1. Give Your Children Delightful February Love-Day Songs

Oh, My Darling Valentine (To the tune of Clementine) February is a short month 28 days or 29 In the middle is a love-day, Won't you be my Valentine? Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Valentine. In the middle is a love-day, Won't you be my Valentine? —Author Unknown

This “just right” song came to me from mentor (now retired) kindergarten teacher, Joanie Cutler. Clementine is a contagious melody, so you may find yourself repeating, “In the middle, is a love-day, won’t you be my Valentine?” over and over again. What a memorable way for children to learn about February calendar skills, the concept of “middle”, and cultural traditions of love and friendship.

Download: Oh, My Darling Valentine for your Poetry and Song (“I Can Read”) Notebook.

Sing and dance everyday in kindergarten: It’s how the brain learns best!

View our enlarged collection of songs and rhymes: February Themes of Love and Friendship. (These are either in the public domain or shared with permission.) Here is a sample of what you’ll find this month.

2. Begin Planning for Student-Led Parent Conferences:
Video Clips and New Links

Glimpses of Student-Led Parent Conference Video Clip with Lisa Young

Teachers who use student-led parent conferences tell us, “This is just the best thing we do!” We agree! Ongoing, authentic assessment leading to student-led parent conferences is one of our “Ten Best Practices in Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy,” with good reason!

Consider the benefits of allowing young children to set goals, evaluate their progress, and communicate their new learning accomplishments—with great pride—to their parents. When learning is in the children’s hands, they become more self-motivated, responsible, and independent. Isn’t that what we want?

For more information, see the following:

• Student-Led Parent Conferences in Kindergarten: A Celebration of Learning (PDF)
• Student-Led Parent Conferences: "This is the Best Thing I Do!"
• Tips on Creating a Celebration of Learning
• Student-Led Conferences: What Does the Child Share?
• Help Parents Use Active Learning and Encouraging Language
• Student-Led Parent Conference List (PDF)
• I Can Read Independently in Kindergarten: I am Building my Reading Stamina (PDF)
• What Do We Read? We Read the Walls (PDF)

Reach for the Stars With the Lives of Our Children

3. Download Chewy Yum Yums and Full-Color Play Dough Picture Recipe

Kids and cooking go together—what a delicious way to learn! 

Chewy Yum Yums with dates and nuts are easy, fun to mix, nutritious, and yummy to eat.  Consider making these for your Valentine’s party or student-led parent conference snacks.  You are welcome to make copies of our recipes for families.

Download Chewy Yum Yums and other picture recipes.

Our Play Dough Recipe is now available in Full-Color: You can enlarge and laminate this recipe for your classroom-cooking center.

Tip: Bags of pink play dough make a fun valentine gift for your children.

4. February Writing Ideas and New Curriculum Links

View our sign language video clip with curriculum links:

  L-O-V-E Spells Love
  M-O-M Spells Mom

Singing, signing, and spelling are powerful ways to learn high-frequency "heart" words.  

February card writing activities provide great practice in writing meaningful sentences and phrases:

I love you.     To _________.
I like you.      From _________.
You are my friend.

Keep sentence strips, photos/name cards of classmates, a variety of paper, pens and envelopes in your card-making center.  Children can practice writing a message and adding “To _____” and “From _____.”  Enjoy their delightful, creative designs. (Thank you, Becky Leber, for showing us how to build independent literacy centers!)

See Becky Leber’s Literacy Centers Photo Essay (page 2) for more details.

This is one of the literacy centers we will expand on at our February 13, 2010 workshop, Organizational Model for Writing to Read in Kindergarten. (This workshop is full, and teachers are starting to register early for the July 21 and 22 Writing to Read workshops. Space is limited to 40 teachers.) See summer kindergarten and early literacy seminars schedule.

Invite children to write love coupons and take them home for Mom and Dad. This idea comes from the book Kid Writing: A Systematic Approach to Phonics, Journals, and Writing Workshop: (Page 92) See the Kid Writing Website

Children can write “I love you” messages to secretly hide around their homes.

Brainstorm where they might tuck them: Under Mom’s pillow? By the computer? In Dad’s shoe?...

Each child can write several notes on 4" by 8.5" paper and tuck them inside a business envelope to keep them safe on the way home from school. This is a great way to build fluency with high-frequency (“heart”) words and phrases.

Here are Our Current Favorite February Links:

• Kindergarten Homestead Valentine
• Kinder by Kim February
• Mrs. Flanagan’s Little Giraffes Valentine’s Day
• Mrs. Critchell’s Valentine Ideas
• A Wrinkled Heart– from Hummingbird Educational Resources
• Diane Bonica’s Kindergarten Galleries: Heart and Friends Quilt
• Calico Cookie Valentine’s Themes

Happy Browsing!

5. Children's Books that Say, “I love you...”

The most power packed words a child can write (besides their own names) are, “I love you.” We teach these important high-frequency “heart” words early in the year, and we teach for fluency. Our kinders (even special needs children) can all proudly read, write, sign, and spell “I love you,” “I love my…,” and “I love the…” How happy the children are to confidently read these words in so many wonderful books!
See the entire new Children's Book List.

Here are some sample children’s book pages and covers:

I Love You: A Rebus Poem by Jean Marzollo. Scholastic, Inc., 2000.	I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon by Karen Pandell. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994.	I Love My New Toy! by Mo Willems. Hyperion, 2008.
Page from I Love the Mountains, A Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book™	Page from Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, A Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book ™	Page from I Have A Cat, A Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book™

Please note that our Read and Sing Big Books (in color or black and white) are 25% off with the purchase of five or more. Use discount code: “5bigbooks” in our Online Bookstore. Also see our new lists of Favorite Children’s Books.

6. Salem Cadre Schedule: 2010

There will be no February Cadre meeting due to our February 13, 2010 workshop, Organizational Model for Writing to Read in Kindergarten. Remember to sign up early for the summer seminars as, once again, we are limiting enrollment to provide a more quality “hands-on” professional development experience for teachers.

2010 Kindergarten Cadre Schedule

Wishing you a happy February,

Nellie Edge