Valentine’s Day

Is really Valentine’s Day only for lovers?

Love is a very beautiful and important thing in life. It makes us feel loved and helps us become better people.
In this activity we start reading the book “Phileas’s Fortune: A Story About Self-Expression” by Valeria Docampo and Agnès de Lestrade, as a starting point for reflection on the importance of words and their role in expressing feelings.
Together with the children we ask ourselves what love is and what its possible clues. Starting from the love between mom and dad the little ones are confronted about how it feels when you give and receive love. In this way we will be able to attribute our own meaning to Valentine’s Day, no longer just a date for lovers but an occasion to celebrate love in a wider and deeper sense, like that feeling you feel towards what or who makes us feel happy and of which we care a lot: a brother, a friend, your dog…
The workshop is divided into several parts as detailed below in the section Performance.

Performance

“Phileas’s Fortune”
The afternoon begins with a lavish snack during which the story is read in group and commented with the children.
As a continuation of the theme addressed in the story each participant is given a piece of paper on which he is invited to write (in secret) a word that is very important to him. These sheets are folded and placed in a special jar of the words that will be reopened at a later stage of the workshop.

Origami
In this phase, delicate heart-shaped bookmarks are made using the origami technique. Following the precise indications, children are guided step by step to learning the necessary folds to get the object shown.

The words
At the end of the origami, each child is invited to draw from the jar of words a piece of paper to take home with him as a Valentine’s Day gift.
In this way, in order to strengthen the message of the story read, children are brought with playful naturalness to appreciate the value of words in the expression of what is really important for us.

Cosmic hug
Like every workshop, Valentine’s Day can only end with a cosmic hug in which all participants are invited to gather as an affectionate greeting and thanks to the group for the activity carried out.