As a teacher it can be hard to control the excitement of holidays. I have always found it helpful to harness the excitement into a productive activity. That is why this Valentine’s day, I will be launching my very first Valentines day word work station.
My students use their word work station to build and practice their spelling words. Each week I have three different lists to challenge and differentiate for all my students. Finding a fun and meaningful activity was my goal for this Valentine’s day.
Enter my Word Heart Parts word work activity. It takes a little bit more preparation that my other stations but I know the reward will be worth it.
First, I found some colored paper to suit the holiday, plus some to keep my boys happy who may not want all their papers to be pink and red. I also borrowed a heart punch from my art teacher. She actually had two different sizes to choose from. I went with the larger size. If you don’t have a well stocked art teacher like I do, you can find paper punchers of all kinds at your local craft store for a reasonable price.
I spend a night in front of my TV punching out hearts. In the end I had MANY colored hearts to stock my station. All I had to do after was provide the word lists, paper, pencils, and glue sticks and my students were on their way. I gave directions to build their words using the hearts. I got some beautiful work back! The image below is my sample for them.
This station would be easy to differentiate by asking the students to use the hearts to build their words a different way. Single letters or syllables are perfect for kindergarten or first grade. For second graders, like mine, letter patterns on each heart to build the words, or asking students to use just two colors to show the target pattern and then the rest of the letters. You can also easily change the shape of your cut out to adapt this station to fit any holiday. Shamrocks or egg shapes anyone?
I hope your students have as much fun with this station as mine did.
Stay crafty!
Karena