Heart Themed Activities for Kids {The Sunday Showcase 2/1/14}

Valentine's Day is near and that means that hearts are everywhere.
The Lil Divas LOVE decorating and crafting for every little holiday.
That means there have been lots of hearts around our house lately.

Naturally, all the fun heart crafts, activities and decorations shared on last week's linky
caught my eye and I just had to share them with you.

Aren't these fabulous?

Click any of the links below for the full post and how-to's

on all these fabulous heart ideas.

Melted Crayon Hearts 

(Joyfully Weary)

Suncatcher Glue Hearts

(Where Imagination Grows)

Fizzy Hearts Baking Soda Experiment

(Little Bins for Little Hands via B-Inspired Mama)

Conversation Hearts Paint

(Frogs and Snails & Puppy Dog Tails)

Such great Heart Themed Recipes & Activities!

Here are a few from our archives - 

Coffee Filter Heart Art

(Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas)

Colored Glue Hearts

(Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas)

Secret Message Valentines

(Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas)

Looking for more Valentine's Day or heart ideas?

Check out our Valentine's Day Ideas Pinterest Board

Don't forget to peruse all of our Pinterest Boards.

They are filled with awesome kid friendly ideas from around the web.

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Now it's your turn to share!

Do you have fun children's activities to share? 

Please share them with me in the linky, 

by commenting below or by visiting our Facebook page. 

Be sure to link up your child centered ideas while you're here.

I love to see what everyone is doing.

If you have been featured, grab a button you deserve it!

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The Sunday Showcase is hosted on FOUR blogs!

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Here Come the Girls

Inspiration Laboratories

Learn Play Imagine

Each blog showcases their own features so be sure to check them all out!

If you are here for the first time please read this informational post for the full details.  Anything kid friendly and/or child centered is welcome!  You are welcome to share more than one post,  but we don't accept links for giveaways,  shops, or downloads for purchase, etc.  They will be deleted.

If you're linking up we encourage you to visit other links 
& our Pinterest board!  

*Important* 

Please note that by linking up you are giving us permission to use a photo (with proper link to you!) in our featured section and on our Pinterest board!  

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Link up and share your child centered ideas with us!

Bern

An InLinkz Link-up

Kids Art: Colored Glue Heart Art Valentines

My preschoolers love glue. Correction - they love squeezing out all the glue from our glue bottles. Which is why they always enjoy when I mix up our glue with liquid watercolors to make colored glue for them to paint with.

They had so much fun making

  Colored Glue Heart Art

To make our colored glue I add a few drops of Liquid Watercolor to our Elmer's white school glue and shake so that it mixes well. Then I just let the children paint and create to their hearts content.

They enjoy making designs, mixing colors, swirling and squeezing out as much glue as they possibly can. It's a great fine motor workout for those little hands!

Once the masterpiece is complete, put it somewhere safe to dry. Depending on how much glue is used it might take awhile to dry.

Once dry, the glue is shiny and has such a neat look to it. It makes for a lovely piece of art.

Happy Colored Glue Painting!

Bern

Kid's Craft: Coffee Filter Heart Art for Valentine's Day

If you've read our blog before, you've probably noticed that I have a soft spot for using coffee filters in our arts and crafts. They are inexpensive and so easy to use - what's not to love? The Oldest Diva wanted to make Valentine's Day decorations for our windows. It was a spur of the moment request as I was helping the Littlest Diva with a school project. Thinking fast I grabbed our coffee filters, markers, some construction paper and our spray bottle and she set to work making some Coffee Filter Heart Art.

This is such an easy craft that children of all ages can enjoy making these hearts. Here's what you need to do -

1. Let child freely color the coffee filter using markers. The brighter the colors and the more of the coffee filter they color - the more vibrant your finished coffee filter will look.

2. Using a spray bottle filled with water, spray the coffee filter. A little water goes a long way. Too much water tends to dilute the colors. The Lil Divas enjoy watching the colors spread and mix as the water travels through the coffee filter.

3. Allow the coffee filters to dry.

4. Using construction paper, prepare your heart frames by cutting out a large heart and snipping out the middle.

5. Glue the construction paper to the back of your heart frame. You might want to use 2 heart frames if you are displaying these in your windows so that both sides look the same.

Don't they look great? I really like the vibrant colors the Oldest Diva chose to work with and each heart is both unique and fabulous. What fantastic window decorations for Valentine's Day.

Happy heart making!

Bern

Shaving Cream Marbelized Hearts

I know, I know -

it's Valentine's Day & it's about time we move on from 

all the heart themed crafts!

Forgive me but I have one final one to share -

because it involved lots of messy fun in the process

& gave us fabulous results! 

Shaving Cream Marbelized Hearts

I'm going to keep this short & sweet

because it isn't an original idea

so I know many of you know the "how to's"

but in case you have not tried it yet,

here's what you need to do......

Yes, this is messy (be forewarned)

but it is also great fun!

I suggest using card stock & working on a covered area where you won't mind the shaving cream mess. The results are gorgeous and my girls found the process lots of fun. They really enjoyed seeing a different design emerge each time. Lots of oohs & ahhs with this one. 

Get messy & enjoy!

Bern

Crayon & Sticker Resist Watercolor Valentine Cards

Crayon & Sticker Resist 

Watercolor Valentine Cards

The Lil Divas wanted to make special Valentine's Day cards for their teachers and their Dad. I've been wanting to try crayon resist painting with them for some time. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try something new & make our cards at the same time. 

I introduced the Lil Divas to the concept of crayon resist by preparing a few secret valentine messages for them to uncover.

I used white crayon to write hidden messages on plain white paper that I drew a heart on. 

The Lil Divas had fun uncovering what I had written for them.

and they were excited to try it themselves.

 

We've done tape resist watercolor painting in the past so the Lil Divas had the idea to use some of our Valentine themed stickers on their cards as well. 

I think they turned out lovely & the Lil Divas are super excited to give them to their intended recipients on Valentine's Day. 

Bern

Puppy Dog Valentine Mailbox

The Oldest Diva had to make a mailbox for her school valentines. After much discussion, which mostly involved me trying to reign in her elaborate ideas (Hmm, I wonder where she gets that from?) we settled on a 

Puppy Dog Mailbox

She is quite pleased with how it turned out, though her 1 and only complaint was she wanted it bigger. Unfortunately, I did not have a larger box that would work. They were all small or strangely shaped for a dog, so she had to make due (ah, the horror) with a tissue box.

1. I covered the tissue box with brown construction paper.

2. The ears, nose, feet and tail are made of dark brown foam cut into heart shapes. 

3. The face is made of 2 heart shapes - 1 large cardboard heart and 1 smaller construction paper heart. 

4. The mailbox flag is a large craft stick. I took a piece of index card and glued the craft stick inside, leaving space on the bottom to fit a brass fastener. I added a bone cut out on top as the flag. To get it working I simply made a hole into the tissue box and using a brass fastener affixed the flag so that it ca move up and down. 

5. We decorated the box with heart stickers and wrote Happy Valentine's Day on one side and the Oldest Diva's name on the other side.

Did you & your kids make a mailbox?

What did you design?

Bern

Valentine's Day Fun: Candy Heart Math

Valentine's Day just isn't Valentine's Day without...

 candy/conversation hearts!

They always seem to make their way home, 

whether I buy them or not.

I am personally not a fan of eating them, 

but I absolutely LOVE to use them as manipulatives!

Conversation/Candy Hearts Math

Here are a few fun ways to use candy hearts in math.

Measure It!

What You Need:

various sized heart cut-ots

candy/conversation hearts

ruler

marker

recording sheet & pencil

How to Measure It!

Prep: Draw a measurement line across each heart.  1. Measure each heart at the line using candy hearts.

2. Record answers on sheet.

Estimation

What You Need:

candy/conversation hearts

sheet with different sized hearts

pencil

Estimate!

1. Have child estimate how many hearts it will take to fill the inside of each heart

2. Fill the inside of each heart with candy/conversation hearts and record the actual amount.

Just for Fun: Stacking!

Stacking is fun, but stacking candy hearts is FUN!

What You Need:

Candy Hearts

Record Sheet (optional)

Stack It!

 1. Let child make a prediction of how many candy hearts they think they can stack.

2. Stack it! (& count it!)

We did this over & over again - 
it was so much fun!

Here are a few more ideas for candy heart math that we worked on last year.

Sorting & Graphing

Counting

Looking for more Valentine's Day math ideas? Check out our Heart Math for Pre-K & K!

Bern