Once Upon a Book ~ My Valentine Story

My Valentine Story: Giving My Heart to God

By Crystal Bowman

Summary: Valentines are fun to make and give. They tell people we love them. Who loves all of us? God, of course. "How can I give God my heart? Loving him is where I'll start."

Bible Verse

"We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Heart Number Clapping Song


Tune: If you're happy and you know it


Print off this big pink heart (from childcareland.com) and glue it on to a craft stick. Hold it up for the kids to see while singing.

If you see a big pink heart clap two times (clap clap)
If you see a big pink heart clap two times (clap clap)
You saw a big pink heart and you clapped two times.....
Let's do it all again

Repeat with numbers that you choose. At the end instead of singing "Let's do it all again" sing "And now our song is done."

Art Activity

Cookie Cutter Heart Prints

For this activity you will need:

• White paint
• Different sizes of heart cookie cutters
• 1 piece of red construction paper

To make:

• Dip heart cookie cutter into white paint
• Press it on to the red paper

Sensory Bin

For this activity you will need:

• 1 or 2 bags of conversation heart candy
• Small bin or tote
• Your choice: bowls, cups, spoons for child to use to play with the candy

Put the candy in the tote and let your child play with it! Encourage them to use a spoon to scoop up a few pieces of the candy and put in a separate bowl or cup.

Cooking

Use heart shaped cutters to make hearts out of pancakes, rice krispie treats, cheese to go on a sandwich or on top of a bowl of soup or any other way you can think of.

Motor Skills

Heart Magnetic Mosaic

For this activity you will need:

• Cookie Sheet 
• Heart Magnetic Mosaic Page (printed from Making Learning Fun)
• Magnetic Pom Poms or magnets (to make the magnetic pom poms simply glue a pom pom to a circle magnet. Let it dry for 12 - 18 hours before using).

Have child put the magnetic pom poms on the red circles to make a heart!

Pink and Red Color Sorting ~ Have your child put all the red hearts on the red mat and all the pink hearts on the pink mat. You can print the red and pink hearts and mats from here.

Heart Shape Viewer ~ Let your child look through this heart shape viewer

Math

Candy Heart Counting ~ For this activity use this mat (or make your own with whatever numbers you choose) and have your child put the correct number of candy hearts on the circles. For younger children have them pick up one piece of candy at a time and put it on the correct circle on the mat as you count.

Game

Find the Hearts ~ Spread these hearts (or cut some out) around a room and have your child find them and put into a box or bucket!

Make a Memory

Tell your children everyday how much you love them! For the younger ones, teach them to give hugs and kisses. McKenzee Grace is 18 months and loves to give hugs and kisses. This week she also learned how to blow kisses.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!