09.02.2010

День Святого Валентина

Every February we celebrate Valentine's Day by giving flowers, candy and cards to those we love. We do this in honor of Saint Valentine. You may be wondering, "Who is St. Valentine"? Time to brush up on your Valentine's history!

Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during third century Rome. There was an Emperor at that time by the name of Claudius II. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those that were married. With this thought in mind he outlawed marriage for young men in hopes of building a stronger military base. Supposedly, Valentine, decided this decree just wasn't fair and chose to marry young couples secretly. When Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine's actions he had him put to death.

Another legend has it that Valentine was an imprisoned man who fell in love with his jailor's daughter. Before he was put to death he sent the first 'valentine' himself when he wrote her a letter and signed it 'Your Valentine', words still used on cards today.

Perhaps we'll never know the true identity and story behind the man named St. Valentine, but this much is for sure...February has been the month to celebrate love for a long time, dating clear back to the Middle Ages. In fact, Valentines ranks second only to Christmas in number of greeting cards sent.

Another valentine gentleman you may be wondering about is Cupid (Latin cupido, "desire"). In Roman mythology Cupid is the son of Venus, goddess of love. His counterpart in Greek mythology is Eros, god of love. Cupid is often said to be a mischievous boy who goes around wounding both gods and humans with his arrows, causing them to fall in love.

Kids will love the following ideas for Valentine party games. Remember, most games can be adapted to all ages of children with a bit of creative thinking. Also, if you choose to play a game that requires teams, and you have an odd number of children, one person will need to go twice. Ask for a volunteer and if one doesn't surface you might want to leave it up to the team to choose who they think will be the fastest.

Valentine Bingo

Supplies: Make your own heart shaped bingo cards or print our Heart Bingo Cards, Red hots or a small candy, such as M&M's, for markers, Valentine bag to hold call cards

How To Play: Print Heart Bingo Cards or create your own cards using a Valentine, February, or Candy Bar theme. Valentine theme might include: card, heart, red, pink, white, cupid, St. Valentine. February theme might include: groundhogs, President Lincoln, Washington, winter, doves, valentines. A candybar theme might include: Skor, Mr. Goodbar, Milkyway, Hershey, Kisses, Hugs, Joy (go to the grocery store for this one).

Another variation to create your own Bingo card: Write the names of all the children on pieces of paper and drop them into a Valentine bag. Note: remove the names of any children absent that day.

Create a BINGO card with blank spaces. Across the top it will say "N-A-M-E-S". Have the children go around and have their classmates sign their name to the spaces on the card. When all are done, have them sit down at their tables.

Play NAMES by drawing a name out of the bag. Play regular BINGO or blackout. If the children really like the game, then play "Postage Stamp" any 2x2 square (4 names) on the board, etc.

Valentine Box Contest

Supplies: Shoebox for each child, Decorating supply list for each child, Scissors, Glue

How To Play: Children take their shoebox home and decorate it using only the items listed on their supply list. At the party they are judged and winners are named for categories: funniest, prettiest, most creative, etc.

Pin The Heart On Cupid

Supplies: Big picture of Cupid, A red heart, for each child, with adhesive on back and their name on the front, Blindfold

How To Play: Blindfold the player, spin 'em around and let them try to stick the heart where it's supposed to go. Give a prize for the player that gets the closest.

Gather a tin-can full of writing tools and get kids to play these great valentine paper games.

Love Thy Neighbor

Supplies: Paper, Pen, Timer

How To Play: Set the timer and have the children write as many kind things as they can think of about their classmate (neighbor) on their right. The last child writes about the first child. Suggest that they write kind things about how their neighbor acts, thinks, plays, works or looks. Give the paper to the neighbor to take home.

Red Envelope

Supplies: Red Envelope for each child, Paper, Pen/pencil

How To Play: Have the children write a letter of love and gratitude to a member or members of their family. When finished they should fold it up and place in the red envelope, seal it, and write the person’s name on the front. On Valentine’s Day they should place it on the persons pillow or somewhere else they'll be sure to find it.

Valentines Coupons

Supplies:

Five pieces of cardstock, for each child, cut to the same size, with the words "This Coupon Good For" printed at the top.

Envelope for each child, Pen/pencil

How To Play: Have children create their very own valentine coupons to give to family members. Give them suggestions such as, This Coupon Is Good For: A hug, A kiss, Taking out the garbage, Doing the dishes, cleaning the living room, helping with the laundry, etc.

How Many Kisses

Supplies:

Large glass jar filled with chocolate kisses

Small pieces of paper, Valentine box, Pencil

How To Play: Have children write their name on a small piece of paper and their guess as to how many kisses are in the jar. The child who guesses the right number, or comes closest, gets a heart sucker. The candy in the jar is then divided among the children. A variation would be that the winner takes the jar of candy home to share with their family.

Heart on a String

Supplies   Cardboard heart with string or ribbon attached.

How To Play: Show the children the heart. Have them close their eyes until you tell them to open them. Hide the heart with the string or ribbon attached so only the string shows. Have the children open their eyes, stand up and search for the heart strings. If they find it they should not say a word but return quickly and quietly to their seats. The first person to sit down wins and may take a turn at hiding the heart.

Find the Hearts

Supplies:  100+ Construction paper hearts cut out

How To Play: Hide the hearts while the children are out of the room. Have the children find as many hearts as they can. Then have children go back to their tables or groups and count how many hearts the whole group has. Highest number of hearts collected get to make their treats first.

Find Your Partner

Supplies:  Picture of animals-children must know what sound they make (2 of each animal), Hat or bowl

How To Play: Have each child draw a picture out of the hat. They must then find their partner by making the sound that the animal makes and listening to the other children for an animal making the same sound as they are.

Find Your Heart-Mate

Supplies: Construction paper hearts, Scissors

How To Play: Cut hearts in half either in different angles, or with decorative large cutting scissors. Hand out the hearts and have the children find their heart-mate!

Valentine Scramble

Supplies: Index Cards, Paper Bags

How To Play: Choose a Valentine word such as: St. Valentine, Chocolate, Heart, Jewelry.... Write the letters of the word on individual index cards. Do this two times, making two sets. Put each set in a brown paper bag.

Divide children into teams. Give each team a bag. The first team to decipher what the word in the bag is wins. A variation of the game would be to divide into teams with the same number of children as there are letters in the word. Each child gets a letter and they must hold onto the card and stand in the proper order to spell the word for all to see.

St. Valentine Says

How To Play: Played similar to Simon Says. The player up is "St. Valentine". Player will say "St. Valentine says hop on one foot". The children will hop on one foot. Player will say "Stop". The children are to keep hopping on one foot until player says "St. Valentine says stop". Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, sit down. Sometimes St. Valentine will say "St. Valentine says" and sometimes he won't. It's a fun game to play with young children.

Valentine Pictionary

Supplies: Chalkboard, Chalk, Eraser, Valentine Bag, Papers with valentine objects written on them, Timer

How To Play: Put papers with valentine objects written on them into bag. Divide children into two groups. Flip a coin to see which team goes first. Invite a child from the playing team to approach the chalkboard, draw a slip of paper, and read it to themselves. On your mark, the child should then draw the object in hopes that his/her team members will guess the object on their paper. If the team guesses correctly, before time runs out, they score a point. If the playing team does not guess correctly the other team has five seconds to try to come up with the correct answer. If they guess correctly they score a point and it is their turn to play.

This game can be simplified for young players utilizing words such as: candy, heart, card. Make more difficult for older players by using short phrases: my heart belongs to you, be mine, etc.

Word Find

Take a Valentine related word such as: Valentine, Chocolate, Romance, etc. and find as many little words as possible before the timer runs out.

Example: Chocolate

Words: late, at, ate, tea, tale, tool, cool, hat, hot, cat, coat...

Example: Flowers

Words: flow, sew, flew, wore, rose, low, row...

Valentine Twenty Questions

How To Play: Teacher starts by choosing a Valentine related person, place, or thing. The teacher says, "I'm thinking of something". The children try to guess what it is by asking no more than twenty questions that can be answered "YES", "NO", or I DON'T KNOW". The student who guesses correctly is next up.

Broken Heart Riddles

Supplies: Large hearts cut in two, Riddle written on the first half of the heart, Answer written on the second half of the heart

How To Play: Children go around and ask the riddle and the second child will give the answer. If the answers are correct, the two children who are matched up then sit down. Game is over when all children have matched up the riddle to the answer.

Valentine Clue

How To Play: Teacher thinks of person, place, or thing. Teacher gives a clue. Begin at one end of the room and work your way around allowing each student to take a turn guessing until one student solves the case. The student who solves the case goes next.

Example: Cupid

Clue: I'm thinking of someone who wears a banner

Clue: He melts hearts

Clue: He'll get you with his arrow

Clues should be appropriate for the knowledge of the children playing.

learn more ideas at http://holidays.kaboose.com/valentines-day/

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