Valentine's Day Party Ideas for Tweens Tutorial

Tween Valentine Party Activities Tutorial

Wondering what to do for a Tween Valentine Party? These Valentine's party ideas for tweens will keep kids busy afterschool. Invite their friends over for a fun filled Valentine's Day party with craftivities galore. Girls and boys alike will have fun making their own one of a kind snowflake hearts and Duct Tape Valentine Snack Treat Box to use while watching their favorite movie. Enjoy!

Heart Craftivities for a Valentine's Day Party for Tweens.

Your tweens may not enjoy exchanging classroom valentines or making valentine's mailboxes for school, but they probably enjoy eating fun food and having a party. You can make this as a surprise valentine treat for kids or you can have them help make the Valentine crafts as an afterschool activity.

Tween Valentine Party Activities Tutorial.

To decorate for our Valentine's Day party, we made a few heart crafts that are fun for kids of all ages.

First, we made paper snowflake hearts. Want the full tutorial? Click the link:  How to Make Paper Snowflake Hearts.

Once the snowflake hearts are cut out, glue them to a colorful background paper and cut them out. Use these lacy hearts as decorations hanging from the ceiling, placemats, or write fun sayings on them and hand them out as Valentine classroom exchange cards.

Make paper snowflake hearts to decorate for a Valentine's Day party.

Using colorful cardstock, make heart sculptures. Cut out two hearts and then cut halfway up the bottom of one, and half way up the top of the other. Slide the hearts together (upside down) to form a 3D base for balloons. Punch a whole in the top of them, and slip a ribbon through to attach a balloon bouquet. They make fun, whimsical table decorations too- no balloons required.

3D heart sculpture table decorations.

Next, make heart garland to hang vertically in the window. These are a good scissor skill activity for younger kids. They also work fine motor skills. Fold paper in half, draw half a heart at the crease line of the paper. 

After the heart is cut out, keep it folded and cut two- 1" slits 1-2" apart. Open the heart and weave ribbon or string through the slits.

Using a glue stick (it works just fine) or hot glue gun, attach a pom pom to the end of the garland to give it a whimsical finishing touch.

How to make heart garland for Valentine's Day party decorations.

Surprise the kids with snack treat boxes made from recycled cereal boxes. Make these ahead of time or let the kids choose their own patterns and make their own. 

At the Dollar Tree, we purchased duct tape in various colors. Not only does this decorate the box, it also makes the box sturdier giving it protection against spills or greasy food. 

While shopping, we found little red cups that make perfect Valentine treat holders. Fill them with dip for veggies or yummy candy treats. Ours are filled with Valentine candy conversation hearts.

Valentine snack treat boxes for movie time or after school snacks.

Start with a cereal box. They are the perfect size for sitting on your lap. Cut out a large flap for the main course and then cut out two smaller wholes for the mini snack cup and a juice pack or drink holder. Trace the bottom of the cup and juice box to insure you cut out the perfect fit.

Things to do with a recycled cereal box.

Carefully wrap the box in designer duct tape. When going around round the cut-outs, score the tape (cut a slit in the tape before folding it over), this allows for a cleaner, more attractive edge.

Snack box decorated with duct tape.

Once your box is covered in tape, attach a heart on the inside of the flap. Personalize it with your child's name or candy heart sayings like, 'Be Mine', 'Your the Bomb', 'Hers', or even 'Happy Valentine's Day'.

Treat box for Valentine's day or movie time snack.

Place colorful plastic wrap or tissue paper inside the food flap. Then, fold four flaps over on a paper plate to form a square, paper bowl. Fill your food section with popcorn or a mini heart shaped pizza. Click the link for the full pizza recipe tutorial.

Mini heart shaped pizza for Valentine's Day.

These cute Valentine glasses were a steal at the Dollar Tree. They have lots of fun designs. If your tweens are too grown up for juice boxes, make a special drink for Valentine's Day. Keep scrolling for our easy Valentine's Day drink recipe.

Make a special tween drink for Valentine's Day.

Ever heard of a Shirley Temple? It is a non-alcholic fun, fizzy drink. To make a simple Shirley Temple, fill a glass with lemon-lime soda and then give it a splash of Grenadine. Grenadine is sweet, so a little goes a long way. For a fun version of the Shirley Temple, just add a bit of pink cotton candy. Don't forget to put a cherry on top!

Add a layer of plastic wrap or tissue paper to protect the inside of the box.

How fun was that? Kids will love getting invited to such a fun filled Valentine's party. Once everyone has their snack box, head over to the living room and watch a fun, Valentine's theme movie. 

Peanuts is always a good choice. Charlie Brown never gets the Valentine he hopes for.

Valentine treat box complete.

Tween Valentine party ideas and activities.

These activities are so easy, if you don't have Valentine's Day plans, you can prep for this party in about 2 hours. So, go make your own fun! Hope you have a fabulous Valentine's Day!


Recommended:

Fill your treat box with Homemade Heart Shape Pretzels.

Valentine's Day Movies for Kids*





ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products. *We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Make a Call of Duty Black Ops Medal Afterschool Activity

 Make your own Black Ops Call of Duty Style Medal

Call of Duty Black Ops and Ghosts are so popular with teens and their gaming Dads too. We've been posting  a ton of Call of Duty birthday party activity themes or after-school boredom busters. Enjoy!

I know, how can you get bored when you have your video games to play?

Well, sometimes you mess up and lose your tech time. Grounded. Don't leave your soldiers all alone. Remember when you used to get dressed up and play make believe? Yep. Now they call it role-playing, and it is cool to be a nerd.

Get your own Official Black Ops Medal

This post contains affiliate links.

We made our look-alike (shh, I know it's a stretch, don't hurt my feelings!) medal with recycled cardboard from a cereal box, blue felt, aluminum foil, some Sharpies, and Tacky Glue.

Official Call of Duty Black Ops Prestige Medal.

How to Make a Call of Duty Medal

We took the image above, printed it out in black and white and then traced it to make a template. It's not an exact match, but it makes a fun Call of Duty activity for kids.

After, we cut out our images, we traced them onto the cardboard. There are 5 separate cardboard pieces making up the medal.

Next, we covered each piece with foil by wrapping the cardboard cut out and rubbing over it with fingers to reveal where to make the cuts. No need to glue the foil down, just wrap the edges so they fold over the back.

Then, we stacked each piece as pictured and glued them down with tacky glue.

Take a break, let it dry. Later, we took the Sharpie and colored the bottom layer. We used brown, but gold looks best. Then, we drew the features of the skull.

Finally, we cut the felt in an odd bow tie, folded it in half, glued it at the top, and then to the wings at the top of our cardboard medal.

If you make a Call of Duty template pattern stencil (see what I did there? That's weird, right?), and cut the pieces out prior to the party, it makes a quick, fun activity for a boys' birthday party.

Need a stencil pattern template - whatever you want to call it, you can find it here as a FREE PRINTABLE CALL OF DUTY pdf on our Mediafire page. If the link isn't clickable, I haven't scanned it in yet. Hold on. I'm getting to it.



Recommended Reading:


Call of Duty: Ghosts Signature Series Strategy Guide 

Free Printable Coloring Pages inspired by Call of Duty

Call of Duty Art Lesson

Army Birthday Party with Call of Duty Theme

Kitchen Kids: Edible Mayflower Sandwich Snack for Thanksgiving Craft

Make a mini Mayflower Ship Sandwich Snack to celebrate the Pilgrims landing in America: Thanksgiving Craft for Kids

Get your kids in the kitchen for this edible Thanksgiving Craft. This snack craft is an easy, fun activity for afterschool or preschool class. It is fun to make an edible Mayflower ship craft. Enjoy!

Mayflower Edible Thanksgiving Craft.

You might also like this Fall Thanksgiving Craft, Painting with Pumpkins, Gourds, and other squash.

Attach cheese slices by making an eatable cream cheese paste on your Mayflower Sandwich Ship.

Fruit Snack Passengers = Madagascar Penguins.

You need:

Hot dog buns 
Cheese Slices (Yellow and White)
Pretzel Sticks
Cream Cheese
Optional: Goldfish Crackers or Character Fruit Snacks

To make:

Hollow out the center of 1/2 of  bun.
Spoon in cream cheese.
Cut cheese slices diagonally into triangles.
Slide pretzel thru one side of slice to form a sail. 
Note: This doesn't work well with room temperature cheese, so we used cream cheese as a paste. Stick sail into the cream cheese. Use mini pretzels for steering wheel and life preservers. Insert Goldfish crackers tail end first to represent passengers. Serve with baked chips and pumpkin salsa. Eat. 

Recommended Reading:

Cranberry Thanksgiving (Cranberryport)*

Kids Creative Chaos Cooks (Kitchen Kids Book 1)*

Eatable Art Snacks for Kids








ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Food Play: Edible Thanksgiving Apple Crafts for Kids

These are our after-school kids Edible apple turkey crafts for snack.

The After-school Kid's Apple Turkey Trials and links to other Edible Turkey Crafts and Snacks. Bon Appetit Creative Apple Crafts for kids snack from the archives. Fun way to play with your food.

Edible Apple Turkey

Apple Crafts for Thanksgiving

Apple Turkey? Afterschool Snack

To insert candy and pretzels poke holes with the small end of a spoon  or skewer first. 

Cream Cheese Mayflower Sandwiches

TPC Kids Turkey Treats

Candy Corn Turkey Edible Craft for Kids

Healthy Vegetable Veggie Mayflower Boats

Lesson on Money for Homeschool: Budgeting and Online Games

Need an Online Lesson on Money and Minting for Homeschooling or Class Curriculum?

Do you homeschool or plan curriculum for afterschool programs? We've come up with some fun, online lessons that teach about money, budgeting, financing, and the U.S. Mint. The links lead to kid-friendly websites for online learning. We're also sharing the link to our original Google doc lesson so that you can make a free printable. Enjoy!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, we get a small commission. This is how we provide free lesson plans and curriculum for homeschoolers. Thanks!

Money Lesson Plan Curriculum for Homeschooling.

Money Lesson Online

Want access to the Google Doc? Click here and you can print out your own homeschool money lesson.

___________________________________________________

Grades 3-5

Watch How Money is Made by How Stuff  Works

Read Alexander Who used to be Rich last Sunday by Judith Viorst

Bennie's Pennies is also a good resource on spending for children ages 9-12.

K-2 Math printable PDF math sheet

__________________________________________________

Language Arts:  Story Starter -  If you made a million, would you share it with others?

Explain why or why not with details. How would you save it? List out the ways.

Watch Scholastics Video on Netflix - Amazing Americans - “If I made a Million.”

How Paper Money is Made Video - Field trip to money factory  

How Coins are Made

www.usmint.gov/kids/coinNews/mintingProcess/

When you get there, click roll em to see.

Also watch, The Birth of a Coin (Cool activities here too.)

___________________________________________________

Math Activity:

Time Machine American Revolution: Fun with Fractions

Fraction Printable PDF

Free Printable 3rd grade stories and comprehension worksheets also find thru grade 5 here.

___________________________________________________

Art Activity: 

Create your own money online 

Printable Checks from Kids Money Farm

More Money Lesson Plans and Printables

____________________________________________________

Science Component:

Cat and Mouse Game from the US MINT.

Place two coins of the same size, (quarters, nickels, whatever you have) on a flat, smooth surface.  Put a third coin of any size in front of them, making sure they all touch.  This is the "cat."  Place a fourth coin, the "mouse," about a foot away.  (You could even add a tail to this coin with a piece of dental floss and tape.)

Make your hand into a fist with the index and middle fingers pointing out.  Then tap down quickly on the first two coins with these fingers.  The kinetic force will propel the "cat" toward the "mouse."  Play with a friend, and see who can get the cat to the mouse with the fewest hits. 

Find more games and activities like this at the U.S Mint.

Recommended Reading:

Bennie's Pennies

Online Homeschooling Projects


Pin it!

Editable Printable Curriculum

Free Printables, Free Royalty Free Clipart and Fonts? Yes, you can!

If you are looking for downloadable editable printables for the classroom check out TeacherSherpa. It is similar to Teachers Pay Teachers, but offers so much more. The printable curriculum is editable and fully customizable. Like TPT, there are free printable downloads available every month. Whether you are a teacher, a blogger, or a homeschool parent, you'll find awesome benefits on TeacherSherpa. The most amazing feature is that you can create your own printables to sell on TPT, earn royalties on TeacherSherpa, or even sell or giveaway on your own website. Enjoy!

At TeacherSherpa, you can make your own classroom materials and editable printables for free.

Circle Time Activities Handbook

Get Camp Activities and Hand Games for Group Circles of all ages Handbook

Remember those hand games and fun group games activities you played in summer camp? Maybe you played games in an after-school program? You remember how much fun they were, maybe you remember the tune or the the general idea, but you just can't remember all the words or just exactly how it goes. Our Circle Time Handbook is made for you. Learn (or relearn) how to play your favorite large group games in a circle.

Post contains affiliate links.

We've compiled the 39 most popular group games played in a circle with toddlers to teens in a reproducible format. Print them out, place them on your clipboard or share them with your summer camp counselors. These large group circle activity games are perfect for icebreakers and team building. Play them with adults, senior citizens, and youth groups too!

With the complete easy to follow Group Game INSTRUCTIONS, you can play these GROUP TIME Activities right now! All you need is a group of people from toddlers to teens.

Prefer a nice paperback with 8 1/2 x 11 reproducible pages? Order your hard copy on AMAZON, you can also get the Kindle version here. Just click the image to make the purchase on Amazon.

Can't wait? Get the Digital PDF Version of our Circle Time Activities Handbook  to start playing right now! Just click the image and visit our TeachersPayTeachers store.

Lora Langston (that's me) is the creator of Kids Creative Chaos blog. For over fifteen years, I taught enrichment classes in after-school programs, classes at parks for preschoolers, and summer camp.

When it comes to lyrics and how to play games, I have a terrible memory. Every time we played a game, I had to look up the instructions!

Time Management Group Activities: If you are sitting in a circle, waiting for parents to pick up the kids or transitioning to the next activity, sometimes you need an impromptu activity to fill up time. Inevitably, the kids will ask to play a game they've played before, but they don't know how it goes. Been there. Done that.

Now, you have all of those old favorites group activity games at your fingertips! Just print a copy from one of the reproducible pages and attach it to your clipboard. Problem solved. And, it cost less than $10. Enjoy!

Circle Time activities handbook pdf download.

Sure, most of these circle time activity games are out there floating around in the public domain. I've been playing many of them since the 1980's! The rest I learned from the kids in my programs from the late 90's to 2012. It sure is convenient to have them all in one place with easy access whenever you need a quick group activity.

If you've played these group games too, and played a different variation, we would love to hear it! Let us know, and we'll add it to our game's post and then send you a thank you Tweet.


Recommended:

FREE Games for Circle Time

FREE Camp Songs for All Ages

Pin it!

Group Hand Games and Camp Games Book to be played in Circles.

Brand Me: Lora Langston aka Adubahwha?

Sunday Food for Thought: BRANDING YOU and me

Hey, if you came here from a search, can you tell me what got you here? This is an old post. I'm not sure what is driving traffic. Brand me. Brand you. Branding for Bloggers? Sunday Food for Thought? I used to write those every Sunday and then I decided they were too personal for what the blog has become. So, leave a comment and let me know. Enjoy!

Sunday Food for Thought: 

BRANDING YOU and me.

I've been reading up on professional blogging through posts sent to my inbox by Problogger. For the most part, I am doing everything wrong. I'm a disaster. For example, did you miss me? I was MIA for about two months. Apparently, I'm not supposed to ask, as it is a sure sign of an unprofessional.

And then, there are the theories on 'to post or not to post', to whichever theory you subscribe (posting every day or every other day or once a week) you should maintain a schedule. 

That is, you shouldn't post sporadically- every day one week, once the next week, none the next, and then a few times a day the next, just because you have something to say, like I do.

I can say, based on my absence and the noticeable drop in stats, okay the DRAMATIC drop in stats, posting at least once a week is important. 

Someone pointed out that posting everyday might annoy my subscribers. Ahem... I would have to have subscribers to annoy them.

Another common mistake the naive, unprofessional blogger makes is not focusing on a particular subject matter. Specialization is best, know your readership, find your niche. 

My niche? 

Mommy Bloggers? Nope. Aspiring authors? Nope. Nutty people? Noooo. People interested in Dramatic Arts? No. Crafters? No. Freelance writers? Humor? Overweight Moms? Nope, nope, and more nope. Maybe a Blogger's Club for Midwestern Mommy Creative Types? Uh that's a big, fat, no. (10 followers) My very own .com just for my rambling mind? Apparently not. (20 followers)

Update: I have found my niche. Education Bloggers. Afterschool, Summer Camp, Teachers, Homeschoolers, and Daycare Workers. Things are going quite nicely now.

Don't use slang, vernacular, incorrect grammar. Don't get excited and post with spelling errors, your reader's will lose respekt for you. (See what I did there?) 

Puffalump! Cheese and rice! Bleep, I ain't got no chance of becoming a professional, branded blogger. Or do I?

Update: I didn't even realize I was making mistakes back then. I still make mistakes today. Probably for the same reasons.

Content is Key and the Perfect Title is Golden.

Update: Okay, I used to write cute titles all the time. Now, before I even think of content to write I do an SEO search for the BEST keywords to put in my title. Downside, it won't attract my Facebook family and friends to read my blog. Upside, it is evergreen. The gift that keeps on giving. Titles and keywords used this way can take awhile to stick. Sometimes, posts don't get SEO juice for up to two years!! Then, they just take off. That is why, I want to know... what brought you here?

You see, I have found my niche. It's Kid Bloggers, who are mostly moms like me or Early Childhood Teachers looking for new twists on old ideas. I work for them, but I like to mingle with aspiring or published authors too. I love reading posts that flow, engage, and make me laugh or cry. 

I don't want to scare off my niche group with posts about my fatness, laziness, or craziness. Or my my core Christian readers with my liberal take on Christianity. Or my Non-Christian readers with my Jesus talk. Or worse yet, bore everyone with my obsession with ancestry and historical fiction.

So... I tried to split my personality with my various blogs and Facebook pages. Know what I found out? People seem to like me despite my ramblings, outspoken political views, or overall reckless blog behavior. 

Hey, fellow writers: I just learned how to spell reckless. Are you kidding me? All of these years, I thought it was Wreckless. I guess that is my Indiana upbringing... he is such a wreckless driver. Then again, that was dumb. If he was a wreckless driver rather than a reckless driver, he'd probably be a good driver minus the wrecks.

Ramblings. 

That's what I, Lora Langston, do best and you don't have to hop over to loralangston.blogspot.com STOP THE PRESSES THIS LEADS ME TO A THOUGHT WITHIN A THOUGHT (loralangston.com was a nice thing to own until I didn't and then they raised the little renewal price of ten dollars to sixty, meanies) or Midwestbloggersassociation.com or theplayconnection.com or on  Facebook or Lora Langston on Examiner.com even Kids Creative Chaos on Facebook. 

Nope, because when I wasn't paying attention or even trying I discovered Lora Langston is my brand even if you have to work through my split-personality to find me on Facebook (Lora Langston) or Twitter (@playconnection) or Pinterest/kidschaos:   (we do the scavenger hunt).

I'm gonna continue to ramble, write in my Indiana vernacular, post when I feel like it, and go off topic sometimes 'cuz that is what my subscribers seem to enjoy about me, my unpredictability. I'm a train wreck or is it reck?

My dry sense of humor lends to a few things: Some find me stupid and annoying but can't resist reading... and others aren't quite sure if they should laugh or run. The rest, well, they get me.

Whichever category you fall into, I hope you'll stick around! There are many more ramblings to come and lots of creative, crafty fun for kids.

Subscribe to Lora Langston on Facebook, and Check me out on Twitter and Pinterest- This is where my branding is best with over 180,000 followers.

Okay, I won't be mad if you like me here too because this is the brand that didn't go but inspired this post. Kids Creative Chaos on FB (hoping for 500 Likes, for now).

Update: I have over 11,000 Facebook likes as of 12/2015.

Cheers to a happy 'You' Brand too.

Update: I'll pop back in and update this post as things continue to improve. 

Adubahwha? That's what people used to say to me in college, when they had no idea what I just said...

Recommended:

Welcome and About Me

Branding for Bloggers*









ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Turkey Snack Cup Kids Craft: Easy Thanksgiving Craft

Make a Snack Cup placeholder Kids Craft for your Thanksgiving Table. 

This easy turkey craft is fun for kids, and they can reuse the cup at snack time. These make fun placeholders for Thanksgiving when you write their name on the "feathers".

Turkey Placeholder Cup for Thanksgiving Kids' Snacks.

I saw this on the Disney Family Fun Page using feathers. I thought we'd give it a try with Popsicle sticks from the dollar store. We went on a shopping spree with only a few dollars to spend to get supplies. When I saw the sticks, I decided that they would have to do. That's the best advice I give, 'Go with the flow'. We'll recycle and use the sticks in other projects. 

Supplies:

Leaves or Construction Paper
Hot Glue
Paper Cups
Craft Sticks
Markers
Popcorn

Glue sticks to front of the cup in a fan or tail pattern. Hot Glue works best.

Draw a face and gobbler on the construction paper.


 

Glue to the front of the cup itself or onto another stick.

Amanda, age 2, drew this face by herself!

She told me where to glue each stick.

Turkey Snack Craft for place setting.

Sam's, 'girl turkey', a thing of beauty.

Fill with popcorn and serve pre-turkey to keep tiny tummys occupied!

Recommended Reading:

Easy-To-Do Holiday Crafts From Everyday Household Items!: Including Crafts for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Every Day of the Year!*

Turkey Cup Craft

T is for Turkey: A True Thanksgiving Story*











ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)