Heart Paper Chain

What You Need:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Construction paper in two colors 
• Glue

What You Do:

1. Help your child fanfold a strip of paper. There should be at least five folds (six flat surfaces). As she folds, make sure that the folds line up evenly or her hearts may not stay connected when she cuts them out.
2. Next, use the pencil to help your child draw a heart, as large as possible, on this folded strip. Remember that the sides of the heart need to overlap the folded edges of the paper.
3. It’s time to cut the strip of hearts out. Make sure your young crafter understands that she should cut on the pencil line and that both sides of the heart need to remain uncut.
4. Open the fanned hearts and let her admire the paper chain she’s made.
5. Help her cut smaller hearts out of the construction paper. If her chain has six hearts, she'll need 3 small construction paper hearts in each color.
6. Encourage her to glue these smaller hearts onto her paper chain, completing an AB pattern as she does so.
7. Have her add a little pizzazz to this simple project by decorating her paper chain with glitter, sequins or anything that sparkles. She can also make a paper chain garland by taping together several shorter paper chains.

If you want, you can use the finished project to decorate your home for Valentine’s Day!