Make Valentine's Day Awesome with a STEM Activity
As someone who thrives on integrated instruction, I've never really been able to find a satisfactory way to integrate my instruction on Valentine's Day. Then I was contacted by GIANTmicrobes asking me if I would like to use some of their heart themed plushies in my instruction. Wow! What a light bulb moment! What if instead of focusing on love and candy on Valentines Day, I focused on the human heart and it's amazing functions using this cute guy?
First, I plan on introducing the students to the human heart. By showing them the cute GIANTmicrobes version. Then I will tell them that the plush heart is the size of a grown up's heart, but their own heart is the size of their fist. We will then hold up our fists to gauge the size of our hearts. Then we will discuss how the heart pumps blood throughout the body to carry oxygen. We will look at the arteries and veins in our wrists, and use a toothpick stuck to a marshmallow resting on our wrists to watch our heartbeats.
Next I will show the students the GIANTmicrobes representation of platelets, red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma and we will talk about the jobs each of these play in our blood.
To continue the fun we are going to have a sensory center to help the students cement their understanding of the composition of blood. Using red water beads to represent red blood cells, miniature ping pong balls to represent white blood cells, bits of yellow foam as platelets, water as plasma, and clear plastic tubes as arteries, students will get to experience the components of the circulatory system in a hands-on way!
We are also going to show what we've learned about the composition of blood by making this art project:
The heart shape in this craft represents an artery. The glitter represents red blood cells, yellow glitter represents platelets, glue represents plasma, and the white cotton balls represent white blood cells. You can download the worksheet with this link:
Would you like to integrate more fun into your Valentine's Day? This Valentine Thematic Unit is full of great ideas and I can't wait to use the song "There's A Little Wheel Turnin'" while teaching the heart on Valentines Day. You'll love all of these activities too!
Also Available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Valentine Phonics Games
Bring the holidays into your reading lessons.
Zap My Heart: Alphabet Fluency
Zap My Heart: Sight Word Fluency
Love Birds: Practicing Early Phonics and Phonological Skills
Park a Heart: Distinguishing Between Similarity Spelled Words
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Product Description
Valentine Thematic Unit is filled with curriculum essentials, games and activities that will enhance your Valentine Celebration in your classroom or homeschool setting. All activities are strategically linked to academic Core Standards.
Table of Contents:
Literacy Activities
Speedy Heart: Naming Alphabet Letter Sounds Fluently
Valentine YOYO: Reading Sight Words
Postal Race: Reading and Alphabetizing Names
Valentine Sounds: Blending Sounds Together
Capital Clash: Building Alphabet Letter and Sound Fluency
Vanishing Hearts: Reading Alphabet Letter Sounds Fluently
Vanishing Hearts: Reading CVC Words Fluently
Conversation Hearts: Reading and Writing High-Frequency Words
Sorting Mail: Reading and Writing Various Fonts
Math Activities
Find a Heart: Identifying Numbers
Valentine Count: Making Numbers Equal to 10
Cupcake Wars: Adding and Subtracting on a Number Line Using the Signs + and -.
Draw a Shape: Drawing Shapes
Symmetry: Making a Heart
Candy Heart Graph: Gathering and Interpreting Data
Art Projects
Valentine Animals
Valentine Mouse
Valentine Puzzle
Kitchen Science
Sweetheart Pudding
Decorate a Valentine Cookie
Songs
My Friend
Love Dust
Bushel and a Peck
You are my Sunshine
Writing
Valentine Word Wall Words
Writing Prompts:
My Friends
Things I Love
I Can:
Label It
Write a List
Write Word Wall Words
Sight Word- Decodable Independent Reader
My Valentine
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Description
Bring fun into your classroom, homeschool, or intervention room and spice up your phonics skills practice.
Our series of Science of Reading Phonics Skill Games for Reading Instruction are created using research on reading instruction that really works. This packet focuses on crucial phonics skills.
Contents Include:
Broken Heart Reading Multi-Syllabic Words
Valentine Party Reading Phrases With Fluency
Bank-It Reading R-Controlled Words
The Mailman Reading Sentences Fluently
Magic Hearts Substituting Phonemes
Valentine Endings Reading Words with Inflectional Endings.
Strategically practicing important reading skills will make your students or child improved readers!
Also Available at Teacher's Pay Teachers!
Turn this great folk song into a classroom and a creativity
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Teach student’s the song.
Copy a variety of colored hearts on construction paper.
Display the valentine animals.
Construct!