We're not huge on Valentine's Day here but where there's an opportunity to get creative and entertain the kids, we'll take it.
I set up a simple Creation Station for my daughter and that's it.
The rest is up to her...
Ages: 2+
(M has currently just turned 4. See the handy tips at the bottom to see how to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)
Materials: Cardboard heart cut-outs (I pre-cut these from recycled cardboard), oil pastels, cut-up coloured paper squares, glue, sequins, hole-punch and washi/patterned tape.
(Aussies, the tape is difficult to find. The dotty ones are more fabric-like and I found them at a $2 shop and the fluro ones are from Micador and are at Big W and Officeworks. I've seen other varieties at Spotlight too)
Some of the recycled cardboard had large ridges. She was drawn to those before the other hearts.
(Use an opportunity like this to use new and descriptive language. In context it will help your child to learn)
Other than assisting to cut off some of the bits of tape (the dotty fabric type tape was too tricky for her to rip off or cut) she worked away unaided and was a constant flurry of activity.
She'd not touched the hole-punch so I couldn't resist
Suddenly, this needed to be hole-punched (haha)
A good hour of work
Affixing the hearts to various parts of the house was enjoyed by her as much (if not more) than even decorating the hearts in the first place.
On her own she rolled out some of the tape and stuck all the hearts along it in a line, stuck it on the wall, and was done.
Handy Tips
- Simplify this activity by providing materials that your child will be able to manipulate on their own. Some simple sticking and pasting or colouring with oil pastels is a nice place to start
- Extend this activity by introducing new and varied materials for use decorating the hearts. Whilst allowing the child their own creativity, you could still challenge them to come up with a variety of different mixed media pieces.
- Use whatever materials you have on hand and repeat with different combinations of materials for different results
- Talk with you child about what they are doing and experiencing to help them consolidate and understand the processes they are going through and the experiences they are having.
- Mix it up by challenging your child to join their hearts together using nothing sticky at all. Provide some more varied materials like string, cardboard for cutting etc and watch them problem solving and investigating.
Here's some more ways from us to get creative
(click the picture to go to the post)
Happy playing,
Debs :)
Look where else we are :)
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