Like most, our theme for February is Valentine's Day. You can click here to see posts of all the fun things we did last year (when James was 2 & 3/4 years old). Practical Life Tweezing Roses. This idea comes from My Montessori Journey. I made these out of felt - click here to see my tutorial. Weaving Ribbons. Pouring Confetti Hearts. Lacing Beads. James really likes this work and it's one we've done a few different times - I just adjust the colors to match our theme. Open & Close Basket. Always a favorite in our home. There are little heart shaped erasers inside each container. Buttoning Hearts. This is the same one I made last February. As you can see, it's very similar to our button snake. Polishing Wood. I'll write more about this soon. Sensorial Red Sensory Tub. Chocolate Playdough. Smelling Bottles. Still on our shelves: Baric Tablets, the Pink Tower, Geometric Solids, Knobbed & Knobless Cylinders. Language Moveable Alphabet. I think this is my favorite of all Montessori materials. James loves spelling out words. I've added some of the objects from our alphabet box to make it even more fun. Tracing. I found these great printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Be sure to check out the link - she has loads of Valentine's Day printables. Sequencing Hearts. I cut these hearts out of foam paper. I'll create a pattern for James and he'll finish it. Fine Motor w/ Beads. I really didn't know where to categorize this work, but I thought since it focuses on the pincer grasp (the same used in writing) I'd put it under Language. Anyway, this is actually a connect four type of game (I found at our local fair trade store) and if James is interested I'll teach him how to play it. Blue Series Work. I have to admit, I haven't been focusing on this as much as I originally thought I would. Not sure why. So, we're still working our way through it all. Dot Stamping the Letter V. Printable from here. Valentine Poetry Basket. I'll write more about this later in the week. Books: Mouse's First Valentine, by Lauren Thompson Little Mouse's Big Valentine, by Thacher Hurd Valentine Mice!, by Bethany Roberts Arthur's Valentine, by Marc Brown The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats I purchased all of these at our local second hand store. With the exception of The Snowy Day, which I love, I have to say, none of these books are all that great and I think a couple of them may even be out of print. I also thought it was funny that three of the books focus on mice... I had no idea mice were so connected with Valentine's Day! :) Math Cards & Counters. Heart shaped cards and 55 pink buttons as counters. Addition Heart Game. To play this game James will roll the die and then put the correct number of white hearts into the muffin tin (one for each cup), then he'll roll the die again and put the correct number of red hearts into the tin. He'll then add up all the hearts to find the sum. Matching Heart Cards. We had this on our shelves last year, too. This year I plan to point out to James that the number of hearts on the card matches the numeral shown. Graphing Hearts. I found this graph/idea on Kidssoup. I've filled the little heart shaped box with small conversation candy hearts and once James places them on the grid he'll be able to count them and see which colors have more/less. Still on our shelves: Sandpaper Numerals, Red & Blue Rods, and The Hundreds Board. Science & Culture Outer Space. You have no idea what a huge hit our space unit was with James! He loved it all and so I've decided to extend our study of outer space for the month of February. Still on our shelves: North America Continent Bag. Art & Music Composer of the Month: Johann Strauss. Stamping Hearts. James is crazy about stamps and in this case instead of a self-inking stamper, he'll need to use a little ink pad. Scissor Practice. To make these I simply put heart stickers on white strips of paper. James will use the heart stickers as guide and cut in between them. The bowl is for the cut bits. Painting Watercolor Hearts. Art Basket. Still on our shelves: Instrument Nomenclature Cards. I'm linking this post up to The Preschool Corner. ~Thank you for your comments!~