Need BUDGET Valentine's Day crafts & games for classroom party:)

[Mom2Ben02]

Anyone have anything good and easy? My son's class is second grade. Thanks!!

 

[LuLuO]

I always loved making valentines day themed mail boxes out of shoe boxes when I was in school. The teacher would always cut the slit in the top prior to the party and she'd give everyone cut out hearts of various sizes and other decorations to cover the shoe boxes. We'd spend about 20 minutes glueing and glittering them up and putting our names on them and near the end of the party we'd deliver our valentine cards to everyone's boxes.

 

[katesorad]

I LOVE Oriental Trading Company.. here are a few of my favorite Valentine's craft ideas
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=15&sku=48/6410&mode=Browsing&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&manual_cm_sp=recommendation-_-bestseller-_-Category&sd=Valentine%20Mailbox%20Craft%20Kit

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=15&sku=48/3588&mode=Browsing&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&manual_cm_sp=recommendation-_-bestseller-_-Craft%20Kits%20%26%20Projects&sd=Valentine%20Inchworm%20Craft%20Kit

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=15&sku=48/4245&mode=Browsing&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&manual_cm_sp=recommendation-_-bestseller-_-Category&sd=Magic%20Color%20Scratch%20Hearts

 

[hsembrick]

Check out this site for free printables http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/printables.htm

I would go with the bingo game and buy each child a box of conversation hearts for the place chips. I would then grab a huge heart sucker from wal-mart or target and have it as the price for the winner. At that age they understand that there will only be one winner. But maybe have a few extra in case more than one 'BINGO'S" at the same time!

If you don't like the printable bingo check out your local scrapbooking store (hobby lobby, michaels) they should have a bingo stamp and you could just make your own. Get pink cardstock and then stamp them in red!

 

[pennymom]

Show the kids how to cut hearts out of a folded sheet of red, white and pink paper, or cut them ahead of time to save time. Glue hearts of various sizes on construction paper to make Valentine animals. For example, a 4" heart right-side up, with another 4" heart below it upside down makes a torso and lower body (overlap the two points a bit). Add two small hearts at the bottom and two more on the sides for paws, two 1" hearts on the top for ears, and small hearts for eyes and nose, a row of tiny hearts for a tail (or a piece of yarn), add some whiskers and it's a mouse. Very inexpensive, and the kids can get very creative.

 

[Piper]

When I taught second grade, I brought a lot of lace scraps, odd buttons, ribbon, etc. to class. (I sew so I had lots of odds and ends--but a lot of fabric stores sell bags of left over lace & ribbons.) The kids absolutely loved making Valentines for their parents and grandparents. They also had to write a short poem to go on it (got the educational component in that way!)

Now, we had been reading and writing poetry for a couple of months, so some of them wrote haikus or just 4 line rhymes. The recipients really liked them--I had a couple of parents mention it at our conference!

 

[Mickey527]

My grandson and I made bookmarks last year for his other grandparents, father and mother. These would be a great gift for the kids parents.
We used foam hearts although you can use any shape for any holiday.
Use a piece of ribbon about 10-12" long. Glue two hearts together with one end of the ribbon in between the hearts. We put smaller hearts on the bottom of the ribbon so it had hearts on both ends.
You can have the kids make up a poem or saying on a card and put the bookmark on the card, maybe "Because you LOVE to read, or Read to me Valentine
These are great to go between the pages of a book. I use mine all the time.

 

[java]

I'm doing this with a kindergarten class I think - but it'll be neater with a second grade class. And tomorrow Michaels has some yarn on sale for $1 so I'm buying that for this project.

You take foot long yarn- once piece of a time dip in a mix of cornstarch and water(glue) then fill a cookie cutter heart placed on shiney side of wax paper- lift and let dry.

Boy I didn't describe that great. It's in Family Fun's magazine this month. I can't find it on their site yet. But it's simple cheap and cute. It comes out kind of lacey- and you can hang them with a string.

 

[ninecrayons]

Not sure if this fits budget or not, but we're actually doing this as fundraiser at our school.

Get a lollipop (we're using dum dums) and then have kids cut out heart. Arrange them around the lollipop to make a flower. We're having the kids write notes on the heart petals.

Another cute craft are paper plate frames: http://www.suite101.com/content/heart-photo-frame-a52299. You could probably have the kids cut out center and make them wreaths!

 

[maddiesmom0116]

We are allowing the parents to come in from 7 to 9 the night before to decorate their child's desks for valentine's day. This way it is their valentine to the child. It is a easy way to decorate.

I also bought a red octopus ring toss game from Oriental Trading for 5.99 and it is reusable, so that is one of our games. I am not too sure on the rest yet. I will be using candy for the prizes for the game.

I hope this helps.

 

[middleofamerica]

I am doing my son's third grade class party. One thing I am doing is, I went to the Dollar Tree and got two packs of 50 piece puzzles (unfortunately they didn't have Valentine's puzzles, so just kids ones, two 50 piece puzzle for a dollar). I will divide them into 7 or 8 groups and see which can open the box and complete the puzzle first. Another thing I like to do at parties is get some ring pops, I found heart shaped ones at Target, I think 6 or 8 for a dollar, and put them all in a box and wrap it over and over and have them pass it around while music plays, when the music stops, that person unwraps a layer until they get to the bottom where they all get a sucker. There are also a variety or relays you could do very cheaply with Hershey kisses, going back and forth and unwrapping with gloves on and eating it, passing on to the next person, etc. I also plan to do a relay where I will have two groups, and a whole lot of letters, but spell one word like Cupid with a lot of extra letters that won't spell Cupid. They will run back and forth and get to flip one letter over, if it is in the word Cupid they stick it up on the board, if not, they run back and the next person goes until they have spelled Cupid. The two groups will have their own collection of letters, I usually cut out heart shapes and write the letters on them, the letters face down and I put them under a chalk board with the amount of balls of tape needed to spell the word. The other game I plan to try is have everyone stand in a circle with chairs enough for all but one kid, that one kid is in the middle. The "it" person says, "I love __________", all the kids who fit that description get up and move to another chair that must be at least two spaces away, whoever doesn't get into a chair is the new "it." No one gets out, you don't remove chairs, it just goes until they seem bored with it. If you google something like Valentine classroom party ideas you will find a lot of things! Target has a lot of good and fairly cheap prizes. I am on a $20-$25 budget, so I try to make it stretch. Good luck with the Valentine's Party!