February Activities.

I want to share activities for February before the month gets away from me. I’m going to share different things than in my post from last year and this one is going to include some things we’ve already done in the first few days of February, stuff we did last year (and will do again but just haven’t yet — so you’ll notice the kids are younger!) and I’ll also include some other themes besides Valentine’s Day.

There’s a lot that happens in February — Lunar New Year, Black History Month, President’s Day, the Super Bowl, it’s National Children’s Dental month, American Heart month, this year includes the Olympics… I mean the list goes on and on. Obviously you don’t need to do all of these themed-activities. But if you’re looking for ideas… here are some!

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Lunar New Year: Lunar New Year is a celebration of luck and prosperity! The lunar calendar assigns an animal from the rotating zodiac signs and 2022 is the year of the tiger. A tiger represents courage and bravery and people who celebrate the Lunar New Year feel a tiger could symbolize resilience and strength for 2022. It’s a time for family, reunions, and loud, joyful celebrations.

Tiger craft: This year we made a tiger puppet. First, we painted a paper bag orange and let it dry. Then added some black and white detailing. We also read a lot about tigers (not so much Lunar New Year-related as much as that’s where the interests led!)

Drum: We made these last year but they could easily be adapted for the year of the tiger! (Last year was the year of the Ox.) We used cardboard, red paper, an image I printed from google of an ox and then attached some ribbon and bells and a straw as a handle! Lunar New Year celebrations are LOUD to rid away evil spirits. The louder you are, the better! My kids really enjoyed that. 🙂

Paper lantern craft: A lantern can symbolize a bright future! A fun paper craft is to make a paper lantern. You fold a paper in half (holding it portrait mode) and then use a ruler to draw lines from the folded edge so that kids know where to make the cuts. Make sure you stop your lines about an inch away from the right of the page or else they’ll cut the paper into multiple pieces! Attach a pipe cleaner as a handle!

Black History Month: Since 1969, Black History Month has been celebrated during February in the United States. But we know that Black History Month shouldn’t be limited to February. We remember and celebrate the accomplishments of Black pioneers and embrace, support and uplift Black families and communities always.

Diverse Books: All year, we include stories and characters that mirror our children’s lives AND those that don’t. Books teach and encourage our minds to grow. Sometimes books are the closest we’ll ever get to traveling the world, or meeting someone from another culture. We aren’t all the same and books can be a child’s first realization that that’s true. Here’s a book list.

3 part cards // Black African Americans: 3 part cards are a tool that Montessori teachers like to use because they are helpful for internalizing the information on the cards. They include a label, a card with the label and a picture, and a card with just a picture. This set is used to introduce famous African Americans. It’s brought up a lot of questions and conversations which is great.

Guess who: We put a little spin on our standard Guess Who game! I got this printable off Etsy and we’ve been having fun playing this version. At the end of each round, we google the person and learn facts about them and what they do/did! Sometimes, we have a book about the person in our home library and we’ll stop and read our book, too.

President’s Day: President’s Day is a day to honor our presidents. As for activities, we can talk about the president’s role in the country, former presidents and the current one, and maybe dive in Washington D.C., the American flag… you can go a lot of places depending on age and interest levels.

Sorting coins: This can be a fun learning opportunity! All you need is a container of coins and then 4 smaller bowls for sorting. You can label them, talk about their worth, discuss the people on each coin, use them for crayon rubbings, count them, roll them up and even bring them to the bank… the list goes on!

Penny polishing: This is a fan favorite. You need a good amount of materials: a small spoon, vinegar, salt, q-tips, a jar of dirty pennies, an empty jar (for clean pennies) and a cloth to dry. The child puts a scoop of salt into the vinegar and then uses a q-tip to clean each dirty penny. When they’re done, they dry the clean penny and put it into the clean jar. The pennies should be sparkling!

Presidential facts: Depending on their age, you can get into Presidential facts. At 5, Javi was very into making small books filled with facts about presidents. We learned about Washington, Lincoln and Biden.

American Heart Month: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Americans and this year marks the 57th anniversary of American Heart Month. So, February can be a nice time to introduce some activities around heart health like staying active, eating healthy, and even parts of a heart and how the heart works.

The heart: With Valentine’s Day this month, it’s easy for kids to think that a heart really looks like the ones we draw on paper and make as valentines. So now is a perfect time to explore what a heart really looks like and what it does. Last year, I got felt organs and Lola did a sewing craft where she made a heart pillow.

Parts of a heart: This is a great time to talk about the heart, the parts and what each does. I won’t lie… I have to google some of this as we go! But that’s a great part of homeschooling — you get to learn alongside your children and children discover that adults don’t just know everything. Sometimes we look it up!

In this activity, they will cut the pieces out and glue them onto the model following the control (which is on the left.)

Healthy foods: Another great topic for this month is what to feed your body to keep it healthy. This is a cute sorting activity. You could laminate it and use velcro dots so that they can repeat the activity as they want, or you can just have them cut and glue the pieces where the belong.

Children’s Dental Awareness: February also means children’s dental awareness month! There are some fun ways to talk to kids about their dental health.

Brushing teeth: They all loved this reality-based pretend play activity! A bit of playdough to act as the gums, 20 pony beads to act as teeth, a kid’s toothbrush to brush and a kid’s flosser to floss between the teeth!

Parts of a tooth: Another opportunity to cut, glue and label!

Parts of a tooth booklet: Javi really likes to make books! I think it has to do with using the stapler to be honest, but whatever works! On something like this, he colors one part of the tooth in each image and then labels it. Then cuts on the lines, puts the pages together and then staples it to make a book.

Groundhog Day: I’m not sure how much faith I have in the groundhog. We live in New England so there’s at least six more weeks of winter regardless of the groundhog’s shadow. But it’s a fun tradition to talk about with kids anyway!

Parts of a groundhog: The kids love animals so we learned parts of a groundhog this year! I love these activities because they are always fun and they feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Super Bowl: We’re not crazy into football but we love any excuse to be excited about something. So, there are ways to incorporate learning opportunities around anything… including football!

Addition: You could get really fancy here and use tiny footballs as counters! I just used beads (LA Rams colors.)

Greater than/Less than: Another math activity with football images to count and compare! I added beads (Bengals colors) to mark the correct answer but you could just use a pencil and circle the answer.

Word problems: Word problems offer a chance for reading, visualizing, interpreting and analyzing information. Javi loves them!

Compound words: Who knew football had so many compound words! Great for readers.

Valentine’s Day: Then of course, there’s Valentine’s Day. I give our kids Love Baskets (think a super small Easter basket) on Valentine’s Day and it’s also fun to do a few activities leading up to the big day.

DIY Crayons: We did this last year and Javi (at 5) loved it. He started by sorting our crayons and took all the broken ones. Then peeled off their wrappers, put them into a silicone mold and we baked them for 8 minutes at 275 degrees. Let them cool and then you can start using them as crayons.

Torn Heart Project: This is social emotional learning at its core. Teaching children to be empathetic and to understand body language and facial expressions is necessary. The Torn Heart Project is when you first describe “put downs” — these are things we say or people say to us that aren’t kind or make us feel badly. Every time a child gives an example “I don’t like you”, “you can’t play with me”, you rip off a piece of your paper heart.

Then you talk about “put ups”. These are things we say or people say to us that make us feel good. “You’re such a nice person”, “you’re good at drawing”, “I love you”. For each put up a child says, you tape a piece of the paper heart back together. At the end you talk about how the heart is full again, but still has cracks that can’t be repaired.

That’s why it’s important to be mindful of our words and tone of voice! When we speak, we want to be kind. Because, even if we don’t mean it, and even if we apologize, a person’s heart will never be the same.

Color by number: This is a fun activity for a shelf or quiet time. Lola enjoyed using colored pencils but you could explore with paints or oil pastels, too.

Counting: You know I love Sets Baskets! This one has a Valentine’s Day spin.

Valentine’s Day books: We’ve been having fun reading about all things love and Valentine’s Day. I think we’ve read every book the Library has to offer us. Here’s a little book list.

Sensory table: I talked about how to set up a sensory table in this post and it’s really just a fun way to spend a bit of time (or all day in our case.)

Now you see what we’ve been up to and I hope you got some ideas for February!