Valentine's day work

In the beginning of the month we got to meet Salina Yoon, the author of 'Be a friend", thanks to the 'bookworm festival'. We read this book again and again and again. What a beautiful way to kick off our everything valentine's.

1). Healing hearts: Our first work was a practical life activity of putting 'band-aids' on a wound. We used masking tapes and a cotton ball to place on the wounds on a boy. I chose masking tapes instead of actual band-aids for practice, so we can move on to the real ones without wasting (they are too sticky for J to handle right now), in the future. 

Material used: a paper, color pencils, cotton ball, masking tape, marker, used sticker back to place our healing heart 'band-aids'.

2). Identify Gujarati letters: I simply put together this activity for J to practice his knowledge of Gujarati letters we have already worked on. He could not figure out the Sunday one, but the best part was, he did it all by himself and then put everything back, including closing the lid on the glue stick (my aha! moment of the day). 

Material used: construction paper, markers, printer paper, glue stick.

3). Cutting hearts: I cut up a paper heart chain and showed J to separate the hearts. He did a few as I showed and a few from the fold, where the hearts were cut into half before leaving half of the chain uncut. 

Material used: a pair of scissors and construction paper.

4). Number match and counting: I wrote numbers 0-10, both in English and Gujarati on a card stock, to match with another set of card stock with heart stamps. J is getting very confident about his counting and worked with the cards in multiple ways; Gujarati number recognition (beyond 5), number to heart (counts) match and  hearts to number match.

Material used: card stock, marker, heart stamp.

5). Map + scavenger hunt + number recognition 1-20: J has been loving the maps lately. We don't do any map work other than looking at them in an atlas, but I thought it was a perfect opportunity to introduce the idea. 

Materials used: paper, construction paper, marker, heart cutouts, card stock heart, glue.

• We drew a map of our apartment very casually, identifying what is where. 

• The next day we read it again and I placed some read heart marks on the map, where I had already put some paper hearts, with numbers on the back. 

• Gave him a heart cutout with numbers 1-20 on. 

• his job was, to identify where a heart is on the map and get it back to the table. 

• Once he brought one back, we circled them off the map.

• Then, he had to read the number on the heart and find the same number on the big heart, then glue it on. 

It sounds like a lengthy work, but J had no problem doing it, with help reading the map. We actually enjoyed the multiple layer game. The final result was a beautiful art work, he was very proud of. The green-bluish hearts are from the marble art we did for the republic day.

 6). Art: Our alternate to liquid water colors turned out beautiful. 

 

Valentine's day craft

I absolutely love arts made using liquid water colors. In my mind, they make all (including a newbie) work look so professional. I personally don't own them but wanted to figure out an alternative until I do. The handiest way to achieve this was to mix food coloring with water. I am not sure how close they are in reality, but I absolutely loved the result in our V-day craft.

using our alternate to liquid watercolors

The lacing effect came simply from kitchen towels. I used kitchen towel, food colors, water, water color paper, q-tips, masking tape.

• Cut heart chain out of kitchen towels and place it on the paper anyway you like. Use masking tape to tape the paper to the working surface. We have dedicated large cutting board that replaces an art easel for us. 

• Choose your food color and mix it with water, a tablespoon at a time. Check on the color saturation you like by putting a dot on paper using a q-tip and add color/ water accordingly until you like it. 

• Always always always make sure the colors you choose are complementing, so you don't end up with dark mess of brown or grey. Ask me, how I know this!!

• Provide a q-tip for each color and let your mind flow in beauty. 

J absolutely enjoyed watching the colors spreading out with every time his q-tip touched the hearts. 

  

• Saturate the hearts with colors, but don't dab on them or they will lose the beautiful lacing effect.

The dots and lines on the paper makes it look even prettier.

• Let them dry for an hour or so before peeling off. 

• The hearts might still be damp, gently, press on to another plain paper to get another version of the prints. It's equally beautiful.

This technique can easily be used on wrapping papers or as backgrounds on a canvas; the possibilities are endless. The best part is, it is as toddler friendly as it can be.