Flannel Friday: Little Red Valentine

Love is in the air and all around! 

And it is just in time for a heart-felt Valentine's Day celebration at storytimes.

I love sharing this activity with my storytime friends of all ages. 

First, I will show you the flannel board/magnetic board pieces and share the song. Then I will give you a few more ideas for activities that can help to extend your child/ren's learning at storytime and beyond.

I made my flannel board hearts using an Ellison diecut but you can easily cut them out by hand. I cut out red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, brown, and black hearts from scrap felt. I don't use all of the colors every time but I keep them on hand just in case I need them ~ like when a little three year old says, "My favorite color is brown. Can we sing about brown?" 

*Good storytime motto: Always be prepared!

Little Red Valentine

(Sung to: "Skip to My Lou")

Little Red Valentine, I love you.

Little Red Valentine, I love you.

Little Red Valentine, I love you.

Orange one says, "I do, too!"

Little Orange Valentine, I love you.

Little Orange Valentine, I love you.

Little Orange Valentine, I love you.

Yellow one says, "I do, too!"

Little Yellow Valentine, I love you.

Little Yellow Valentine, I love you.

Little Yellow Valentine, I love you.

Green one says, "I do, too!"

Little Green Valentine, I love you.

Little Green Valentine, I love you.

Little Green Valentine, I love you.

Blue one says, "I do, too!"

Little Blue Valentine, I love you.

Little Blue Valentine, I love you.

Little Blue Valentine, I love you.

Purple one says, "I do, too!"

Little Purple  Valentine, I love you.

Little Purple  Valentine, I love you.

Little Purple  Valentine, I love you.

Pink one says, "I do, too!"

Little Pink  Valentine, I love you.

Little Pink  Valentine, I love you.

Little Pink  Valentine, I love you.

Everyone one says, "We do, too!"

I made the flannel board pieces to share with the Flannel Friday group because I love all the creative things they do with flannel and I want to get started making more flannel stories myself. 

However, I almost always have my activities, songs, and stories made for my magnetic board. (Maybe I should start a Magnetic Monday group? Would anyone else join it or would it just be me? LOL! ) 

Anyway, I guess it is the teacher in me. :-) As a teacher, I had easier access to construction paper, glue, and a laminating machine. Also, magnetic strips were/are reusable ~ if your pieces were destroyed or went missing then you just made new ones. Very durable for young children!

Here are my magnetic hearts:

  I usually do these colors with our younger groups...

then add a few more colors with the older preschoolers....

(Don't forget that the left-to-right progression is a pre-reading skill!)

**If I have the time, I prepare enough colorful hearts so that I can pass one out to each child. As we sing the song, I place mine on the board and the children with that particular color hold their heart in the air and wave it. The rest of the children  keep their hearts in their laps and make the ASL sign for the color that we are singing about. This is a good color recognition activity! At the end, everyone waves their heart in the air.

**If I know I will have a smaller group, like a visiting preschool class, I make sets of hearts for each child. Most of the time, the sets include the rainbow colors and pink. Once I hand out the sets, I have the children place them in a line in front of them starting with red. As we sing the song, the children wave the correct heart. 

**This is a very popular activity with 3's, 4's, and 5's, and their parents, caregivers, and teachers. It is often requested at other storytimes so I change the word "valentine" to "heart" and bring the activity out for color-related storytimes. I also use the hearts for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Grandparent's Day. I have even been known to change the item from a heart to a teddybear or dinosaur. Your options are limitless!

**One more suggestion for adding to the learning potential of this activity:

To help the children with color word recognition, you can write the color word on the heart.

I hope you enjoyed my first Flannel (and more) Flannel Friday contribution. I will be trying something a little more difficult for next week's contribution ~ I hope! 

A HUGE thank you to Melissa for hosting the round-up this week. She is the founder of Flannel Friday!

Anne also has the archive and schedule of who is hosting Flannel Friday each week.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful Valentine's Day with your family and friends!

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!