Valentine's Day Storytime

Love is in the air!   Well, almost.  February 14th will be here before you know it and of course, being Valentine's Day, it's the perfect time to remind someone how much they mean to you!   The toddler set may not understand the concept of Valentine's Day (a lot of adults don't either!), but there are plenty of books on "love" in general that would be perfect to share:


For younger tykes:


You Are My Cupcake by Joyce Wan
Illustrations and brief text explore some of the food names that people use as terms of endearment.


Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
During a bedtime game, every time Little Nutbrown Hare demonstrates how much he loves his father, Big Nutbrown Hare gently shows him that the love is returned even more. Includes pop-up illustrations.


Love (Baby Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
Baby Max gets so much attention it is difficult to decide who he loves best.


Tucker's Valentine by Leslie McGuirk
Tucker the dog spends Valentine's Day with people and friends he loves, even though Cupid's love arrows keep missing him.


Elmo Loves You! (Sesame Street) by Sarah Albee
Elmo explains how each person has something special they care about. For example, babies love noise and kids love toys; Bert loves pigeons and pigeons love to coo, etc. At several points the lively rhyming text breaks for a moment to remind young readers that ‚Elmo loves you!




With older kids or those in school, you can pull out the books that are more specifically about the holiday and the whole idea of making cards, etc.   There are some great non-fiction titles for kids out there too, which would give them a little background into the holiday's creation.   But for a few titles that are here to simply enjoy, check these out:


Titles for older kids:


Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine by Sarah Weeks
A tour of the animal kingdom showing what each of the animals might give his or her sweetheart on Valentine's Day.


The Ballad of Valentine by Alison Jackson
An ardent suitor tries various means of communication, from smoke signals to Morse code to skywriting, in order to get his message to his Valentine.


Love, Ruby Valentine by Laurie Friedman
After Ruby Valentine misses her favorite holiday of the year, her parrot, Lovebird, convinces her that every day is the perfect day to say "I love you."


Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
Splat the cat has a special valentine for a certain someone in his class.


Zombie in Love by Kelli DiPucchio
Mortimer, a zombie, is looking for love, but when all of his attempts to locate a sweetheart fail, Mortimer decides to place an ad in the newspaper.




Here are a couple of songs that I have used in storytimes in the past.  They are fun to do, easy to sing, and any actions you can do with the kids helps to engage them and get them interested in the theme.  Try these out:


Songs & Rhymes to share:

H-E-A-R-T
(Tune: "Bingo")

To show you like your special friends,
Just give them each a heart.
H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T,
Each heart says I like you!

Five Big Valentines 

(great as a felt board rhyme)


Five big valentines from the corner drug store
I mailed one to a friend - then there were four
Four big valentines, lovely ones to see
I mailed one to my Mommy - then there were three
Three big valentines - red, shiny, and new
I mailed one to my Daddy - then there were two
Two big valentines, the best is yet to come
I mailed one to Grandma - Then there was one
One big valentine, the giving is almost done
I mailed it to Grandpa - and now there is none

Now it's time for a craft.....


Craft:

There are hundreds of Valentine's Day crafts on the internet and I don't have anything original, but the one I've included here is something that I've done with my kids in the past and I love it (more importantly, they love it too).


I think it's about making something using a bit of yourself.  We have 'feet turkey' that still get giggles "You mean, that's was my foot?!?" and of course these hearts.


This is actually a very simple craft project.  You only need some paper (two sheets of different kinds or complimenting colors work best), a pencil, some scissors and a glue stick.   


For the very simple version I did here, I used two different colored papers and traced one hand only one time (you need two hands total) with all the fingers together.  So I get a left and a right hand, I put one piece of paper right-side-down on top of the other and cut out the traced hand (my paper is only colored on one side)


Next, lay one hand on top of the other as seen in the picture, with the thumbs overlapping and glue!   That's it!


Now, you can get more complicated if you wish... You can cut each individual finger apart from the other (cut slits down between each finger) and then weave the fingers in and out and then use a glue stick to secure.  TIP:  Cut the slits between each finger AFTER you have cut out your hand shapes!  This is a little difficult to do, so I would either help your young child, or leave this for the older kids!