By STEPHANIE LAN
Heart-shaped cookies with pink and white frosting. Paper bags with each child’s name soon-to-be-filled with packaged valentines and conversation hearts. Word-finds with words like “cupid,” “love” and “be mine.” Does this sound like what happened when you were in grade school?
Today’s grade school children don’t necessarily do everything the way we did.
Besides doing the classroom valentine exchange, teacher Lyn Chapman’s Wasatch Elementary School fourth-grade class sent valentines to Bosnia for a class project.
“They were excited to do it,” Chapman said. “We just sent a homemade message addressed to any soldier and the children loved it.”
Marsha Whatcott, a third grade teacher at Provost Elementary School, encourages friendship between her students especially on Valentine’s Day. “We talk about the things we love about each other,” Whatcott explained.
Whatcott also encourages manners on Valentine’s Day. “We want to teach them to open their Valentines and then go thank the person who gave it to them.”
Whatcott’s class is having a Valentine Bake Sale completely run by the children. “They are learning how to make change and take care of a sale,” Whatcott said.
Becki Jo Simonis, a first grade teacher at Timpanogos Elementary School, said Valentine’s Day is a good time to learn math and motor skills. With conversation hearts, her class learns to sort, count, graph and add.
