Friday, February 7, 2014

Valentine Projects and Activities

With Valentine's Day just around the corner I have been racking my brain for some fun and cute activities to do with Alexa. I found one online that I really liked and also ended up coming up with a few of my own.

Salt Dough Hearts. I found this great post on Facebook the other day from Growing A Jeweled Rose and I absolutely cannot wait to try it out with Alexa. Salt dough has so many uses and it is quick and easy to make. I love that the ingredients are things that everyone has in their pantry as well.




This was such a fun and easy project. It was a little too early for nap time today, so I decided to give this project a try.  Alexa was able to help me pour the ingredients into the bowl. She wasn't really interested in helping to mix the dough, but she did love playing with the spoon! I lined a cookie sheet with baking paper and shaped the dough into a heart shape. Then I put the entire cookie sheet on the floor and let Alexa step in the dough. She wiggled her toes all around and generally enjoyed the feeling. After we made the footprints I used the end of a spoon to write her name in the dough and a toothpick to write the year. We followed the directions for baking our footprint heart and now we just need to paint it.



Hand-print Hearts. During our trip to the US in December, I enrolled Alexa in a Mommy & Me Art Class at The Giggling Pig Art Studio. The very first art class we attended we made these really awesome Santa Hand-print Plates. I pulled the hand-print heart idea from that. You can either use a plate (white or clear glass) or just a piece of paper for this project. If you are making it as a gift, I suggest using a plate. You will also need a black sharpie, acrylic paint (red, pink or purple) and a small paint brush (the foam paintbrush gets the paint on fastest - and speed is essential with tiny, wiggling hands!). First draw a heart on your plate (or paper) using the sharpie. Next, paint one wiggling hand with the acrylic paint and lay it flat within one half of the heart (attempt to get their little thumbs as close to the middle of the heart as possible). Repeat with the second hand. Now, for those of you who have done this on a plate you now want to bake the plate. Once the paint has dried, place your glassware into a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 350F (175C). Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the oven off. Leave it in to cool for 10 minutes. Wash by hand.This will set the paint. Don't forget to write the child's name and the date either on the front of the plate or on the back of the plate prior to baking.

Valentine Sensory Bin. While we were in the US, I picked up some extra large pompons in the craft store. For this Valentine Sensory Bin, I pulled out all of the red, pink, purple, silver and white pompons. I put them in a large plastic container and added different measuring cups and spoons for scooping. For older toddlers, try and encourage them to sort the pompons by color.


Alexa loved scooping the pompons from one container into another.


Toilet Paper Roll Hearts. Use a toilet paper roll and paint to stamp hearts on paper. This is a great activity for little hands. The toilet paper roll is large enough to make stamping fun and easy!




What other Valentine activities will you be doing with your little one?




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