you appreciate and make cards for them using thumbprints or handprint flowers with sign language for “love.”
LOVE IS…
Fold two sheets of paper in half and staple.  Ask children to write predictable books starting each page with “Love is…”  Younger children could draw pictures and older students could write detailed sentences.
LOVE WEB
Draw a heart in the middle of a sheet of paper and write the word “love” in the middle.  Younger students could draw pictures of things they love, while older students could write synonyms for the word.
*This would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the use of a thesaurus.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Ask children to find an illustration in a book that demonstrates the word “love.”

ROOTS OF LOVE
Take the word “love” and use it for teaching tenses, comparisons, prefixes, etc.
“He love me.”  What would sound better?
Love – unloved
Love - loving

STICKER POEMS
Put a heart sticker in the middle of a sheet of paper.  Challenge children to write a poem about the sticker and around the sticker.  They could also write an acrostic poem with the word “valentine” or “heart.”
POSITIONAL WORDS
You can use a paper heart or three-dimensional heart for this activity.  Have children close their eyes while you hide the heart somewhere in the room in plain sight.  When they open their eyes, they can stick up their thumb when they spy the heart.  If they are called on, they have to describe where the heart is using positional words.  For example, “The heart is under the clock beside the calendar.”  That child then gets a turn to hide the heart.

POINTERS
Make pointers by attaching heart stickers to craft sticks.  Children can use these for reading and also for demonstrating positional words.  “Put your heart over your head.  Put your heart under your chin.  Put your heart behind your back…”