This past Saturday, we were supposed to have a Valentine’s Day party at my library. After braving unplowed roads and blowing snow, my director told me to go home, and closed the library for the day. My kids benefited from this, and they got to play with all of the fun stuff I bought/made for the party.
1. Gummy Heart Construction (from Lemon Lime Adventures) – A take on marshmallow/tooth pick construction, gummy hearts are used instead. I found jelly hearts on clearance for $0.97 each at Jo-Ann Fabric, and grabbed all five containers on the shelf. The idea being that what didn’t get used at the party could be used at home by my kids (who ended up spending an hour and a half building and eating).
2. Candy Heart Patterns (from PreKinders) – The idea for this was to have a bowl of candy conversation hearts with several different card stock printouts of various patterns.
3. Treasure Hearts (from Growing a Jeweled Rose) – I mixed baking soda, water, washable red paint, and red glitter together in a bowl. Then I filled a heart silicon pan halfway with the mixture, put two jewels in, then filled the mold to the top. I put them in the freezer to speed up the process since I only had one pan. Once the hearts were solid enough, I turned them out onto a cookie sheet to dry overnight.
When the kids melted their hearts, I colored the vinegar (blue, orange, and yellow). They used pipettes at first, but soon determined that this didn’t make the heart fizz fast enough. They poured the vinegar over the heart, and stabbed it with the pipette until it broke apart.
4. Make-Your-Own Valentine’s Day Card – This was an open-ended station. Card stock, heart-shaped doilies, pink, red, and purple construction paper (solid and patterned), scissors, and glue sticks. I would have liked to see this one in action at the library.
5. Heart Mandala Coloring Pages – I love mandalas. They keep both myself and my kids occupied for hours. I have been told that coloring mandalas helps children develop early math skills, but I have yet to find any information about that from sources other than from my friend who used to live in Germany and several blogs.
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