Disclosure: This is an unsponsored post. All opinions expressed are my own.
I am not going to lie, I was caught off guard by our snow day. I always have a craft or something prepared. This time I was convinced that we were going to have a delay. My guys are still a little young to be outside all day, especially since today wasn’t nice fluffy snow. So I had to rummage to find something to make with the kiddos. I am actually super pleased and we can check one more item off of our never ending “to do” list.
I prefer to make our Valentines for family than to purchase gifts. Last year everyone got a Valentine’s Day Salt Dough project. This year would have to be a little different. I rummaged around and love what I came up with. Love that I was able to incorporate a few super important teaching areas as well (the teacher in me never sleeps either). Here we go.
We started by brainstorming a word associated with Valentine’s Day. (A) came up with the word “LOVE”. We sounded it out (Mr. Ric would be so proud of us) and then we spoke about how to write the letters. He then wrote it at the top of each paper. Since (A) doesn’t love practicing his writing this is a great way for me to get him to do it.
We of course used a hand print. Which was great because (A) and (E) both pretty much know the deal and how to do this by now. (A) used red and then we used red and white to make pink, I was out so we had to figure it out. (A) knew how to do it so it was all his idea ;o).
I had a bucket of buttons in the office (what? doesn’t everybody?). I pulled them out and some containers as well. (A) brainstormed the favorite color of each of their “Valentine’s”. He then sorted the buttons into the containers. (E) was in on the action too.
Once the prints were dry we drew a heart and glued buttons in the shape.
As they dried we added the year and then put them into 5×7 frames I purchased at a craft store (with a 50% coupon of course).
Yeah those are our creative snacks too, brain food!!
As I thought about it I was impressed at how many teaching points we were able to hit in this small and fun project. We did colors (and mixing), fine motor writing, crafts of course, sorting, pincer grasp, sizes (of buttons), and literacy. Super proud of my kiddies, and of their home made Valentines!
