Meet February

Where there is love there is life. — Mahatma Gandhi

The book I selected for this month was Meet February by April Martin. This book is part of a collection called The Calendar Kids. It’s a fun story, and the main character’s name is February. This book explains the month of February in a unique and meaningful way. The friends at school that February makes Valentines for in this book are also named for months of the year.

Cover of the book, Meet February with a girl holding valentine cards and candy.

One of the things I liked about the book was the way each month has its own unique “personality.” This is the second book in the series. The author is an elementary teacher who created this series “to help children connect with the events and weather that take place during different months of the year. Each book contains discussion questions, monthly facts, and a fun themed recipe to try!” If you’d like to preview the book before buying it, check out this YouTube video narration of the story.

The activities for this month focus on many essential skills for my students. Here are a few of the things we focused on.

book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
explore the February calendar hanging up in the classroom
use of low vision tools while reading the book
develop hand and eye coordination
soliciting assistance appropriately
fine motor skill development
communication
positional concepts
choice making

Activity 1 3D Love Tree

This activity emerged as a result of my students begging for something that’s “not a card, but still fun”. Challenge was accepted, and the hunt for something fun began! While browsing Temu in December, I found the 3D Love Tree craft. Instead of using the glue dots that came with the craft, we used regular glue. I also went to several dollar stores looking for additional heart sticker options to add some “pizzazz” to the craft. I found some glittery and gemstone hearts that I knew my students would like. I even explored Hobby Lobby for anything else that caught my eye. Oriental Trading also has some really great options if you have time to wait for the items to arrive.

For this activity, I didn’t pre-package anything for my students. They were able to open packages and explore everything before making choices about what they might like to use. If they couldn’t open the packages, they practiced soliciting assistance from me.

For this craft, I needed:

Tip

Have a student that doesn’t like touching glue? I use disposable vinyl gloves on the hand that is holding the item in place.

Activity 2 Abstract Heart

Foam heart with a collage of valentine items glued to it including a plastic flower, various textured hearts, and small heart envelope.

The focus of this craft was to allow my students to have as much creative license as they wanted. I bought a package of 12 pre-cut foam hearts from a dollar store. After that, I dug through my craft/material tubs in my garage for other items that could be viewed as usable for a Valentine’s Day craft.

When my students assembled their hearts, they could make them look however they chose. I either opened up a plastic bin or laid out all the items they were able to choose from. The students either pulled out what they wanted or I put the items on a tray to make it easier for them to access. Once they had the items on their heart the way they wanted it, we worked together to glue the items onto the heart.

Student with a tray of items to assemble the heart craft.

For this craft, I needed:

***The sky’s the limit! Go crazy! My students really enjoyed this craft a lot.***

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.
After Valentine’s Day (or any holiday), buy craft supplies to use next year. You may not know what you’ll want to use, but this is when the items are more affordable and you can possibly use the items for other activities/crafts.

Activity 3 Color Page

Many of my students have an IEP goal for coloring (working left to right/top to bottom, staying in the general area/in the lines, etc.). Instead of searching this month for a color page, I found one in an email from a blog site I belong to. Living Life & Learning had heart coloring pages that were easy for me to adapt.

For this craft, I needed:

Non-cluttered, simple Valentine’s Day color sheets
Crayons or other coloring tools (adapted or regular)
Clipboard (optional) to assist with holding page in place

Tip:

When I need simple images for coloring or for a tactile image, I like to do the search for the specific image using “toddler color images” as part of the search. These images tend to be less cluttered, and I can spend less time adapting them for my students. I select at least two images for my students to choose from.

Extension Activities

Crystal and Cory have a blog post Create Heart Shaped Crayons from recycled crayons. Great fun to do with older students to use with the younger ones.
Living Life & Learning has a fun science activity on their site to try Easy 4-Ingredient Dancing Hearts Experiment
Living Life & Learning has a blog post Valentine Bingo Cards that can easily be adapted for students with visual impairments. In the past, I’ve created each square of the bingo card to be a tactile shape/texture
Simple Everyday Mom has a fun craft Valentine Robot that is easily adapted for students with visual impairments.
Stay at Home Educator has a cute idea for preschoolers Valentine’s Day Process Art
Special Achievers has a store on Teacher’s Pay Teachers that has an interactive book called Penguin’s Valentine’s Day for $3.50 that I created for the classrooms I’m in. A fun little book!
Special Achievers also has a blog posting on 4 Fun Heart-Themed Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids with CVI. You can also join her CVI newsletter at the bottom of the post.
Fun-A-Day has a Counting Hearts Printable Book that is easily enlarged or adapted for students with low vision.
One Sharp Bunch posted an article on her blog site about her 25 Valentines Day Books for Kids. She included a brief description of each as well.

Need some free Printable Valentine’s Day Cards to color? 24 hour Family has an amazing assortment on their blog. I chose 5 of the 36 they offered. They are easily enlarged or adapted. I put a couple in paint and edited the images a bit.