Toddler Valentines Lesson

Lesson 1

First, I teach them the verse, "We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19. I taught them motions to go with the verse, and we said it several times. Then, I taught them the song "Jesus loves me." I precut out hearts for them to color with this verse on it as a way for them to practice it at home. We then continued practicing this verse almost daily for the next few weeks. 

We (arms spread out) 

love (arms across each other touching shoulders-love symbol)

because He (point to the the sky)

first (put up one finger for the number 1)

loved (love symbol again)

me (We switched us to me and they pointed to themselves.)

Lesson 2

We reviewed 1 John 4:19 with motions and all. We then sung "Jesus Loves Me."  After that we talked about the verse "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24. 

There is a friend (We point to a friend then to the sky as if pointing to God)

that sticks closer than a brother. (we lock arms with a friend next to us.)

While we reviewed, I gave the toddlers a picture of a magnet with the verse written on it so that again they have something to take home with them to review their verse. I've learned that giving the children something to do while I talk usually keeps them in their seats as well as keeps them listening.   The older ones will actually talk back to me and answer questions as they work.  The younger ones sometimes will join in on the motions or repeat words that they recognize.  After most of the children were finished coloring, I gave them toy magnets to play with.
(Just make sure they are big enough not to swallow.  I actually had one student trying to throw the magnets instead of actually playing with them; however the others enjoyed seeing them stick together and stick to the cookie sheet. Toddlers love to explore so give them chances to do this as much as possible.  Sensory play is always a great idea!) I have Magformers like the picture before, and they work perfect for young children!

Lesson 3

Again we reviewed our verse 1 John 4:19 with the motions.   We sung our song along with other favorites.  Some that we do daily are:

“Lord I Lift Your Name on High”

“Awesome God”

“This Little Light of Mine”

“I’ve Got the Joy”

“Abcdefg Jesus Died for You and Me”

After a short worship time, I acted out the story of the “Good Samaritan.”  I used Little People characters to tell the story.  At the end of the story, I showed them Elmo who was hurt and showed how God would want us to help him.  I got a toy doctor set out for them to play doctor.  We discussed how we should love like this man.  We love because God first loved us and therefore, we need to love like him.  God wouldn’t want us to bite our friends, hit them, push them, take their toys away etc.  I tried to come up with every type of scenerio that happens throughout the day to explain that God wouldn’t want that.  Then I went on to explain that God wants us to instead help our friend when someone else hurts them. He wants us to give them hugs, and to sit by them or help them get their toy, etc.  We reviewed this story for a couple weeks.  Each time I allowed them to help Elmo as well as give them dress up and tools for them to act out other people in our community.  They love to dress up!

Lesson 4

Story, verse, and introduced the foam hearts first by themselves before adding them to the sensory table.  They also colored on lace, papered dolly hearts.  Then stuck foam stickers on their hearts. 

Lesson 5

We reviewed 1 John 4:19.  Then, we discussed Valentine’s Day and read a Valentines story.  We made our own Valentine according to what the story says.  We painted it red, added stars, lace, etc.  This is where I introduced hearts to them again and allowed them to play in the sensory table with hearts.  I had a few foam hearts, felt hearts and paper hearts.  They loved playing with them and feeling the textures.  Some of the foam ones were sparkly.  Those seemed to be their favorites!

Lesson 6

We read another Valentine Story. Reviewed our verse and painted with q-tips. Once they were dried, I cut out several hearts from their artwork, so that they could take them home and hand them out as Valentines to family members.   

The last day we had a Valentines party with cookie cake! We handed out our Valentines, played a game of Past the Heart.  (We played it just like The Magic Ball Goes Round and Round except we used the word heart instead.) We also read a story and then played Heart and Seek.  This was their favorite game.  I heard,"again...again!" several times after we would finish.  For this game I used the felt hearts from the sensory bin and hid them around the room for the kiddos to find.  Just remember hiding for 1 year olds, you have to keep it simple where they can actually see it just walking by it.  We also  read a story about an art teacher who painted hearts all over the children.  This teacher stuck sticker hearts all over the toddlers.  They love stickers!