When is there a better time to celebrate friendship then during the Valentine season?! The preschoolers spent a lot of time talking about what it means to be a good friend. We came up with friendship rules and all of the children agreed that friends are respectful and kind! To encourage the children to be kind to all of their friends, the friendship train was created. Each kiddo created a small paper version of themselves to "ride" on the train. When the teachers saw a friend being kind or helping others they were invited to hop aboard the friendship train!
We celebrated Valentine's day twice (February 14th and 15th) to make sure everyone was celebrated! The children each made a card for a friend and added it to the Valentine's Day mailbox. When it was time to pass around the cards, the children took turns crawling through the "tunnel of love" to open the mailbox and discover their valentine's day card. The children were very excited to see who made a special card for them!
We read some wonderful friendship books as well! One of our favorites was, "My Friends" by Taro Gomi. The book is about a little girl who learns different skills from her friends. The children took turns telling us what their friends have thought them. One of the children shared that they learned how to do a cartwheel from their mommy and another child shared that they learned how to speak spanish from a friend. This activity helped the children to appreciate the friends they have!
