Homemade Valentine's Day Cards

What You Need:

• Sheets of colored construction paper (one for each child in the class)
• Leftover paper scraps (scrapbook pages, picture books, old greeting cards, calendars, etc.)
• Scissors
• Thick thread or yarn
• Wide-eyed needle
• Straight pins
• Pen
• Small hole punch (optional)

What You Do:

1. Show your child how to cut out hearts from the paper scraps. The easiest method is to fold paper in half, and then cut half-hearts along the paper's edge. The hearts can differ in size, shape, and color; a greater variety makes for more interesting cards.
2. Have your child fold the sheets of construction paper in half for the structure of the cards. Fold them to either open from the right or the bottom.
3. Thread the needle with a long string of yarn or thread, tying a knot at the end to secure it.
4. Ask your child to arrange the hearts on the front of each folded paper however she see wishes.
5. Once she is happy with each design, secure it with straight pins.
6. Show her how to carefully stitch each heart into place. She can either decide to creatively stitch around the edges, or place one wide stitch through the middle of each heart.
7. After each card is constructed, have her write a friendly greeting inside. Encourage her to get creative! She can take this opportunity to either personalize the greeting to each classmate or write a generic greeting, such as "I hope your Valentine's Day is sew special!"

This project may be a little more time consuming than buying a box of pre-made cards, but the result is both fulfilling and thoughtful.