Valentine's...aka my classroom looks like Cupid threw up in it.....

Good 'ole Valentine's Day. I think it's stupid. I mean I can remember when I was younger and we were supposed to bring cards to exchange with everybody in the class, which we did. However, there were always those "cool" girls that got EXTRA Valentine cards from the boys that liked them.
What about the nasty chocolates? YUCK! I'm all about chocolate these days, but seriously? The ones with the pink crap in them? Gag me with a silver spoon! Do people actually even like these chocolates or do they just pretend that they do so that the idiot that bought them will be pleased.
In my classroom, I just paused for a moment and looked around the other day and thought "OH MY GOD!!!!!! There is pink, red, and purple EVERYWHEREEEEE!" One thing I love about Valentine's Day in PreK...I take it as a good time to talk about writing letters. Yes, even with my 4-year old babies! We read several books (one of my favorites being I Wanna Iguana in which a young boy and his mother write letters back and forth discussing the boys desire and his mom's non-desire for a pet iguana...) and I make my writing center into a post office. I laminated lots of envelopes and printed some stamps from the internet and then placed velcro on the envelopes and stamps so that they can be used over and over. The students have a Postman outfit in which they can deliver the letters, etc. It's really fun to see how excited the kids get when they get mail. I try to make sure everybody gets mail, even if I'm the one sending it.
This makes me think about one particular girl in my class, we'll call her Jane. She is very smart, very sweet, and a great student. She shows no favoritism to any students. She would seriously probably play with any kid from any grade level. For some reason, every kid in my class is OBSESSED with her. They always want what Jane has, they want to sit by Jane...one kid even brought their Valentine mailbox to school and it said "Jane" on the side of it. When I asked if it was Jane's, the little girl who made it said, "No it's mine, I just wanted her name on it too....." Weird...
So I've come full circle back to Valentine's Day. It's dumb. Hallmark sucks. I actually don't buy greeting cards anymore. If I ever want to give somebody a card, I just write them a note on blank stationery. Fun!