Valentines!

I'm going on vacation the first week of February, so I've been trying to get some Valentines flannel board sets done early!  Even though it's a Hallmark Holiday, I have always found Valentines-related stuff to be quite aesthetically pleasing (aka CUTE!), so making these was a real pleasure.

Love, love, love this idea from Busy Crafting Mommy!  I made the envelopes first (sewed up the sides and used a little velcro tab to close them up), but then decided I didn't want to make the bee that's included in the original poem.  I love the clip art animals I found, but I'm not crazy about the bee images available.  

This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:

Flannel Board Fun Shop

Here's my shortened version of the poem:

Five Little Valentines

5 little Valentines were sent to my house,
The first one said, “I love you, From Mouse.” 

4 little Valentines in my mailbox,
The second one said, “Be mine, Love Fox.”  

3 little Valentines full of love,
The third one said, “You are sweet, From Dove.”

2 little Valentines mailed with care,
The fourth one said, "Here's a hug, From Bear."

The last little Valentine, from my friend Jay,
This one said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”  

Now, I made my envelopes first, and since I didn't end up making a bee, I had an extra envelope.  I also had this poem laying around in my files, and finally figured out that with a little adjustment it would make a very easy flannel board project that would work well for Small Group times with my 2s and 3s...

I want to keep the following pictures here, but please note that the Jimmy Crack Corn tune has racist roots and I don't recommend using it.  Instead, the rhyme below can be chanted, or you can sing it to the tune of Five Little Ducks or I'm a Little Teapot. 💕 (Big thanks to Leslie for drawing my attention to this!)

I will likely just have them in the envelope, pull them out one at a time, put each one on the board and make a big deal out of which child I'm going to give it to... I might try to match the colors to something the children are wearing, and naturally we'll do a little counting, letter, and color recognition...  We can also work on position words by having them hide their heart behind, under, on, over, above, or beside various parts of their bodies.

I have one more Valentine song to share, to the tune of BINGO!  I blogged about it in my BINGO Variations Galore post, so I'll just copy and paste here:

I've had a plain laminated version of this for a few years, but I loved making these fancy felt valentines.  When we flip over the hearts we make a kissing noise or hug ourselves (or both!), so I used the universal symbol for hugs and kisses. xoxoxo!  Here are the lyrics (which I thought I got at Perpetual Preschool years ago, but now I can't find them there):

I made a valentine for you, the heart shape means "I love you!" 

H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, 

The heart shape means "I love you!"


Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Ms. Kelly at the Library ,and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.