I was going through some Valentine things I have in the garage (all 5 things) and I discovered a heart punch I had forgotten I owned. Thus I was inspired to make some Valentines with my little one (20 months old). It took only 3 items to make these really cute Valentines!
Materials:
- heart punch (ours makes hearts about 1 1/2″ tall)
- scrapbook paper (found at the Dollar Spot in Target)
- glue stick (we used washable)
Procedure:
We cut out four hearts along the bottom edge of a piece of scrapbook paper. I made sure the paper was lined up and then had G put her hand over the heart (on the top of the punch) and we pressed down together to cut it out. She was so excited the first time she saw the heart cut-out and the place where it had been.
We made a strip of four hearts by cutting a straight line down the piece of scrapbook paper, just above where the hearts had been cut out.
Then we took another piece of coordinating scrap paper and laid a thin layer of glue from the glue stick over the bottom (about the size of the heart strip) and laid the heart strip down on the whole piece of scrap paper.
Next we laid another thin layer of glue on top of the heart strip (just to make sure the surface was nice and sticky) and attached the hearts to the paper. This was actually inspired by G’s love of puzzles. She was trying to make the heart cut-outs fit back into the heart strip.
Then we added the message: “Our hearts are 4 you. Happy Valentine’s Day!”
The skills/concepts introduced/reinforced:
- Fine motor skills: pressing and specific placement
- Cause and effect: the paper was whole, then we put it in the punch and pressed down, then there was a hole in a heart shape and a heart cut-out.
- Following instructions
- Counting
- Shapes
- Valentines
Please feel free to use any of these ideas and share them with others. If you do the craft, please let me know. I would love to get feedback from others who tried them with their toddlers.