Valentine Activities

Here are a few Valentine activities I have recently done with my 2 and 4-year-old.

Homemade Strawberry Playdough

My friend Heather at http://www.dixiecouponchicks.blogspot.com/ posted this recipe, but with peppermint extract for Christmas. I used strawberry extract and it smells so good you could eat it, and you really could if you wanted to.

Strawberry Playdoug Recipe

                               1 Cup water                                        ½ Cup salt

                               1 Tablespoon oil                                   1 Cup flour

                               1 Tablespoon strawberry extract*         2 tsp cream of tartar

                                Red food coloring*

Boil water in bowl in microwave about 2 ½ minutes. Add oil, strawberry extract, and red food coloring and stir until desired color. Add salt, flour, and cream of tartar and combine with fork. When it begins to ball up, mix with your hands until it becomes a playdough consistency. Roll into a log and cut into kid-size portions.
* Use any extract to create the scent and any color of food coloring.

Marble Paint

My kids painted different sized hearts with marbles. I used the lid from a box of paper (but you can use a plastic container) and taped the hears inside. Next, the kids dipped marbles in paint and put them into the lid. Then have fun shaking the box around and letting the marbles do all the painting.

 We used some of the smaller hearts to create a 'Love Bug.'

My son made this Valentine at Curiosity Club (see previous post) and I think it is cute and easy to do.

 Trace and cut out a little one's hand. Fold a small piece of paper over and cut out a heart leaving the two top sections of the heart folded and uncut. Write a message on the inside of the heart and glue it to the palm of the hand. Fold down the the two middle fingers to create the 'I love you' sign. My son thought it was a Spiderman Valentine because that is how Spiderman holds his hand when shooting out webs.