Christian Valentine Activities For The Preschool Classroom
Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2009
by Stephany Springer
As teachers in a Christian school, it can sometimes be challenging to incorporate secular lessons and holidays into the classroom. Fortunately, Valentines Day is probably the easiest to incorporate.
The theme of Valentine's Day is love and what better example of Love is there than God himself? Take this day to show the love of Jesus to the kids through your centers in the classroom.
Make Jesus Loves Me Hats. Take a red strip of paper and print the words Jesus Loves Me on them. Wrap around each child's head and staple at its proper measurement. Allow the children to decorate with stamps and stickers. Take silver pipe cleaners and twist around a pencil. Then undo from the pencil and tape to the inside front of the band. Tape a heart at the other end. Do two of these to look like antennas. The kids will love wearing them around.
Make Magnets. Take a half sheet of construction paper and write the words: "I am Loved!" or "I am a child of God!" Glue a picture of each child on the paper and laminate. Place a magnet on back for a gift for the parents.
Make Cards. There are several variations of this activity. You can have the children make love cards for God, their parents or their friends. Explain how telling someone you care about them is the same as showing God's love.
Music
How easy this center is for Valentine's Day. Sing the song Jesus Loves Me! Pass out red scarves and turn on some praise music to dance to. Take red and pink plastic eggs. Allow each child to place beans inside. Hot glue the egg shut. Allow the kids to decorate with Christian stickers. Dance with the shakers to praise music. There are several songs that can be sung during this center.
Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques:
I Am Special (point to self)
I Am Special
Don't you see (make binoculars)
Don't you see
Someone very special (put arms out to side)
Someone very special
God made me(point to self)
God made me
Or another simple song is O How I love Jesus, which goes:
O How I love Jesus (make and O with fingers at the beginning, then hug self, then point to sky)
O How I love Jesus
O How I love Jesus
Because he first loved me! (point up then to self)
Story time
The Bible has so many truths about Jesus showing compassion. Most likely you covered His burial and resurrection at Christmas and Easter. Therefore, you can tell the story of Jesus and the little children. The story can be found in Matthew 19. Be sure to let the kids act out the story or create stick puppets using coloring sheets and craft sticks. Make the story come alive and explain how Jesus always loves them and wants to be with them.
Sensory table
Fill the table with conversation hearts. Let the children scoop and pour. It is ok if they sneak some to eat.
Homeliving
Bake cookies as a class. Allow the kids to decorate with icing and sprinkles. You can even cut out heart shapes or crosses and eat during snack. Tell the children to prepare for a visit with Jesus. Place the duster, mop, etc in the kitchen area for the kids to pretend to clean.
The important part of this holiday is love. Showing God's love to kids, no matter the age, is the most important part of being a Christian teacher. Take this day in your classroom and remember that you too are loved and make those kids feel special.
Feel free to leave any other suggestions in the comment section below.
This Article has been viewed 4,273 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)These are very cute ideas. They are helpful. Thanks.Thanks for the sweet comment and encouragement!
this was outstanding. i'm going to use this tonight! what a blessing you are!
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.