Valentines Day the Multiple Intelligence Way

Holidays just seem to get bigger around here the older Lil' Em gets. 3 really has been the magical year! To start the day off with a little spice and surprise, the night before I made a display of all the next day's activities. This is what Lil' Em woke up to.

We discussed how today was Valentines Day~a day to celebrate LOVE!!! This immediately led to a discussion about the feeling of love, followed with her listing who she loves in life. What a great intrapersonal lesson first thing in the morning! We then briefly discussed how people use the heart as a symbol of love. Of course by this time she wanted to dive right into the candy, but instead we first had a heart packed breakfast of brainberry pancakes. That's right, I called them brainberries. Those little berries are loaded with good nutrients for the brain and body! This is my best attempt at a heart pancake..I need to invest in a larger heart cookie cutter, it would have made life a little easier at that moment.

After breakfast we continued cooking. Cooking is a bodily-kinesthetic experience that people of all ages can benefit from. Children especially love to cook! The best part is that MANY lessons and intelligences can be involved in the cooking process. Currently my daughter is (finally) grasping the concept of step -by-step while doing a large project. Being she has always been 3 or under, she was the dive right in kind~ if ya know what I mean. If you have tried cooking with your toddler before and it turned into a disaster I strongly encourage you to try again.

While the cookies were in the oven, Lil Em and I went back to discussing the shape of a heart. For a spatial activity we used pipe cleaners to construct these hearts.

We started by bending the pipe cleaner in half.

Next, we opened up the pipe cleaner and formed a 'V' shape. This makes a nice point for the bottom of the heart. We then curled over the top of each pipe cleaner to form the heart curves. When the two tops are curved they should meet in order to twist and secure them together. I had to help with the twisting but she sure gave it a try! Fine motor skills at work!!

Em's heart shaped easel painting is also another spatial activity that is well incorporated into the day's theme.

After a few cookies, we were on to the next activity. We re-visited an interpersonal activity from earlier in the week. For Lil' Em's preschool party we constructed hand-made Valentines. Today we were going over to GG's house(Grandma Gail) and we made a Valentine to take with us. These pic is from previously made valentines.

We took a little break to go visit GG, but returned back to our activities later in the day. To inspire the naturalist in us we started with collecting rocks from around the house(It was POURING today). We then constructed a rock heart together. 

This very shortly became a solo activity, which led to Em constructing lots of other shapes. The logical-mathematical was emerging and integrating before our eyes. When she was done with this I asked for her to help me with clean-up. I had intentionally left all the heart gems, candies, and ribbons on the counter to use in a logical-mathematical activity. I pulled out a veggie tray and asked her to help me clean by sorting each piece. 

This is the end result. She sorted by color, except for the ribbons. Afterwards she counted out some hearts one by one to 13. She always gets a little confused after this point and I hear numbers like twelve-teen..LOVE IT!

To end our day of activities we did a pre-reading lesson to reinforce the linguistic intelligence. We also read Valentine books from the local library and home library.

Throughout the day we were listening to music we "loved" to connect with the musical intelligence in us! After Lil' Em was in bed I thought about how a dance party would have been perfect!! O well, next time. Here is Lil' Em doin what she does best...the little HAM!

These ideas can be adapted in any way you can think of, with any holiday or theme you can think of. The beauty in it all is when the child emerges with their own ideas!! When I design my ideas I focus on a few learning objectives, than think of how to incorporate all the intelligences. Since Em is 3, I focused on social relationships with family and friends, emphasizing the feeling of love, following directions, shapes, beginning math skills, and early literacy skills.  I'm excited to get the shamrocks out!!