Wednesday, January 13, 2016

A Heart-full Kindergarten Valentines Day

Fun Valentines activities in art, math, science and writing


We had a really fun Valentines last year...one of my favorite lessons ever. 

I started planning for Valentines A LONG TIME in advance.  You see, my homeschooler has two older brothers who go to public school, and I knew he might feel a little jealous when they came home with a bag full of Valentine's cards and candy.   So, in January I sent out requests to some other homeschoolers I knew and some of his friends from church to send him Valentines, and we sent some Valentines to them too.  (BONUS:  It was really good way to get my son to practice his handwriting!). 

Then, when Valentines day finally came, here's what we did....

Minecraft Valentines candy wrapper
That morning before they woke up, I laid out a special treat for all three boys at the kitchen table...a candy bar wrapped with a cool wrapper I found over at Chica Club Circle.  (They're big Minecraft fans.  They loved it!)
 
After the big kids were off to school it was time for homeschool.  But first, I went out to check our mailbox.  My friends told me they'd sent the valentines, but NONE of them had come yet.  But sure enough, there was a handwritten letter covered in Valentines stickers right on the top of the pile.  I shut the box and ran to get my son so he could "check the mail."  He was totally excited to see a letter with his name on it and find the Valentine with the sucker from his friend  inside (and even more excited when the other Valentines came a little later). 

Candy Heart Science


ACTIVITY 1:  Corinthians 13
While he ate his sucker I read him the passage on love from Corinthians 13. Then we drew a picture of something we could do to show someone we loved them, using a page from a freebie by A Cupcake for the Teacher.    I tried to get him to write a description too, but he was resistant.   I had planned this to be a fun day, so I let it slide.

Writing activity, what is love
By the way, that's a picture of someone giving someone else a flower.  Why the broken heart?  He says that means love.   Ok...  We'll sort that out later.


ACTIVITY 2:  Candy Heart Mustache Measurement
Then I brought out the candy hearts!  After reading a few, and eating a few, we measured some mustaches and lips with them (using another cute TPT freebie, by Mrs. Wheeler ). 

Mustach Measuring Activity


ACTIVITY 3:  Candy Heart Sorting and Graphing
That wasn't the only thing we did with candy hearts...next we practiced sorting and graphing with them too! (Free printable by Dear Wellington)


Candy heart graphing for Valentines math


ACTIVITY 4-5:  Candy Heart Science

PART ONE:  Candy Hearts ON FIRE!

Then it was time for some Valentines science. When I told my son we were going to do an experiment with the candy hearts, he got all excited and, looking over at a candle I had burning, said "I think if you burn a candy heart it will melt!"  Well, that was NOT the activity I had planned, but THAT was worth changing plans for!   (I mean, what DO candy hearts do when they burn?  Would they even burn at all?  Now I wanted to know too!)   So I got some tweezers and held a heart over the candle, and oh, cool things happened!  Not only did the heart catch on fire, but it fizzed as it burned, and then melted....or at least that's what I THOUGHT until I did some more research.  Sugar, I learned in a very interesting article, technically  caramelizes, but doesn't really melt.   A scientist friend of mine told me the fizzing is due to impurities (air pockets and such) in the candy.

Did you know candy hearts are flamable?

(WARNING: Candy hearts are VERY flammable...though it's easy to blow them out and it is a slow burning flame.  And we had water to dunk them in in case that hadn't worked.).


 PART 2:  Sink or Float?

After we had our fun burning hearts, we did the experiment I had planned: a sink or float activity.   Candy hearts do some fun things in soda...first they sink, but then as bubbles form around them they will pop to the surface (and then sometimes loose their bubbles and sink again)!.

Sink or float candy heart activity


My son loved it, and played with the hearts in the liquids for at least a half hour afterwards.

(I just have to pause here and say, this is why I love homeschooling:  the ability to, impromptu, do a science experiment INVOLVING FIRE, or being able to take 30 unplanned minutes to just play.). 
 

Valentines candy heart science activity with printable

 We wrote down our findings on this 
 

ACTIVITY 6:  Heart Art

Lastly, we did an art project with toilet-paper rolls and paint.  Very fun.

Toilet paper roll heart painting

We just folded a toilet paper tube like a heart,
dipped it in paint...

Toilet paper roll heart painting

...and stamped it!

Toilet paper roll heart painting


One of the types of paint formed bubbles, which covered the whole end of the heart sometimes (and made the solid silver hearts above)...that was kind of a cool surprise.  Really, just one of many surprises that day.

Toilet paper roll heart painting


So what are you planning for Valentines?






21 comments:

  1. Love this compilation of Valentine's Day activities-bookmarking to use with my boys!! So glad to find this on The Homeschool Nook!

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  2. Thank you for these fun ideas. I look forward to trying some of them with my daughter!

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    1. You're welcome! I hope they have as much fun with it as my son did!

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  3. I didn't know that about candy hearts! I have a few kids who will love that!

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    1. Yeah, the candy heart discovery definitively took the day. :-)

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  4. What a fun day of learning all themed around Valentine's day; I had no idea they were flammable. My boys would LOVE that! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Encouraging Hearts and Home. Pinned.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment, and for pinning! I had no idea they were flammable either until we tried!

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  5. so many great ideas - my kids will love the science activities. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks so much. Hope you had a fun Valentines day!

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  6. There are a lot of good ideas here and you’d have to limit it to just Valentines Day on some of these. I didn’t think about candy hearts burning either.

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    1. Yeah, I never even thought about that until my son brought it up. They sure do though!

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  7. Really cute ideas!! Love the stamping hearts and the science experiment with the conversation hearts! Really great kindergarten valentine ideas!

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  8. Very fun ideas! I love Valentine’s Day, and have fun reading lots of books to my library students. Thanks for sharing your activities! https://fluxingwell.com/fun-valentines-day-books/

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    1. You're so welcome. Thanks for the kind comment.

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  9. These are some fantastic ideas to homeschool ideas to help incorporate Valentine's Day into fun and learning. Candy hearts do seem like something that would be fairly flammable.

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    1. Thank you. I had never really thought about whether candy hearts could burn before this...but I guess my son had! :-)

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  10. What a fun idea! I grew up with a 2nd grade teacher mom, so we did crafts and activities for EVERY holiday during the school year and this is one I would have loved! Thanks for sharing your kindergarten valentines day activity with us!

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    1. Sounds like so much fun. :-) Glad you enjoyed my post and it brought back some memories. :-)

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