V is for Valentine's Trays and Weekly Wrap Up

This week, my little girls learned about just one thing:  Valentines.  I used some of my old trays and made some new ones.  We also had an entire day of Valentine's fun on Thursday.  You can read about it here.

Trays this week

It was pretty much all trays this week, so this section will be long ;).

This printable came from the (free) Valentine's Pack at Gift of Curiosity.   I really liked this one for Explorer, because when we do cards and counters, she only wants to put one counter with each card.  Since these cards have a place for each counter, she put more then one. 

Magnet page from the same pack.

For this one, I had Mini Cooper lay a gem on each h.  This printable is also from Gift of Curiosity.

For this one, Mini Cooper matched the amount of hearts on the left side with buttons on the right (also from Gift of Curiosity).

The idea of this was to put one bead in each heart....no one liked this one.

Parmesan cheese container and heart sticks from the dollar tree. Always a favorite.  

Heart patterning from PreKinders.   The hearts are from Oriental Trading Company.

Count and clip cards.  I downloaded these from Tired Need Sleep a few years ago. Now they are free-but only if you use Scribd.  

This one is a magnet counting page (free) from Crystal and Company.  We also used the heart tree coloring page from her pack (but no photos).

Transferring feathers with tweezers.  This lasted about 5 seconds.  Then, she wanted to throw them around.

Sorting pink and purple-perfect for Explorer right now. She only seems to know these two colors.   Everything is 'hink' and if you tell her it isn't, then it has to be purple.

This was by far the favorite tray.  They both had lots of fun filling the little heart boxes with treasures.

Explorer loved shaking them to hear the gem inside.

Montessori Materials 

We had only one Montessori Material this week.  I introduced the V sandpaper letter and the sound circles from The Helpful Garden.

Books and other stuff

Along with the big kids, we have been learning about the Olympics.  I got these great 3 part cards of figure skating poses from Every Star is Different.

And, it's not Valentines without Olive My Love :).

Those were the main highlights of the week, and of course all of our Valentine's fun on Thursday just topped it off.  We will be focusing on only the Olympics this next week.  Hope you had a great week!!

God Bless,

Lisa

Items we used this week (Amazon affiliate links in this widget)

Warner Bros Valentine's DVD Giveaway {CLOSED}

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today I'm excited to get to host a little giveaway in honor of the holiday.

Warner Brother's is allowing me to give away a DVD to one of you!  One of you will win one of the following DVD's (chosen at random).

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown {Deluxe Edition}

A Charlie Brown Valentine

Buts Bunny's Cupid Capers

Happiness is...Peanuts:  Friends Forever

Elmo Loves You

Looney Tunes Pepe Le Pew Collection

Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales:  For the Love of Snack

So how to win?  Take this little quiz and see who your cartoon Valentine is :), then, post your answer in the comments.  Turns out that mine is Scooby-Doo!

The folks at Warner Bros. have also suggested some yummy recipes to try this Valentine's Day.  I'm thinking the popcorn sounds like a winner!

So, take the quiz, post your answer, and come back in a few days to see who won!  Giveaway will close Sunday, February 23rd at midnight PST.  Winner will be announced Monday the 24th. This giveaway is now CLOSED. One extra entry can also be earned if you are a follower of Our Country Road in some way (Google Friend connect, Linky Followers, Facebook, Twitter, or email). Leave a separate entry and say how you follow.

Please note that you can only win one Warner Bros. DVD giveaway, so if you win on multiple blogs they will just send one prize.  US addresses only.

**This giveaway is being promoted by PartnersHub, Inc.  I was not compensated in anyway.**

God Bless and Good Luck!!

Lisa

Our "Love"ly Day

In past years, I have seen posts of super fun days some moms have set up for their kids for Valentine's Day.  I read them and think 'if only I had planned ahead...'  Well, this year-thanks mostly to Pinterest-I FINALLY organized my thoughts and plans ahead of time.

Today we had a special day full of 'love' as I called it.  No, I don't think things and parties equal love, but my kids really loved it and that's what I wanted for them.  We planned it for today since we have doctor's appointments tomorrow.

We started off with a Valentine's brunch (I'm not a morning person).  We had strawberry filled crepes topped with whip cream.  To drink we had strawberry milk, and a tiny cupcake.  Sounded good...turned out to be a little bit too much sugar!

Each place setting included a Valentine's plate (97 cents for the package), a Valentine's cup (97 cents for all 4), a Valentine's straw (6 for 97 cents), conversation hearts (1.00 for 5) and a package of Shrinky Dinks (1.96 each).  I got them all in the Valentine's isle at Walmart.  The cupcakes were in the bakery clearance and cost me $1.91 for the container.

The centerpiece was made by Mustang from our school materials.  I liked it, so I kept it out.

The meal was a hit!  I mean, how often do you get to eat your cupcake first?

They worked on the Shrinky Dinks, but no one finished them. We will have to cook them tomorrow.

Next up, we graphed the hearts in our boxes using this free printable from Teaching Tiny Tots.

We painted purple hearts and then made them fizz.  I found this idea on Gift of Curiosity.

I found these revealing hearts on Sorting Sprinkles.  

The kids LOVED doing this. My only tip is, do not use cardstock!!  The water doesn't sink in very well.  

Then we got out the bin of Valentines making stuff.  Markers, doilies, stamps, paper, old Valentines...they had a TON of fun and made a big mess!

Homemade pink and purple playdough was a huge hit.  It will be played with more tomorrow as we were a bit tired by the time this came out.  

I found this heart tessellation idea from Life Lesson Plans and encouraged the kids to try it.  

I was pretty thrilled when Mustang turned hers into a thank you card for her day of fun. 

All I can really say is that I am SOOO glad I did this and can't wait to do it next year!  I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!! 

God Bless,

Lisa

Winter and Valentine's Activity Trays!!

Tomorrow is my monthly day to 'teach' at our homeschool co-op preschool group.  

Here is what will be on the trays this month:

Snowman addition game.  I found this idea on My Montessori Journey.

It is free for download from Making Learning Fun.

Snowman Colors.  I found out about this great printable from Deb at Pre-K and K Sharing (also LivingMontessoriNow).

It is available at The Kids Place.

Heart patterning.  I downloaded pattern strips from PreKinders.

Then I paired them with the hearts from a pack of candies I got from Oriental Trading Company (not an affiliate link).

Snowman magnet page, also from The Kid's Place. 

I found this through Deb's Pinterest page.

Roll a snowman.

From 2 Teaching Mommies.

How Tall is the Snowman?

Yet another great printable from The Kid's Place.

Matching Snowflakes.

These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Tweezing feathers.  I found this idea on My Montessori Journey.

Mini Cooper got into my bin of materials while I was putting together other trays.

She started doing this on her own, so I hope the other kids like it, too.

Felt heart sorting. I made this one up a couple of years ago.

It's nice to have it already made up :).

Lacing beads.

Opening and closing little heart boxes.  There is a little bead in each one.

Red boxes are from the Dollar Tree. 

Heart sticks from the Dollar Tree put into a Parmesan holder (also from the Dollar Tree).  

Penguin pattern blocks from Prekinders.

Heart scratchers I found at Hobby Lobby.  

Water transfer.  I made the mistake of pouring all the water out before I took a picture!  I got this idea from My Montessori Journey.

Spelling puzzles by Lauri.

Matching written numbers to the numeral.

I made these 2 years ago, so they aren't as great as some of my newer printables.  You can find them here.

Count and clip cards.

These are from Nicole at Tired, Need Sleep.

Matching the uppercase snowman to his lowercase hat is one more great printable from The Kid's Place.

It was featured on PreK and K Sharing, which is how I heard about it :).

So there you have it, 20 Activity Trays or Tot Trays as some would call them.  I'm so thankful for the many printables that are shared by wonderful blog mommies out there!  It really made my job a breeze this time!!

Enjoy and God Bless!!

We're linked up!