Celebrate Love with the Valentine Bears!

Posted by Jan 27, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Holidays, Valentines Day

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The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bear. Every year, they sleep through Valentine’s Day, but Mrs. Bear decides that this will be the year that they will come out of hibernation to celebrate. She prepares a sweet snack and writes poems for Mr. Bear. Will she be able to wake him up to celebrate? This is a cute story which is accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Jan Brett. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bear, and it provides the perfect opportunity for some Valentine’s Day learning fun!

 

Dancing Hearts

If you have some extra Conversation heart candies around, this is a fun and quick science experiment that kids love. Place a few conversation hearts into a clear glass and slowly add Sprite or another carbonated liquid. The bubbles from the liquid will cause the hearts to lift up and appear to be dancing. Since we are always looking for a reason to dance, why not join them and have a Valentine’s dance party!

Related Post: Dance and Move with Bear!

Fizzy Heart Art

This is a fun project which combines science and art in a festive craft! Cut several heart shapes out of watercolor paper (or any thicker paper). To minimize the mess, we covered a cookie sheet in foil and placed the hearts in there. Mix some vinegar and food coloring in whatever colors you would like to use. We used red and purple for ours. Have your child sprinkle baking soda over the hearts using a spoon. Once the hearts are covered, use a dropper to pick up some of the colored vinegar and drip it onto the hearts. The vinegar and baking soda will start to bubble up and fizz on contact! My daughter kept insisting we do this project over and over again because she loved the reaction it made.

 

Hidden Hearts

This a great game to keep kids moving and entertained. Cut hearts out of different colors of paper. Depending on the age and skill level of your kids, you can adapt this as you see fit. If you have multiple kids, assign each kid a color and have them search for their hearts around the house. For slightly older kids, you can make this more interesting by writing  certain letters, numbers or words on their hearts. If you write numbers 1-10, or the letters of their name, then they will know they have to find all of the hearts to complete their puzzle. You could also write out words to create a sentence, and the kids will have to figure out what that sentence should be once they have gathered all of their clues.

Heart Stamps

Bend a pipe cleaner into a heart shape, leaving enough at the end to create a handle. Dip the stamp in paint and let kids create their own Valentines cards! When used with washable paint, these stamps clean very easily with soap and hot water, and they can be kept for other projects or re-twisted and made into another shape.

Musical Hearts

The blog Teach Mama posted this fun spin on musical chairs. She set up a circle of foam hearts with actions written on the bottom of them. While the music played, her kids walked from heart to heart. When the music stopped, they flipped over the heart they were standing on and did the action listed on it. She also gave examples of how this activity could be adapted to work on different skills. You could write sight words or math problems on the hearts and have kids read out their word or solve their math problem. You could also mix and match skills and actions.

Spread the love this Valentine’s Day with these printable Valentine bookmarks for kids!

 

There are so many fun heart inspired crafts and activities to do this month. What are your favorite Valentine’s Day books and activities to share with your kids?

85 comments on “Celebrate Love with the Valentine Bears!”

  17. This book is so adorable! I just flipped through the pages through Amazon. Although my Son is a little too young for it just yet, I would absolutely consider purchasing it when he’s a little older. The activity was perfect!

  20. Thanks for sharing these Valentine’s Day activity ideas. They’re all so cute. I can’t wait until our little one can participate in these next year.

  22. I love Eve Buntings’ stories! She’s a wonderful author. This book reminds me a lot of Bear Stays Up, which I just read. Same idea but around Christmas.

    • We love Bear Stays Up too! I had a hard time putting that one away after the holidays because my daughter insisted we keep reading it every night!

  24. Pingback: 11 Fun Valentine Activities for Kids (WTRW) |

  26. Never heard of the Valentine’s Bears! I’ll have to check it out!

    Thank you for participating in this week’s #fandayfriday link party! I hope you get some great traffic to your site this week and hope to see more of your blog posts at next week’s party!

  27. I woulda never thought of the heart stamps idea but that is such a great idea! Got me thinking about all the other shapes I could make!

  30. I love that pipe cleaner stamp idea! Finding ways to craft cheaply with small people is important, but this also teaches kids to think about ways they can repurpose items around the house. Just a great idea.

  32. You always have the cutest activities to accompany stories! This is another great post that I will need to reference in the future!

  35. These are great crafting ideas! I like to do valentine’s crafts but I really don’t do valentine’s books. My kids are really big book snobs so if they can’t read it all year long, they refuse to get it. SO! instead of chocolate and candies we do a trip to Barnes and Noble! 🙂

    • Trips to Barnes and Noble were the best gifts when my sister and I were little! We loved going to the bookstore! I actually have a post of books coming up next week which are about love, but not Valentine’s specific for just that reason!

    • I’ve never been really big into Valentine’s Day, but I like to dabble in it in a small way and remind the people I love why I love them!

  43. I can definitely relate to Mrs. Bear, I think I’m the bear who usually hibernates during Valentine’s Day 😉 But some of these activities look so fun, maybe I’ll too try not to sleep through! As always, thank you for the thoughtful post.

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