OT Valentine's Day Craft for son's 3RD grade class??

[mommy22pumpkins]

Anyone have any ideas of a fun craft to do for Valentines day? I was invited to be a mystery guest in my son's class. He is in 3RD grade. I was thinking of bringing in cookies that they could decorate with icing. And maybe plain white boxes to decorate with heart stickers. Is this too simple for third graders? I am lost here. I love crafty type things but am terrrible at them and don't have a creative bone in my body.

Any crafty people out there that can give me some ideas?

thanks in advance

 

[Ericandjenng]

We can't do the cookie idea at our school but almost all kids (even older ones) love to decorate cookies or cupcakes. Of course most of the frosting gets eaten and never put on whatever. I did this with pre-schoolers two years ago and they loved it.

I have been racking my brain for a good project for 1st graders and have about 9 days to figure it out. The sticker thing worked great at Christmas for stockings and ornaments. But we have another station doing mailboxes for the kids' valentines.

Alot of kids like to create with beads. I have considered this. You can make anything from necklaces to bracelets to key chains.

If I come up with anything else, I'll post again.

Good Luck!

 

[SetzKitten]

How about making origami valentine's cards? At Christmas, I made a bunch of origami trees and ornaments and left them on my desk. The students would come by and try to figure out how they were made and try to make them themselves. I didn't think they would have an interest in them, but they did. There are lots of websites that show you how. I saw some cute Valentine ones. Plus, paper is cheap!

 

[r4blessings]

3rd graders would love to decorate cookies! I did this for my son's 3rd grade class at Christmas time....we decorated gingerbread boys and girls. I just premade the cookies (although you could buy plain sugar cookies from the store, or make heart shaped ones), bought these foam food trays at Walmart (like a cafeteria tray....I think a pkg of 40 was like $4) brought in vanilla icing (you could tint yours red or pink) and some candy.

Each child got a foam tray with two cookies and in the compartments I put a small handul of candy each, along with some icing and a plastic knife. I did holidays colored m&m's, sprinkles, gumdrops, etc. But you could do m&m's, sweetheart candy, sprinkles, etc. Really cute, and they ate their craft so it was also a cute snack/party activity.

Some of the girls really got into decorating their cookies. And the ones who didn't want to create masterpieces just had fun building their cookies and eating.

I am going into my daughter's 1st grade class on Thur. I picked up "color your own valentines mug" kits for her class. It comes with four inserts. I am going to have them color one to keep and color one to give to the person sitting next to them. THis way they will have one they created and an insert from a classmate to swap out and remind them of their friendship.

You could also do Valentine's Day bingo and use sweetheart candy as markers. Or another mom in my dd's class made bookmarks with the kids the other day. Michaels has cute wooden picture frames for $1....if you got one each and a big bucket of foam stickes for Valentine's day the kids could decorate a frame. You could take a group pic and then make enough copies for each child and send it back into school the next day.

HTH!

 

[dawson5]

One that went over well, we've used it twice now. We've taken cardboard and cut it to about 5x7 and cut out a heart shape in the middle. These were either white or painted white and we glued candy conversation hearts around it. Pre-glued magnets on the back. If you could send in a disposable camera to the teacher prior and develop the prints, they could insert the picture before taking it home.

Only warning I would give is to make sure they stay up high on the fridge. Ours sank down and we didn't pay attention and the dog ate all the hearts off of it.

 

[poohfriend77]

I'm sure they'd love to decorate cookies or cupcakes! I also like the origami idea. Valentine's crafts usually tend to be "girly," which makes the boys lose interest. Maybe you could do one heart and one simple animal?

If your activities don't have to be crafts, what about some "Minute to Win It" type games? I think they have some ideas on the show's web site. My DD8 just went to a party where they played these games, and the kids all had a blast!

 

[mommy22pumpkins]

Okay thanks for all the great ideas I love the bingo idea also. I wonder if you can buy enough bingo cards for a whole class. Or if they sell bingo somehwere- enough for 20 kids?

The cookie decorating sounds like a plan. I love the mug idea also. And the origigami and picture frames sound cute too. I'll have to think about it and narrow it down.

I also like the idea of taking a picture and having them use it for a craft. The magnet that goes on the fridge- do you have any idea where I could buy the pre-glued magnets?

 

[poohfriend77]

I bought some animal bingo cards at Walmart in the Valentine section. They had either 10 or 12 in a pack for $1.

I've also printed bingo cards from the Internet, if you want to go that route. They're pretty easy to find.

 

[hffmnheidi]

We are doing tissue paper pops. You layer tissue paper(about 10 layers for the full effect), and then cut all the layers together into flower shapes/heart shapes and the punch a hole through the middle and stick a lollipop stick through the hole and you have a flower/heart.

 

[dawson5]

just buy the magnets at the store and hot glue them on prior to giving to the kids to decorate.

I also did this with a little girl I was baby sitting. We used pink tissue paper cut into 1" squares, centered them on a pencil (would look like a muffin tin liner), dip the end in glue and push onto the frame. I have one sitting here I can take a pic of and post later. It was the same idea behind decorating a pinata. Only drawback with that one, it takes longer to dry for some reason.

 

[okeydokey]

I'm doing this yarn ornament with my 4-H club this Saturday. It's from Family Fun magazine.

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/home...table-crafts/sticky-hands-warm-hearts-973682/

 

[monorailsilver]

You can print bingo cards for free online. Just do a search for them. I have done them with a Halloween theme. And you can use converstaion hearts as their bingo pieces.

What about a valentine gingerbread house? Get milk cartons, wash them out/well clean them with soap so they don't stink & glue on some graham crackers with frosting & let them decorate them with various Valentine candy. I am sure you can get milk cartons from school for free.

Have you looked on Family Fun or Kaboose. They both have a ton of ideas & if you don't like them you can tweek them to your satisfaction. And there is another site but I can't think of the name of it. I use it for Girl Scouts sometimes to get ideas. I just looked it up Scouting Web.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

Not really a craft but really clever. I saw this in a blog earlier this week. I am thinking of doing one of the activities in my kids room.

http://onecharmingparty.com/category/valentines-party/

 

[disneybirds]

How about cutting out red foam hearts and spray paint old puzzle pieces pink. Then let the kids glue the puzzle pieces on around the edges and a picture of them in the middle. Very cute!

Also, you could do addition or subtraction bingo. We did multiplication bingo in 5th grade. The kids loved it! We used M&M's for the bingo pieces.

 

[mommy22pumpkins]

I really like the bingo idea. How do you play additon and subtraction bingo? Sorry I know I am clueleess

 

[digitalsiren]

Personally, I would steer clear of cookies or food items in case there are any kids with food allergies. Oriental Trading has plenty of craft items, they guarantee delivery by Valentines and you can earn 2.5% back on your purchase through Sunshine Rewards. They have a cute Alligator Valentine Card Box Craft Kit (age 5 and up, make 12 for $7.99) and “Bee Mine” Marshmallow Ornament Craft Kit (age 3 and up, make 12 for $5.99). They have many options, some even less expensive.

 

[Sorsha]

Can you get ahold of a pile of old magazines? If so, how about Mosiac Heart pictures?

How about Stained Glass Window Decor? If the boys didn't want to do hearts, they could experiment with making other shapes as well.

My kids love this craft as well. I provide them with yarn to make their own hair, little bits of sequins, tiny stickers, pom-poms, etc to decorate the clothes. Might be good busy work for the end of the party when the kids are done with the rest of the activities and all hyped up on sugar and things are otherwise getting out of control. HINT: If you do this one, print out the bodies already in color. If you print them uncolored and have the kids color them, sometimes the glue won't stick when they glue on the clothes and shoes and hair. Glue doesn't like to stick to crayon and colored pencil etc. Print the clothes and everything else in outline and let them color their own.

 

[Ericandjenng]

There's a lot of GREAT ideas here! I went to the Familyfun website and they had a lot of cute ideas too.

 

[sparkyboy]

Another idea is for the class to make valentines for shut-ins or nursing home patients. Just cut construction paper (any color) in half. Let them decorate using rubber stamps, glitter, ribbons, foam stickers, etc. I have them sign only their first name and from the name of the school

 

[Sorsha]

This one would require some supplies - but I don't know if the school would reimburse you or if they would have anything on hand - and I work at a JoAnn's and I know you can get these pretty cheap. My kiddo is a 4th grader and I know she would be absolutely thrilled if someone came to her classroom for a party and taught her to make these. More patterns here, here, here, and here. Non-Valentine patterns here.

You can buy a HUGE bag of Pony beads for not too much money - one bag would be enough for the whole class. Instead of "satin cord" you could sub DMC embroidery floss at about 40 cents a skein - each skein is about 9 yards so one skein would do 2-3 crafts. You can buy lanyard hooks in a bag in the jewlery section, or sub a bag of keychain rings (cheaper) instead.

Yes, this craft is a little more involved and little more expensive, but what a cool keepsake for the kids! And the boys can alter the crafts with different colors or patterns so it doesn't feel too "girl-y" to them.