Category Archives: Valentines Day Link Up

Valentine Breakfast

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Valentine Breakfast with Kids In The Kitchen

This is a healthy, good for your heart, and “Kid Approved” breakfast that is perfect for Valentines Day.

Did you know that eggs are good for you?  There is so much media and marketing hype about eggs.  It is hard to know what to believe.  But spend a little time reading factual research articles and you will see that eggs are healthy.  They are actually beneficial for the whole body.  They are a complete source of amino acids, the building blocks of protein.  They are a complete package of proteins, vitamins, enzymes, fatty acids, healthy cholesterol, and more.  Read here about what the Weston A Price Foundation has to say about eggs, and why eggs are only second to mother’s milk as the most perfect source of protein.

Blueberries are another medical miracle food.  Researchers already knew they helped fight disease, but new research is proving they improve memory and more.

My daughter, age 4 , helped make this breakfast.  She couldn’t wait to set the table and share it with Daddy before he headed off to work. 

First, she made a pink placemat with a piece of pink construction paper.   Then she set out a cup, plate and fork for each person. 

Next, she helped me set out the ingredients.  For our Valentines Day breakfast, we mixed frozen blueberries, yogurt, pomegranate juice and coco-biotic (this is a coconut water kefir, you can also use water kefir) together in a blender to make a yummy purple smoothie.  

Then we gently fried some free range eggs, which are eggs from chickens that have been allowed to roam out on pasture freely.  Free range eggs are higher in nutrition than eggs from chickens that are kept in cages, because the chickens have free access to eat bugs and young grass.  This greatly boosts the nutrition of the egg, especially the omega 3 fatty acids among many other nutrients.  We cooked the egg whites to a firm state, but the yolks are left slightly runny and are full of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals (soft poached eggs would work nicely too).   We added sea salt and pepper to make them irresistible. 

Nutritional data for this Valentine Breakfast (a 16 oz serving of smoothie and two eggs): Vit C 13.8 mg; Vit A 599 IU; Vit k 26.6 mcg;  Vit D 35 IU; Vit E 1.9 mg; Zinc 2.1 mg; Vit B-12 1.7 mcg; Folate 114 mcg; Choline 282 mg; Potassium 1151 mg; Magnesium 81.6 mg; Calcium 215 mg; Iron 2.6 mg; Selenium  36.1 mcg; Omega 3 acids 192 mg, fiber 6 g; Protein 18.3 g and a range of antioxidants, probiotics, and enzymes.

Good For Your Heart Smoothie:

1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup coco-biotic (we like the KeVita brand, or make your own)
1 banana, medium

Blend together until smooth. Enjoy!

This smoothie is good for your heart, brain, and digestive system.  But because its Valentines Day, were just calling it the Good For Your Heart Smootie.  And it makes a great purple mustache too!


This recipe makes two 16 oz servings.  Nutritional data of this smoothie: Vit C 13.8 mg; Vit A 112 IU; Vit K 26.3 mcg; Folate 67 mcg; Choline 30.9 mg; Potassium 1017 mg; Magnesium 69.6 mg; Calcium 162; Selenium 4.4 mcg;  Omega 3 acids 118 mg; fiber 5.8 g; Protein 6 g
and a range of antioxidants, probiotics, and enzymes.

Want to make your smoothie even more heart healthy?  Try adding in 1 Tbsp melted coconut oil, 1 Tbsp flax oil, and 1 Tbsp wheat germ oil, 1/4 cup kale, and substitute greek yogurt or milk kefir for regular yogurt.  This will increase protein, lauric acid, omega 3, vitamin K, Vit C, and vitamin E in addition to many other amazing nutrients.

Nutrient dense and kid approved, it’s a winning combination!

Be sure to join us and check out other stories on our Valentines Day Link Up.

This post will be linked with
No Time For Flash Cards
ABC and 123
Raising Homemakers


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Lego Valentine

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What’s RED, WHITE, and PINK, is fun to stick together, build with, and says super sweet things? 
It’s Valentines made with Legos of course!

The kids had so much fun creating Valentines with their Legos. 

Little sister, age 4, sorted all the pink, red, and white Lego bricks we had.  We had several pink bricks because she loves pink, and has a few kits for a princess.  This came in real handy! 

In addition to sorting these three colors from a bucket full of other colors, she also had fun picking them up by the handful and letting them fall into the sorting tray like a waterfall.  She loves to feel them, and to hear the thunk thunk sound as she drops them and they hit together.  She also practiced counting.  She can count all the way to 30 with no problem, and all the way to 100 with very little help.



Brother, age 9, wanted to write a special message.  He considered poems such as “Roses Are Red….” but considering all the work he would have to do, he decided on a much simpler idea. 
 


I thought his idea was great! 



He made a two dimensional message and heart with Lego bricks. 

After writing/building his message, he added some fun things like a pink and white airplane, and a little valentine playground he said.



Older brother, age 11, wanted a three dimensional message and decided to make it a stand up heart.



He made each half the same as the other half.  He said,” look Mom, both halves are symmetrical.”  Ok, I was really proud of his use of the term all on his own!



And I was really proud of the Lego Valentines they made me!  And the box of chocolates, and the chocolate rose was terrific too.  I love chocolate! 




What mom wouldn’t be proud of a special Valentine message like this?  I just love the Lego Valentines the kids made for me. 


I thought of some fun things to say to my kids, but I did not have the time to build them out of Legos.

“Valentine, we really stick together.”

“You make me click.”

“Stuck on you”

and several more. 


Maybe next year I can surprise them with a Lego Valentine from Mom.  I’ve got 365 days left to think on it.


                                              Happy Valentines Day




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Valentine Discovery Bin

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Call them whatever you like, we love discovery, activity, and sensory bins!!!

We are making a discovery bin each month based on a theme.  So of course, February’s bin is all about Valentines activities.


TAKE A PEEK AT WHAT IS INSIDE OUR VALENTINE DISCOVERY BIN !

I found all the items for our bin from items around the house, a few items at Target, and at the Dollar store.

These five pink items came in one package for $1  These are great for taking lids on and off, and open and close.  Filling containers.  Squishing the body scrubber.  Tossing the body scrubber into a bucket. 

We filled the tall containers with pony beads, and the small round containers with pink and blue heart beads for threading onto string and counting activities.

Here my daughter is adding pony beads to the tall containers.

Pink and blue heart beads for threading.  Good for fine motor skills, grasping, eye hand coordination, making patterns, sizing, counting, identifying colors and shapes, and more.  These kits came with the thread and a variety of six beads per packet including a heart shape.  These are available at the dollar store.

These are wonderful little kaleidoscopes.  They are so fun to see through.  The images you see through them become multiples and if you turn them, you see the images change.  We discussed how these were similar to looking through some insect eyes such as flies. 

Here is a really fun optical sensory experience.  Look at hearts, and other objects with the kaleidoscope.  Place several objects in a pattern to view them, etc.  They can also be stacked or lined up in patterns, and counted.  The pack came with eight kaleidoscopes in two different colors for $1.  This item is available at the dollar store.

Erasers are great to use as math manipulatives.  Great for counting, matching, stacking, using as markers or game pieces, patterns, and more.  These valentine erasers also have the words “kiss” and ‘I love you” on two pairs, so they can be great to use in learning words too.  The package contains 6 matching pairs, or twelve erasers for $1 at the dollar store.

Foam hearts to use as manipulatives for counting, matching, making patterns, sizing, decorating, and more.

Heart boxes for various activities, open and close, matching, counting, patterns, hiding objects, transferring objects from one box to the other, games, colors red-light pink-hot pink, and again these have words and are great for teaching language in a hands on way.  These come in a pack of 10 for $1.

Silver heart boxes.  Come in a pack of 3 for $1.

White heart boxes.  These have a really neat texture of ridges and ruffles and are different than all the other hearts.  These also are a double heart, a fun twist.   These come in a pack of four for $1.

This is a recycled spice bottle I saved and my 8 year old son covered in red and pink construction paper.  The holes in the top are great for poking things into, and also holding pipe cleaners while little hands thread on beads.  The other side of the lid has a larger hole and is great for dropping beads into the jar.  We love to shake different objects inside and hear what sounds they make too.

I pulled out some of the larger things from the bin for you to see.  I included a small dust pan and broom for sweeping up small beads, pom poms, and pokadots.  There are pink pipe cleaners for lacing beads, making patterns, and twisting into fun shapes.  Pink embroidry string for measuring, wrapping, and lacing.  Fluffy pink body scrubbers for feeling textures and tossing.  A bright white bow for visual stimulation and feeling texture differences.  This is also good for role play as they pretend to give valentines gifts.  Pink cubex cubes for counting and stacking.  A pink bean bag for tossing in our game of tic tac toe.  Foam cupcake puzzle pieces to assemble.  Foam hearts in different sizes to match up smallest to largest and count to three.  Pretty pink and purple ribbon for measuring and lacing.  There was also two sets of tongs for grasping items that are not pictured. 

Glass gems for sorting and counting.

Fun emery board with glass pokadot beads on one side and a sandpaper texture on the other.   

A real finger massage, and very neat to run your fingers across for a fun sensory experience.  My daughter plays with this a lot.   

My daughter (age 3) is examining her glass “gems” with her pink magnifying glass.   My son (age 2) is shaking pony beads he placed inside a heart container.  He is also dancing and thrilled to hear the sounds the beads make.

Erasers to sort, count, stack, and make patterns.

Sorting pony beads into the matching colored heart container. 

They sorted pink, red, and white pony beads.

Threading pony beads onto pink pipe cleaners.  This activity requires the children to slow down and concentrate to get their bead to line up with the pipe cleaner.  I loved watching them concentrate on this.

We had five different heart containers in the discovery bin.  Here you see four different heart containers.  In this activity, my son age 2, is learning to match lids to the correct heart container.  This was very good practice for him and reinforced a lot of different skills.

The bin was used through out the month of February for free play.  Usually for one hour in the morning and sometimes another hour in the afternoon, the bin was on the table and lots of free time fun was had. 

Some of these items were also used in guided activities such as those on the red and pokadotted trays you see in the pictures above, and you can read more about other guided activities we did with items in the discovery bin here .

What was in your February Discovery Bin?  Please leave a comment and let us know about it.  Thank you.

Also don’t forget to link up to our Valentines Day Link Up.  Share your activities, crafts, recipes, ideas, play time, and more.

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Pom Pom Sorting Tot Tray

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Pom Pom Grasping, Sorting, and Transferring Activity for Valentines Day

Whats On The Shelf?

A Pom Pom Sorting Tot Tray

Items:
Valentine container filled with red, white, and pink pom poms.
Containers for sorting, red, white, and pink.
Tongs for grasping and transferring.
Spoon for scooping and transferring.  (These tool items were in the toy box, they were part of a veterinary kit the kids plays with.  They were pink, small, and I thought they would be easy for them use to grasp the pom poms.)


I used this activity with my three year old daughter and two year old son.



First, she practiced reaching into the valentine container to grasp pom poms with the tongs.  Then she transferred the pom pom she pulled out to the matching colored container.  I noticed she kept counting to five and then would start over with her numbers each time she reached five pom poms.  She did this on her own, I did not ask her too.  We had been practicing counting to three this month, even though she know up to twenty verbally.



Then she practiced scooping with the spoon to get a pom pom and transfer it to the color matching bucket.



She had no trouble matching her pom poms to the right color of container, but some challenge in grasping the pom poms with our little plastic tools.  They were short and didn’t allow for enough reach at the right angle to retrieve the pom poms very well.

The task became very simple for her once I realized she needed a lower container to hold the pom poms so she could hold her scoop more horizontal and her pom poms stopped rolling off. 



Then little brother practiced his grasping and transferring skills.



This is a great activity to practice fine motor skills, concentration, color sorting and discrimination, transferring objects, eye hand coordination, counting, and more.  This activity also reinforced the letter “P” and two of our vocabulary words for February including pom pom and pink.  You can read about the Letter Of The Week here.

This activity could be adjusted for older children, by adding in dice and having the children place the correct number of pom poms in the containers based on the number on the dice.  Use two dice, and two pom pom colors to practice addition or subtraction skills.  When done, graph how many pom poms you ended up with for each color or graph for each roll of the dice.  I think I might make a printable to use this with the older kids.  Stay tuned…..


How do you use pom pom activities to teach concepts to your kids?  Leave us a comment.  Thanks!

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Valentine Skate Party

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Trivia Question:
What do roller skates, cupcakes, return to basic instincts such as crawling, pink and red hearts, lots of friends, lots of fun, and purple bruises have in common?

A Homeschool Valentine Skating Party!

5 points if you answered correctly!

My kids have been looking forward to this day for, hum, forever!  About three years ago, we learned about this fun event, but each time it happened it seemed life had other plans for us. 

Finally the day came, and my kids were so happy!

The oldest helped me with delivering snacks for the tables, while the younger ones were putting on their skates.

The snack room was decorated with red and silver balloons and pink table cloths.

The roller rink was a large gymnasium owned by a local church.  The homeschool association collects “Box Tops For Education” that they exchange for cash to pay for this event each year.  About two hundred people attended the Valentine Skate Party this year.

Many of the families were very skilled on their skates. 

My kids have never been on roller skates before. 

While wearing these rolling contraptions, they spent quite a bit of time learning how to fall.

And crawl.

And how to hold onto the walls. 

Yes, finally they figured out that it was easier to keep their balance if they stayed on the carpet.  We came home with lots of bruised elbows and knees.  But they had lots of fun acquiring these war wounds.  It was kind of like a flash back of them learning how to walk and keep their balance.  But this time, it hurt a whole lot more when they fell. 

Homeschool Physics Lesson: 
Effects of gravity + momentum of energy enabled by the wheels = heavier moving objects fall harder.  Ouch!  Sorry guys. 

Despite the goose eggs hanging off their elbows, they had tons of fun and are ready to go again.

There was also an area set up with Valentine Bag tables.   Children set up their bags for everyone to drop in a valentine.

Everyone of the bags looked so festive and pretty.  Here you see the bags my kids made.  Read here  if you want to see how they made them.

Here is my kindergartner putting Valentines in friends bags.  We made two sets of valentines, one was a store bought scratch and sniff card they signed, and another was a goodie bag with a homemade valentine attached.  Read here if you want to see how they made their valentines to share with friends.

Lots of friends enjoying snacks and a break from skating.

Moms enjoying a break and adult conversation.

Moms planning their next escapade. 

My boys had fun catching up with good buddies we haven’t seen for a while.

Good friends, good food, good times. 

The kids will remember this Valentines Day for a long time.

 

I think one of the most fun parts of this day was to come home and read all the tokens of friendships in our Valentine Bags.  This really makes you feel special and is such a fun thing to do. 

Seems like it would be good to get special notes that say how special you are everyday.  I have seen posts by teachers who set up something like that, and the kids fill someone’s cup or bag with special thoughts about them everyday.  I used to put special notes in my husband’s lunch pail before sending him off to work when we were younger, and before having kids.  Something to think more about.  I may need to set up a “fill up my bag” table somewhere in the house.  Can everyday be Valentines Day?

What have you been doing with your kids to celebrate Valentines Day?

If you have a Valentines Day craft, recipe, celebration, lesson theme, or activity you would like to share, please join our link up or leave a comment.  Thanks.

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Books About Valentines

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We’ve had so much fun with this holiday!  Besides crafts and parties, we read several books in honor of Valentines Day. 

We are learning about sharing, giving, and love.   

We studied:
The love verse from 1 Corinthians
Its Fun To Share
Its Mine Christopher Bear!
Clifford Loves Me!
Where Is Love, Biscuit?
Pinkalicious, Pink Around The Rink
The Night Before Valentines Day
I’ll Always Love You
Love You Forever
Happy Valentines Day Little Critter
Super-Fine Valentine
My “V” Book (not pictured)



Each child had their own favorite book.  The six year old loved the Clifford story.



The two and three year olds loved the Boz Its Fun To Share book, and the Biscuit story books.



Where Is Love, Biscuit? is a wonderful little book about love being in everything we do for each other, even sharing a blanket.  It has tactile places on each page to touch and feel, to reinforce the story.



The eight year old loved having Mom read Super Fine Valentine.  Its a romance story about a boy named Bill who has a crush on a girl in his class.  He makes her a valentine, but is embarrassed to share it with her.

The ten year old loves to read everything he can get his hands on.  He seems to never get tired of reading.  He enjoyed all the stories.

Both the eight and ten year olds read to their younger siblings.  This is my favorite thing to see.  They snuggle in on the couch to share a good story.



Mom’s favorite story book is Love You Forever.  I bought this for my oldest son when he was three.  We have read it every year.  I sing a song from the words in the book and it is a really special for us. 
“Love you forever, love you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

When he was younger, he would ask me to sing it again and again.  He is a big ten year old now.  But he will always be my baby.


What books are you reading with your children for Valentines Day?  Leave us a comment, thanks!



If you have crafts, recipes, activities, lesson themes related to Valentines Day, be sure to share your ideas in our comment section, and if you have a blog, link up to our Valentines Day Link Up .





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Valentine Tea Party

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                                        Valentine Tea Party with Kids In The Kitchen

How do you take your tea?

Well we actually had chocolate milk instead of tea for our tea party.  Somehow “chocolate” milk just seemed more like valentines, and so good! 

Plus, my boys protested when I called it a tea party.  “Mom, don’t you know tea parties are for girls?”  No, I didn’t know.                                                                   
                                                                                           Posted at the bottom of this story is a Link Up. 
                                                                                Be sure to link up your Valentines activites to share with us.

The kids had so much fun fixing these plates, setting the table, and putting together the party. 

We are making Valentines celebrations everyday, for two weeks.  The children think this is the best holiday of the year, besides Christmas. 

Today was filled with lots of valentine learning with literacy, math, matching, games, using conversation hearts, and more.  We finished our day of valentine fun with this fun party at 3 pm. 

We had such a delicious party:
yummy valentine cookies, we received these from a valentine cookie exchange party, 
grapes and cheese on valentine tooth picks,
sliced strawberries,
cheese and crackers,
dried papaya treats,
conversation hearts,
and raw chocolate milk.           YUMMY!

The three year old put the cheese and grapes on the toothpicks.  They six year old put the table cloth on the table.  The two year old put the plates on the table.  The eight year old helped with making the cracker snack and filled the plates.  The 10 year old helped slice the strawberries and make the chocolate milk.  Everyone had a job and did it so well.

Everything was a big hit and quickly disappeared. 

We’ve had a few allergy issues with the six year old.  After eating chocolate cereal a while back, he broke out in hives.  We are not positive that is what caused it, but we are being cautious till we know more.   So he had regular raw milk without the chocolate.  But that didn’t stop him from having lots of fun.  He especially loved the papaya.

Before eating our handfuls of conversation hearts, we took turns reading them out loud.  I read the younger three children’s hearts to them. The oldest two boys read theirs to us.  This was a lot of fun.  

            Silly.      Fun. 

Just what a “boys” valentine tea party, I mean “not tea” party should be. 

Sorry sis.  I’m afraid boys have the majority say this time.  One of these days we will dress them in fluffy purple and pink hats and have a real tea party, girl style.


If you have a Valentines Day craft, recipe, celebration, lesson theme, or activity you would like to share, please join our link up or leave a comment.  Thanks.

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Valentine Goodie Bags

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Working Together To Accomplish A Common Goal.

Do you ever long for your kids to cooperate with each other?  One way to give them some practice working together is to set up some common goals.  With Valentines Day just around the corner, we have been practicing working together to prepare for this special holiday.

Here is a quick and fun activity you can do with your kids and help them learn to work together.  Let them prepare Valentine Goodie Bags to share with their friends.  All five of my children ages 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, each had a “job” in putting these bags together.  But no ones job could accomplish the goal alone.  Instead they had to work together as a team, and they had lots of fun. 

These were very inexpensive to make.  We found most of the items at the dollar store.  We were able to make 24 goodie bags for less than $0.70 each.  We had several leftovers too, and could have doubled up on some items and made 48 goodie bags for approximately $0.60 each. 

You can make these with lots of variety, and more or less expense.  You could spend more and add toys, or cookie cutters and play dough, or other options too.  We stuck with candy and a pencil to keep costs down.



We set up an assembly line and each child had a category they were responsible for putting into the bag.
The eight year old started the process off with a bag and pencil. Then passed the bag.
The three year old added her candy. Then passed the bag.
The six year old added his candy. Then passed the bag.
The two year old added a sucker. Then passed the bag.
The ten year old added more candy and helped the two year old with his task.  Then placed the bag in a box.



The oldest and youngest worked together.



Our ingredients for the goodie bags included a heart sucker, heart pencil, a box of conversation hearts, a candy bracelet, and some chewy taffy candy.  



I also made some personal gift tags.  I found a nice graphic online, added a personal note, and our family names.  I printed them on business card sheets, which gave me 10 tags per sheet.



The 10 year old hole punched the tags.  The eight year old separated the tags.



The two and three year olds sorted the twisty ties for the bags.

The eight and ten year olds tied the tags to the bags.

Then the three year old placed the finished bags back into the box.



The children were very pleased with their gifts they prepared to share with friends.

They worked together and reached their goal.  This success will benefit them by building confidence and will strengthen their relationship skills.



I was pleased with the outcome too.  I wish I had printed off a little math graphing game, and a tic tac toe game, to go along with the conversation hearts.  I didn’t think of adding it until the bags were already closed, and I didn’t think I had the time to fix it.  Perhaps the game could have been printed on the back side of the gift tags.  That would be a really fun addition to these goodie bags, and made them even more special.  Maybe I will remember to do it for next year!


What goodies are your kids sharing with friends and family this Valentines Day?


If you have a Valentines Day craft, recipe, celebration, lesson theme, or activity you would like to share, please join our link up or leave a comment.  Thanks. 

You can find our VALENTINES DAY LINK UP  at the bottom of the Valentine Bag Craft article.




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Valentine Park Mini Play World

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Today was filled with lots of imaginary play in Valentine Park.

With Valentines Day just around the corner, we have been doing lots of related activities.  So why not visit Valentine Park too? 



This activity was all about using our imagination to build structures for little toy friends to play on.  All the children participated, and benefited in practicing various skills.
    Counting, 
    Color Recognition, 
    Size Recognition, 
    Patterns,
    Stacking, 
    Eye Hand Coordination, 
    Dexterity, 
    Problem Solving, 
    and much more.

A really important topic we are dicussing is LOVE.   We are also discussing sharing, caring for others, being understanding, and slow to get angry.

A verse in the bible sums up what LOVE is.  
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 (NIV) says:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails. 

That is the best message you could teach your kids about what love is.


Valentine Park

We looked through the lego supplies and found lots of red, white, and pink legos to work with.  We found some fun friends in the toy box to share Valentines fun with.   Then we got busy creating a mini play world for our Valentine friends to enjoy.



The kids came up with all their own creations for this park.



The two year old practiced stacking and connecting pieces while his older siblings built the park.



The three year old watched carefully and repeated steps as she saw what her older siblings were making.




The 10 year old can build just about anything.  He was a big help in putting this park together.



Here he built a Valentine Theme Park.    It had a special entrance of pink and white and a pink and red fence.  Inside was a maze.  The park also had a sand box, a bouncy ride on toy, a slide, a tunnel and play bridge.





Then he built some monkey bars and this little valentine friend hung upside down.



The six year old came up with a swimming pool for the park, complete with a red and white fence, a diving board, and a white life preserver.  Here his little friend is about to jump into the water.



The eight year old made a flower garden with a walking path, a ride on vehicle, some climbing shapes, and a petting zoo.





We pulled out some larger legos for this red castle defended by red knights. 

The larger legos were much easier for the two and three year olds to grasp and snap together. 

This castle was taken apart and rebuilt many times today by the two year old. 

The three year old enjoyed moving her friends in and out of all the park areas and role playing in the different sections. 



The kids had a lot of fun today in the imaginary world of Valentine Park.



What games are you playing with your kids this Valentines Day?


If you have crafts, recipes, activities, lesson themes related to Valentines Day, be sure to share your ideas in our comment section, and if you have a blog, link up to our Valentines Day LINK UP on our Valentie Bag post. 



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Valentine Bag Craft

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We are going to a Valentine Party on Valentines Day and there will be valentines to exchange, roller skating, and snacks to share. 

The kids are so excited today because we are making our Valentine Bags to collect our friends cards in for the party.
                                                                                        Posted at the bottom of this story is a Link Up. 
                                                                                Be sure to link up your Valentines activites to share with us.

On the table I set out a white paper bag for each child.  In the middle of the table is a container with various hearts cut from foam, glitter glue sticks, pencils, etc.  You can make the foam hearts yourself or buy them in kits from the dollar store.   Except for the glue and crayons we had on hand, all the other supplies for this craft came from the dollar store.  In a bowl on the table are some small glittery hearts.  And in another bowl are crayons in various shades of pink, white, and red.  There are some letter stickers for making our names.  There are some bottles of glue and scissors too.

The first step was to spell their names with letter stickers some where on the bag.  I figured if we didn’t do that first, there wouldn’t be enough room in the end to do it.

The 3 year old was so proud of her bag.  She loved putting her hearts all over her page.  We found letters in pink tiger print for her name.  She was super pleased.

The 2 year old was more into grabbing the glue sticks and putting them in his pockets than decorating his bag.  I didn’t get a picture of him placing his hearts on his bag after I helped him put glue on the back side of his hearts.  My hands were to sticky with glue.  But here you can see him running off with another glue stick.

Here the 8 year old was thinking through his design and what he wanted his bag to look like.   I noticed he started out placing his hearts in patterns and then tied them together with glitter glue chains.

The 10 year old decided to cut out some of the pictures from the packaging rather than just use the foam hearts.  He found all sorts of neat valentines things to cut out on the stuff that was meant to throw away.

The 6 year old was filling his space with lots of hearts in all sizes.

We decorated the back side of the bags too.  Here my 3 year old is using a glitter glue stick to make swirls and circles, and used some of her brother’s cut outs.

With this activity she practiced several fine motor skills.  She learned about the HEART shape.  She learned about the colors RED, PINK, and WHITE.

We had so much fun decorating these bags.  The kids are very proud of their creations.  They are super excited about Valentines Day and the upcoming party.

We have several more Valentines Day crafts and adventures planned, so stay tuned for more stories.

If you have a Valentines Day craft, recipe, celebration, lesson theme, or activity you would like to share, please join our link up or leave a comment.  Thanks.


Valentines Day Link Up


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