Hearts Mobile

This is one of the simplest open-ended Valentine’s day activities for kids we have shared. Each season I like to buy themed foam cut outs so the kids get to engage in simple fine motor activities while creating with them. For the upcoming Valentine season I purchased these foamies and set them out along with some of my 5 year’s favorite collage materials. She is a minimalist and prefers just a couple of materials - spangles and beads from our craft stash and started creating with them. Know you child and set out your collage tray. Materials

• Foam Hearts
• Beads
• Spangles
• Small bottles of glue
• Hearts themed ribbons
• Tape

For this Valentine’s day activity instead of a usual bottle of school glue, I had this very tiny and handy squeeze bottle that was perfect for fine motor crafts like these. That tiny bottled dispensed the perfect amount for glue for those itty-bitty beads and spangles. I really enjoy watching my child’s development during projects like these. She has always enjoyed making a design even during open ended art activities. This time I saw her actually plan out her collage before applying glue. For this heart she declared that she was going to make a face. She then carefully proceeded to choose her items needed to implement her visual. I was really thrilled to see her choose stars for the rosy cheeks and a heart for the mouth! Doesnt it show that show that she is clearly putting thought into this collage making process? For her next heart, she used a pencil to make concentric hearts pattern and then proceeded to apply glue on the lines. If you look closely you will see that the outer heart line has larger spangles and the inner ones have smaller ones. Isn’t fascinating to watch your child create or make and they are such great commentators while at “work”! Her attention span lasted for about 4 hearts which I was thought was pretty good and after that she invited me to join her and so I did. We turned the Valentine’s day activity into a short mom and kid activity time which she thoroughly enjoys. Here are all our heart collages. She ended up making 3 heart faces and the rest of the heart collages suddenly looked like the rest of the body. It’s great that you start out with a simple heart cut outs activity and it turns into this beautiful hearts mobile. We attached a pretty piece of ribbon to the backs of the foam hearts. and hung them on our wall as a cute kid-made heart decor.

• Here is our another kid-made hearts decor - check our “wrapped hearts”
• Stop by our Valentine’s day activities for kids round up for more ideas