A Tisket, A Tasket

At circle time on Monday of last week we played a Valentine's game with the children. We had a stamped addressed envelope with a little pink heart card inside and a small pink scarf tied around it. We placed the letter in a small basket with a handle that happened to have some green and yellow flowers around the rim. We then taught the children the tune and words to "A Tisket, a Tasket". The words to the song are:

A Tisket, A Tasket, a green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it.

After the children had learned the song we handed the basket to one of the children and invited them to circle around the outside of the circle of seated children as we sang the song. When the child carrying the basket was ready he/she dropped the letter behind the child of their choice, put down the basket next to the letter and ran around the outside of the circle with the chosen child giving chase to see who could arrive at the empty place in the circle first. It was usually the delivery person child who who arrived first and then sat down. We sang the song again with the chosen child, now the delivery person, circling with the basket behind the circle of his friends. The children loved the song and the game, sitting qute still and quiet as the song finished and the new delivery person made his/her decision behind whom to drop the Valentine's letter. Once the chase began several children sitting in the circle began to cheer on the delivery person as they ran to claim the empty seat. Several children enjoyed having a turn at being the delivery person or the person behind whom the letter was dropped. We tied a small scarf around the letter in order to make the letter float down when it was dropped. Happy Valentine's Day.