Category — Valentine's Day

This would be a great Mother’s Day gift, teacher gift , or a “thank you” to someone special. Just trace & cut-out your handprint, write a short note them glue or tape around a tube of lotion.
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I’m featuring my friend Martha today. She had a fun “Tea Party” with her 2 granddaughters. She did it for Valentine’s Day but you could do it anytime during the year.
Thanks Martha for sharing your great ideas.

I hadn’t seen my two granddaughters for over a month, so I decided to “make an appointment” with my son to have him drop them off on the Saturday before Valentine’s Day for a Valentine Tea Party with Grandma. I recruited my youngest daughter to come and help “entertain” my 20 month old granddaughter, when she lost interest in making cookies, which was about 10 minutes! My older granddaughter stuck to it, however, and did a great job of decorating all her cookies. While they were in the oven, we made heart crowns and colored Valentine pictures for Mom and Dad. For lunch, we used our cookie cutters, and made heart shaped sandwiches.
We had a great time, and I got some cute pictures of “grandma’s darlings” to put in my scrapbook. Every time I see them, they put a smile on my face as I remember our fun Valentine Tea Party. I think I’ll make it a tradition!

Rolling the Cookie Dough

Frosting the Cookies

2 Cuties at the Tea Table

Aren’t these darling. To create the heart shape, place a small marble or a 1/2-inch ball of aluminum foil between each liner and one side of the tin (a great job for kids). This will push the paper into the batter to form the notch in the heart.

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You’ll Need: cardboard tubes (foil, paper towel or toilet paper), tissue paper, ribbon, stickers, markers, small trickets or candy treats.

Directions:
1. Cut the tube to size ( a toilet paper tube is the perfect size).
2. Fill the tube with trickets or candy.
3. Wrap tissue paper around the tube and tape or glue. Be sure to leave the tissue paper longer on the ends.
4. Gather the tissue paper together on each end and tie with a ribbon.
5. Decorate and use as a place card at your Valentine’s Day dinner.

I had this great idea for a Valentine’s Day breakfast – everything in the shape of a heart including the napkin. Well, it worked out to be easy for the toast and the fruit in a heart bowl, but the egg was another story. I put a cookie cutter in the frying pan and poured in the egg. I pressed the cookie cutter down hard with my hand so the egg wouldn’t seep out. That was fine until the metal cookie cutter got hot. When it was time to turn the egg, there was a problem. Of course it was sticking to the sides of the cookie cutter. I got a knife and loosened the edges and when I took the cookie cutter off it kept it shape, YEAH! I flipped it over and finished cooking. Was it worth it? Maybe if my grandkids were here to eat it.

Download Conversation Hearts Activity Graph

This is a fun activity to do with any colored candy but especially fun at Valentine’s to do with Conversation Hearts.
What you will need for each person:
A graphing sheet
Conversation Hearts
Before you begin estimate how many Conversation Hearts you have then check to see how close you were to the exact number.
1. Classify the hearts by color
2. Cut out the squares on the graphing sheet.
3. Color a square for each heart. If you have 8 pink hearts you color 8 squares pink.
4. Create a bar graph by placing all the squares with the same color together as shown in the photo.
5. Talk about the graph. Ask questions like; which color has the greatest or least squares? Are there any the same? How many more or less does one color have compared to another color? What is another way to classify the hearts.

How cute is this for a Valentine treat and there’s only 3 ingredients !
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This calendar has fun activities to do each day counting down to Valentine’s Day. Many of them are service oriented. You could even make up some of your own ideas.
PRINT COUNTDOWN CALENDAR

These are fun to have for a Valentine’s party . Make the envelopes ahead of time and have each person decorate their own to be used for a placemat. You can also have each person write a note to the others at the party to put in their envelope. I had several different sizes of paper hearts cut out to use for notes.
Finished size – 17 inches X 13 inches
For each placemat you‘ll need: paper that measures 34 inches long & 13 inches wide (butcher paper, newsprint, large paper sacks, wrapping paper, wall paper). Scissors & glue.
Items to decorate the envelope: stickers, crayons, markers, paper, glitter, etc.
Directions:
1. Measure 13 inches from the bottom and fold the paper up. This will form the opening of the envelope.
2. Fold down from the top 8 inches to form the flap.
3. Make the flap pointed by folding each side into the center, cut the extra paper off.
4. Glue the sides of the envelope along the edges.

Grandparents can help their grandchildren learn to read or become better readers by:
1. Having books available when they come to visit and encouraging them to explore books.
2. Reading together and talking about what you’re reading.
3. Make reading a pleasure and show enthusiasm as you read together.
These ideas came from the Michigan Department of Education.

Download Accordion Fold Card & Book
There are so many great Valentine books to read to your grandchildren. Some that my grandchildren have enjoyed are The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting, Little Bear’s Valentine by Maurice Sendak, and Max’s Valentine by Rosemary Wells.
When you’re finished reading together you can make an accordion folded Valentine card.
Directions:
1. Print out the pattern on white or colored paper.
2. Cut out the strips only along the outside edges.
3. Tape or glue the 2 strips together and fold along the vertical lines accordion style.
4. Write a special Valentine message or story to give to someone.
5. Put it in an envelope or tie together with a ribbon.