Just in Time for Valentine's Day!

Or should I say, "ValenTIMES day??" After all, that is how all of my students are pronouncing it! So cute! :)

 If you have been reading our blog for a while, you will know that we like to use mirrors a lot in our classrooms- no, not for us!- but for our students. We love how it is a cute and easy way to teach the kids about having confidence and a high self- esteem. (Check out our Whoooo's a Good Looking Kid post for more ideas and printables for using mirrors to build self esteem.)

Since this is the time for celebrating LOVE, I decided to teach this lesson right around Valentine's Day. How often do you hear students talk about how much they LOVE their family, friends, toys, pets, school, sports, or of course, you- their teacher??? All the time, right??? While I love to hear my students profess their love of everything, I especially like to hear them talk about how much LOVE they have for themself! This does not happen as much as I would like- especially when students get older and are much more aware of peer pressure and pressure from our society. This is one of my favorite lessons to teach because it integrates reading, writing, a whole lot of self -reflection, an art project, and some very important LIFE LESSONS!!! :)

I began the lesson by passing out a mini mirror to every student in the class. You can purchase some at the Dollar store, ask your students to bring them to school, or even check your science supply rooms- you never know where you might find them!

I then called the students to sit in a circle on the carpet and asked them to look in the mirror and share what they saw and how they feel. Yes, there was giggling, whispering....so I went first. "On the outside, I see my blue eyes and feel happy because I like them. On the inside, I see how I am a compassionate person and I care about my students." The boys and girls followed my example and shared their own thoughts about what they see on the outside from looking at their reflection in the mirror and also who they are in the inside (what the mirror does not reflect!)

We continued by sharing the positive "inside and outside" qualities that we notice about each other- showed some love to each other. I then read a few of my favorite picture books and had the students reflect on the "top ten things I love about myself!" We then learned about the different adjectives that could be used to describe our personality (postive ones of course!) and create a cute, little art project that we turned into a bulletin board.

Check out some of the pictures that I took from our lessons:

I used to teach this lesson earlier in the school year, but I wanted to wait for the "love" theme of February to inspire the lessons this year. (***TPT customers- This was a file that we revised from our TPT store. If you already purchased the file titled, Awesome Adjectives that Describe Me!, then please redown the revised file!!!) If you are interested in this file, click on the image below to buy the file from TPT (it is $3.50):

This file is also sold in our Show Your Students the Love February unit, also on TpT, for $8.00.

Speaking of all this love....the first two readers who leave a nice comment will get our Valentine's unit for free! :) Please don't forget your email address! Enjoy your weekend!