Love Bug Bands

 This is a simple Valentine's Day activity that I've had success with both in a classroom of first grades at at home. I'm sure the age spectrum is even greater, but it certainly has been liked by the kids I have tried it with ranging from 2 -8 years old. I will be doing this in my preschool class as well as my son's class party at school. The fun thing is that it can really be for any holiday if you have the right stickers. I first saw this in Family Fun Magazine.

 You'll need the above supplies. I used conversation heart foam stickers, strips of construction paper, and cut my pipe cleaners in half.

 The first part is decorating the hand band portion with stickers. One thing I like about the foam stickers is the added work of peeling the paper off the back.

 Between that and just placing the stickers, there is lots of good exercise for those little fingers.

 Once the band is complete it's time to work on the antennae.

 Each pip cleaner is going to be the middle of a sticker sandwich. Symmetrical stickers are best for this part.

 Even when they are symmetrical, sometimes they aren't aligned just so, which is obviously fine.

 I found that taping the pipe cleaner on the headband worked better than staples.

 We saved the stapling for putting the band together (first measure on the child's head).

And a little love bug is made!

Simple Heart Chain

 This project was totally the brainchild of my genius and crafty mom. She was at my house to watch my kids for me while my husband was out of town and I was helping Dana out in her class at Alt Summit (hello to all of visiting from her site!*)

 This heart chain is so easy and just takes a few minutes. It's fun for the kids and adds a nice festive touch for Valentine's Day.

 My 6 year old made the chain completely on his own and demonstrates it above. You just need pipe cleaners. We used red and white.  Take one pipe cleaner, fold the 2 ends together. Flip it around and put a little dent in the top and you've got a heart.

To make the second link, just lace the next pipe cleaner through the first heart and do the same steps as above.

 Continue untilyou run out of pipe cleaners, your kids gets bored, or it is as long as you want it to be.

*I also have a craft blog at Lettiebee.com and at some point with have a few photos up and write about my experience since it fits more along with that than kids crafts.

Valentine's Box Activity

This isn't a huge elaborate activity, but has been a hit in my house for a few years. We just have a plastic Valentine's box that has an easy to remove lid. We cut (or you could use a scrapbook heart punch) a bunch of paper hearts of different sizes, and the whole activity is to put all the hearts into the Valentine's box. I know it sounds so silly, but my girls love to do this over and over again and have for the last couple years too. They like taking the lid off and starting all over again. You can have them take turns or have multiple different colored hearts and make them sort the hearts by color and only put the pink ones in the box, etc. It is good fine motor skills practice for little, little kids to place them in the little hole at the top. My kids love putting money in their piggy banks, and this is the same idea, but just Valentine's related. Plus it is a cheap activity and it doesn't really matter if it gets crumpled up.

Valentine 'stained glass' Candle Holders

This is a fun decorative project. All you need is a jar, tissue paper, stickers, candles & glue.
Tear pieces of different colored tissue paper to get ready to place onto jar.
Dip your fingers in the glue, spread over the jar and place tissue paper on. Add more glue if necessary to secure it down. (A tip...water down your white glue to make it further and thin it out. Makes it easier to use)

Let dry & decorate with stickers, add tea light or votive candles & enjoy the beautiful glow.

It's What's Inside That Counts...

We made hearts with glitter and tissue paper pieces in them today. They were really easy and a lot of fun. Definitely worth trying it out. My 4 year old enjoyed it, my 2 year old might not have enjoyed it as much if she would have tried, to many steps.

All you need is:
2 pieces of card stock
Glitter
Glue
Contact paper
Scissors
tissue paper
(for more stuff in your window you can use beads, or anything else you'd like)

First I drew a heart on each piece of card stock & had my daughter cut them out.

Then cut out your window in one of the hearts (I did this) as well as cut out your contact paper heart. At this point we applied the non sticky portion of the heart against the window of the heart and taped it down ready for her to put in the tissue & glitter.

Next, cut or tear little pieces of white, pink & red tissue paper. We cut pretty small pieces, about you can do whatever size you choose. Then place on your window (the sticky side) where ever you wish.

Finally, sprinkle glitter until you 'hearts' content. I know some have fears of glitter, what's not to fear, it gets EVERYWHERE!!! It is fun though and is so sparkly and pretty! After you put everything on you sticky heart then take glue or a glue stick and put it all around the borders of your heart. Then take you other full heart and place it on top and press it down so it is nice and secure.

And there you have it. You heart filled with LOVE...or lots of fun stuff!

Love Bugs

Sometimes some of the cutest valentines are the easiest of them all. These turned out so cute. They were so easy & took no prep work. Just buy when 50% or more off and then have fun with them. All the cousins & Aunts & Uncles are getting these cute Love Bugs this year!!