Activity:
Heart Man
Add some Valentine's cheer to your home by putting together an adorable heart man with your child. This activity is good for kids who are focusing on simple shape recognition, and it's a great way to show your kid how different shapes can be pieced together to create unexpected forms. As an added bonus, all that cutting and folding is great for honing fine motor skills.
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What You Need:
- Pink, red, blue, and black construction paper
- Scissors
- Markers or crayons
- Glue
What You Do:
- Have your child cut a large heart shape out of a sheet of red construction paper. This will be the heart man's body, so encourage her to take up most of the sheet with the heart.
- Ask your child to cut two smaller hearts out of the pink paper. Each of these hearts should be less than ¼ the size of the paper.
- Invite your child to cut two rectangles from the black construction paper. These should be just slightly bigger than the pink hearts.
- Have her cut out four long strips of blue construction paper from the longer edge of the construction paper. They should be about an inch wide.
- Lay all the shapes out on the table in front of your child. Ask your child to pick out the largest heart; explain that the red heart will be used to create the body of the heart man.
- Invite her to pick up the four long sheets of blue construction paper and fold them up accordion-style. To do this, start at one end of each strip and continue folding upwards until the entire strip has been folded into a stack of tiny squares. Let the paper unfold and you'll see that each strip has been formed into a fun, springy shape. Explain that these are the arms and legs, and ask you child to glue them to the sides and bottom of the heart.
- Ask your child to find the two smaller pink hearts, and explain that these "hands" should be glued to the ends of the heart's arms.
- Have your child locate the two black rectangles, explaining that they will be used for the heart's shoes. Ask your child where she thinks the shoes should go, and glue them down.
- Finally, ask your child to decorate her new creation using crayons and markers. She can draw eyes, a nose, a mouth, and decorate the body of the heart man as well.
Once her heart man is complete, invite your child to find a place to hang him. You might even suggest that she come up with designs for a family of heart-people to give as Valentine's Day gifts!
