February Free lesson plan

February Fun

Art - Valentine Animals

What would Valentines Day be without making hearts? Let's use this occasion to share what's in our hearts. Communities are very willing to share at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but what about now? Have your students make Valentines for shut-ins at nursing homes and local hospitals. Your students may want to add a story to their card. Story starters will be included in this lesson plan.

Materials
Red, pink, and white construction paper
Wiggly eyes
Pom-poms
Yarn
Glue
Scraps of material, lace, and construction paper
Clothespins
Pipe cleaners
Directions
Provide patterns for different sizes of hearts. Have students take a large heart and fold it in half. First, we will make a "love" mouse. The folded edge is the bottom of your animal. The pointed end of the heart is your mouse's nose. Take little hearts for the ears. Use wiggly eyes and add yarn for a tail. For older students, you may want them to write a verse inside the heart, before they fold it in half. Now, we will make a butterfly. For this, we need another large heart. On the backside of the heart, glue a clothespin. On the front, glue lace or yarn down the middle. Make your butterfly beautiful by decorating with little hearts. Take a pipe cleaner and cut it in half. Twist the pipe cleaner so it is spiral shaped. Glue the two halves on your butterfly for its antenna. Your students can use their imagination to make cats, dogs, and birds.

Math
I just love red-hot candy. Provide a jar of red-hot hearts for your students. Okay, you can use the conversational hearts, but it won't be as tasty. (Just my opinion.) Have your students estimate how many pieces of candy are in the jar. Here are a couple of suggestions. Allow the class to chart all the estimates. Have your students work in pairs. They can add the two estimates together or subtract the two estimates. The final activity is to have the children find the difference between their estimate and the final count.
Upper Elementary

1. Have your students investigate the total number of teeth in their family. There are two ways to approach this. They can multiply the number of people by the number of permanent teeth a person is suppose to have. They may choose to have each person count their teeth and add the total.
2. A child's heart beats about 90 times a minute. How many times does it beat in an hour? Part 2: An adult's heart beats about 70 times a minute. How many times does it beat per hour?
3. Have your student take their pulse. Have them take the pulse of a friend. Add the two.
4. Have your students check their resting pulse. Have them write it down. Have the students jog in place for five minutes. Have them check their pulse now. What is the difference?
Lower Elementary
1. Marybeth lost 2 teeth in November 3 teeth in December, and 1 tooth in January. How many teeth has Marybeth lost?
2. Katie made 33 Valentines. She gave 19 to her friends. She saved the rest for family members. How many cards does she have left?
3. The mailperson bought Marybeth 13 cards on Monday. On Tuesday, the mailperson bought her 19 cards. How many cards did Marybeth have in all?


Science
Dental Health


SMILE, February is dental health month. It is also National Heart Smart month. You may want to combine the two and do a fun unit on the body. This next activity concentrates on dental health.
Materials
Hard-boiled egg
Clear vinegar
Wide mouth jar
Large spoon
Red mouth made from construction paper
(Optional) model of a tooth or diagram of a tooth
Directions
Before class, pour the clear vinegar in your jar. Tape or glue the mouth to the outside of your jar. You may want to take a permanent marker and draw a tooth on your egg. If you have a model or diagram, show your students the enamel of a tooth. Have them lightly tap the outside of their own tooth. Call attention to how hard the outside of their tooth is. Now take the hard-boiled egg and tell the children that it represents their tooth. Tap on the outside of the egg. Notice how hard it is. Just like the enamel of our tooth. The hard shell protects the egg and the enamel protects our tooth. Proceed to explain that we cannot see plaque or germs in our mouth. Place the egg in the jar. Continue to explain that when we eat, we leave food particles on our teeth. The food we can see. Even if we drink something, the juices and food create bacteria, germs, and acid in our mouth. We cannot see what is really going on in our mouth. The bacteria and germs are having a party in our mouth. They are attacking the enamel on our teeth. (If a couple of minutes have passed, take the egg out of the vinegar.) Remember how hard the shell or enamel was on our tooth? Take your thumb and slowly push into the tooth (egg). Your thumb made a cavity in your tooth. You may want to repeat this. (There should be a small hole in the shell with some discoloration in the egg.) Explain to the children that the acid, germs, and bacteria in their mouth can cause a cavity if we don't brush our teeth. Our "tooth" sure looks yucky now.
Creative Writing
1. The tooth fairy is advertising for an assistant. You must write her a letter to tell her why you should have the job.
2. Valentines Day is finally here. You cannot wait to see how many cards you received. You run all the way to the mailbox. You reach your hand way in and pull out a....

3. It is Ground Hog Day. You have been assigned the job of covering the story about whether the ground hog will see his shadow. You wait and wait for the ground hog to show his face. Finally, something appears from the hole. It's a....

Language Arts - Antonyms Broken Hearts or Broken Teeth

Materials
10 hearts or 20 teeth made out of construction paper
clear contact paper or laminate
marker
large red or white envelope
Directions
Laminate your hearts or teeth. If you do not have access to a laminator, cover with clear contact paper. Do this before you write on the cutouts. Cut your hearts or teeth in half. Write each word on a different heart or tooth.
in - tall - happy - cold - fast - over - heavy - last - up - sour
On the other half of the hearts or teeth, write the following words:
out - short - sad - hot - slow - under - light - first - down - sweet
Now have your students match the correct teeth or hearts. You may want to do this with number recognition. For example on one heart you would write 3 on the matching heart you could place ...The possibilities are endless.

Daily Language
Give your students two of the following sentences. Tell your students that they are to find your mistakes. First, they will copy the sentence on their paper. Have them use their red crayon to circle your mistakes. Their next mission is to correct the mistakes.
1. the ground hog sawed his shadow
2. you gonna eat all that valentine candy
3. i eight two much candy
4. i gots a cavity in my tooth
5. her going to give me a valentine card