I love your happy side, your sad side, your silly side, your mad side, …I love you through and through … yesterday, today and tomorrow, too.”-Bernadette Rossetti-Shust
This quote really spoke to me as it talks about loving the person and not the emotion. I have a couple students who have difficult emotions that aren’t always be seen as positive. I let my students know I love them no matter what. This is a favorite quote of mine.
The book I selected for this month was The Biggest Valentine Ever! by Steven Kroll. This is a great story to read about conflict resolution. Two friends are making valentines alongside their peers. The two friends join forces to make one together, but they disagree on its’ creation. Find out if they resolve their conflict and make the valentine together.
The skills worked on this month are many but here are a few
- book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
- use of low vision tools while reading the book
- develop hand and eye coordination
- turning pages
- soliciting assistance appropriately
- fine motor
- communication
- positional concepts
- choice making
Materials needed for this craft
- Foam Craft Kit
- Craft glue
- Parchment paper
- Tabletop trashcan
Prep work consisted of my enlarging the images from the three different kits to allow students a choice. As all of my students have low vision this year, I did not make sample crafts to use as a guide. The images worked for them and we problem solved together where to start.
This was a three-day craft for the students since the paint needed to dry before we could continue. I put their initials on the lid of the water bottle to notate who the bottle belonged to.
Tips
- Have a student that doesn’t like touching glue? I use disposable vinyl
gloves on the hand that is holding the item in place while the hand
that is using the glue does not. - Place the enlarged photo of the craft in a spot that is easily
accessible for the student to review how it is made. - Put an ‘X’ over the image of the craft when there are no more of
them. This helps alleviate frustration or disappointments when the
desired craft is gone.
Extension Activities
- ABC Mouse has a blog that contains over 60 images to color. I
found them by doing a search for: “valentine color pages for
preschoolers – free”. I have found this age group has the least
visually cluttered images and the easiest to adapt for my low vision
students. - PBS Kids Valentines Ideas is a site with several fun activities that can
be done at school or at home.
