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[Valentine’s Activity] Celebrate with a Kindness Jar

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Don’t hate me but I love Valentine’s Day. This Valentine’s activity is one example of why. Creating a kindness jar with friends, classmates, or family is a powerful experience. There is a free printable at the end of this post to get you started!valentine activity for the classroom

Over the years I have been THAT mom asking specific questions at the end of the day. My hope is that my boys reflect on their days and on the people that impact them.

This past holiday season we “Life is Good” jar where we wrote on scraps of paper anything and everything we loved in life. So, you can imagine the range of responses depending on the mood, on the day, on the child, and so on.

On Christmas, at the dinner table, that is how we began our meal. That was my toast to the family. I opened the jar and read a bit after bit of why our “Life is Good”. Such a wonderful reminder of all the wonderful joys to experience every day.

valentine's activity

Fun Valentine Activity for the Whole Family

Valentine’s Day has a love/hate relationship with the world. I choose to embrace the occasion in our family.
Yes, I LOVE Valentine’s Day as a day to celebrate and honor friendship, kindness, and compassion.
So, I created an “I Love You Because” jar. We’ve been filling each day, without pressure, depending on when the mood strikes us.

My boys love it.

“I love you because you are crazy like me. We can be crazy together.” My 6-year-old wrote to his younger brother.

Heart melting.

I am sure I will find a few “I love you because your poop…”

You get my drift…and I need not say any more.

Perfect Valentine Activity for the Classroom

I created three sets of Valentine cards for my sons to fill out. The sets include “I love you because”, “You rock because”, and “You’re a great friend because…”. I printed each set in cursive and standard font.

VALENTINE ACTIVITY FOR FAMILY

Steps to making this Valentine Activity happen are simple:

  • Find a large mason jar or container. Make it see through so you all can enjoy watching the jar fill with love over the month!
  • Download this FREE printable
  • Print out
  • Cut
  • Place by jar with markers & pens
  • Encourage children to write sentiments without the pressure of naming themselves or the person in their thoughts (although they can certainly write their names if they would like)
  • I also included pink and red post it notes for fun
  • On Valentine’s Day, open the jar, and read (or take turns reading) all the love notes
  • Experience the warm fuzzies

Free Heart Shaped Valentine Printable

Valentine Printable for FamiliesClick on the image above for your FREE Valentine Activity printable!

 

I hope you enjoyed this post. Come on, admit it, you’re with me, you love Valentine’s Day now. Right? Want more activities for kids? Check out these Valentines Day Activities & Crafts for Preschoolers.

Marnie

Marnie Craycroft

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange in 2010.

Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori learning and living website for parents and teachers.

Marnie graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a BA in Economics. She spent nearly a decade working in investment management. In 2006, she earned her MA in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999 and currently lives in Boulder with her husband and three sons. She is Montessori trained. Her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Buzzfeed, PBS Kids, BabyCenter, the Melissa & Doug blog, Huffington Post, and WhattoExpect.com. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures.

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