Heart Hands

This is something Brayden made in Kindergarten this year. Handprints in the shape of a heart! So cute. 

Very simple. Take a piece of paper. Get some red paint. Have your child paint his hand red. You might help him if you want him to do both hand prints at once. Have him press his hands onto the paper so they look like a heart. Let dry.

It came with this poem:

My little hands

Have come to say

I give you all my heart,

For being the best

Kind of parents

Right from the very start!

(you could insert anything for parents: aunt, cousin, grandma, friend, teacher, etc.)

Valentine Candy Sort

This is something Brayden did in preschool last year.

SUPPLIES

• Paper with hearts
• Crayons
• Conversation hearts

ACTIVITY

You start with a paper with several hearts on it. You then have your child color each heart a different color. You can see Brayden's teacher labeled each heart.

You then get a box of those Conversation Hearts. Have your child sort the hearts into the correct colored heart on the paper. 

When you are done, you of course eat some!

Clay Hearts

Kids love to make stuff. This is an activity where your child can make something, and you can have a cute memento to hang on to forever. I love memento . I got this idea from the Sibling's Busy Book.

AGE RANGE
You can make this work for all ages.

SUPPLIES

• rolling pin
• baking sheet
• marker
• butter knife
• oven
• zip-lock baggie if doing with baby
• homemade clay (recipe below)

METHOD

1. Make clay. If your child is old enough to help with this process, let him!
2. Grease baking sheet
3. Have your child flatten the clay out on the baking sheet until it is 1-2 inches thick
4. Draw a large heart on clay using marker
5. Cut heart out with knife (this is for you)
6. Have your children decorate the heart with other clay or making designs in the clay. This represents how each of them are in the gift receiver's heart. Awww. Cute
7. Make a hole in the top of the heart with a pencil so you can put a string through it later
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 300 degrees until exterior has formed a crust

For Baby
You can put clay in a baggie for baby and let her squeeze it. You can press her hand into the heart to make an impression.

CLAY RECIPE

• 1 1/2 cup salt
• 4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cup water
• food coloring

Mix the salt and flour in a bowl with a spoon. Add water gradually. When dough forms, knead it well, adding water if it is too crumbly or flour if it is too sticky It should be firm. If you want more than one color of clay, divide into separate bowls for adding food coloring.

Valentines Galore!

I was planning out my learning activities for the next couple of weeks. Naturally, I am focusing on hearts an valentines with the upcoming Valentine's Day. I started browsing some blogs and WOW! There are a lot out there. Here are some of my favorites. Any photos on here are photos of our creations. I don't want to put the photos from the original blog on here because I didn't take them. I will post a link to each activity and each photo on the original site--links open in new windows.:

• Letter H: This is a super cute activity to help familiarize your toddler with the letter H.

• Heart Match: This is a sorting activity similar to the one I posted using Pom Poms. This activity is posted in the same post as the Letter H activity; just scroll down. Photo
• Valentine Dump Truck: This would be appealing for younger boys. Photo
• Friendship Wreath: I love this one. I am planning on doing this as our grandma valentines. Wait...I hope they don't read this! Photo
• Hearty Pizza: I love working our shape of the day into our meals if possible. This is a fun way to keep hearts going all day long! Photo

• Easy Valentines Craft: This is a great one for your children who can't draw hearts yet...which I would guess are all most under five when it comes to hearts. I plan to make some valentines with this, too!

• Preschool Valentine Game: This is a great activity for combining hearts and counting. I love to beat things into the ground, so I plan to use this for our number activity during heart week. Photo
• Heart Cards and Counters: This is pretty similar to the one above, except this one doesn't involve candy. Photo
• Valentines Math Activities: This activity once again brings hearts into math day! Photo
• Clothespin Math Activity: This one looks absolutely fantastic! I am most excited about this one I think. Photo.
• Heart Hair: If you have a little girl, you might have fun doing her hair in hearts. Blogs like princesshairstyles.com give lots of ideas on how to do so!

So there you have a collection of some great Valentines learning activities. Since we are a young blog and don't have archives for you to go to yet, I thought it might be fun for you to have some easy access to some great activities!