Heart Chain

What You Do:

1. Place a sheet of red construction paper vertically on a table in front of your child.
2. Have her fold the top of the paper down to meet the bottom of the paper. The paper should now be folded in half.
3. Show her how to use a ruler to measure half an inch.  Starting at the top left edge of the folded paper, have her make a mark on the paper with a pencil at every half inch mark until she reaches the end of the paper. 
4. Help her repeat this process with the bottom edge of the paper.
5. Now show her how to use the ruler to match up the first top mark with the first bottom mark.
6. Let her use a pencil to draw a line along the ruler that connects each top and bottom mark.
7. Have her continue to make these lines across the rest of the page.
8. Next, let her use scissors to cut each penciled line. Make sure she cuts the paper while it is still folded. Each of her paper strips should have a fold.
9. Help your child make similar strips of folded paper from the white and pink sheets of construction paper.
10. Have her choose the first color strip she wants to turn into a heart.
11. Help her grab both ends of the strip before folding them inward. If she does this right, she should see the shape of a heart form. 
12. Let her hold onto her heart while you carefully staple the ends together.
13. To create her chain, have her string the next strip of paper through the already stapled heart before stapling the ends together.
14. She should repeat this process until all of her paper strips are used up. Once she's done, help her hang her heart chain where everyone can enjoy it!