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 Happy Birthday Cupcakes with this Cherry Recipe

Read Happy Birthday, Cupcake! and Make some too

Is it your birthday? These cupcakes are perfect for Valentine's Day too, but don't worry- you don't need an excuse to make birthday cupcakes. This recipe for cherry cupcakes, is perfect to pair with the book, Happy Birthday, Cupcake!, by Terry Border. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Cupcake! is a charming book. The main character is a Cupcake! The delightful photos throughout the book tell the story of a sweet Cupcake planning her birthday party with her friends. Her friends are various food items- each with varying needs. She takes into account each of them as she seeks to plan the perfect event. She shows kindness in realizing the limitations of her friends- like Ice Cream's propensity for melting...

Make Cherry Almond Cupcakes with this yummy recipe.

In then end, her friends surprise her with a birthday party to remember. This is such a cute story with an excellent message of friendship, feelings, and love. This picture book is perfect for the younger set. It makes a nice companion book for a birthday celebration. You can incorporate fun activities while talking about important topics like how to be a good friend.

Happy Birthday, Cupcake! by Terry Border.

One of our favorite activities is to bake together! This book lends itself well to a kitchen project. You can make cupcakes easily with a mix or make some from scratch. The most important thing is to spend time together. We enjoyed making Cherry Cupcakes- chosen by my son!

Delicious Cherry Cupcakes!

Here's a yummy recipe for the Cherry Almond Cupcakes that we adapted from one found on Food Network Magazine.

CHERRY ALMOND CUPCAKES Recipe

1 1/3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick butter, softened

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1/2 c. milk

1/3 c. maraschino cherries, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. 

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking power, and salt. In another bowl, cream butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth (about 1 minute). Add sugar and continue to beat until creamy (about 4 minutes). Beat in eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat in the flour mixture in three batches alternating the milk. Beat on medium-high speed until just combined. Stir in maraschino cherries. 

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until the tops spring back, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool in pan 5 minutes and then remove to rack to completely cool. 

How to Make CHERRY FROSTING Recipe

1 1/2 stick butter, softened

3 c. powdered sugar

pinch of salt

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. almond extract

3 Tb. maraschino cherry juice (from the jar)

Extra cherries to garnish if desired

Beat butter, sugar, and salt until just combined. Add extracts and beat on medium-high speed until creamy (about 3 minutes). Beat in the cherry juice until fluffy (about 1 more minute). 

Ice cupcakes when they are completely cooled and add cherries or sprinkles to decorate.

Fun Activity Ideas for the Book, Happy Birthday, Cupcake:

• Plan a play date with a friend.
• Cut out paper cupcakes.
• Make a friendship tree, and write down activites that your friends would enjoy.
• Pretend to have a birthday party. 

Recommended:

Make Strawberry Cupcakes

Get Happy Birthday, Cupcake!*

Snowmen Cupcakes

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! :)

Valentine's Ways to Say I Love You to Kids

Simple Ways to Say I Love You 

How many ways can you say I love you? What are fun ways to say I love you to your kids? We found some easy ways to say I love you to your child, just in time for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.*

Simple Ways to Say I Love You. These ideas are for kids, but work for adults too!

• Add a Post-it with a surprise, positive message each day leading up to Valentine's Day. Scroll down to see this done with hearts.

Post positive messages on their bedroom door each morning
to build self-esteem and show your love.

• Each day in February up to Valentine's Day, pick a conversation heart to slip into their lunch box. They'll look forward to the message. On Valentine's Day, give them the entire box!

Heart shaped food for lunchbox with conversation hearts
for Valentine's Day from Farm Fresh Meals.

• No conversation hearts or you don't want to give candy? Try these ideas to say I love you with lunchbox fruit messages.

Ways to say I love you with Fruit Puns from Where the Pun Is.

• Similarly to conversation heart idea, you can stick a message to their door every morning. Cut out heart shapes, like these found on Decorating Day by Day, or just use pink and red Post-it Notes as pictured above.

Messages on door are a fun way to say I love you.

• Pregnancy.org shares some fun, simple ways to say I love you to your child all year long. We like the shaving cream on the mirror. Mirror messages are a simple idea that you can do every day. Washable or Dry Erase Markers are less mess and work great too!

To say I love you, write messages on the mirror with Dry Erase or Washable Markers.

Recommended:

Giant Bag of Conversation Hearts*

Valentine Ladybug Game

Valentine's Cake



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! :)

4 Holiday Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

4 Cardboard Tube Crafts for the Holidays

Whether you use a paper towel roll, wrapping paper roll, or toilet tube, these cute cardboard tube crafts for the holidays are easy to make. We made 4 fun holiday toilet paper roll crafts with bits and bobbles from cardboard rolls. Scroll down to see our Thanksgiving Turkey, Christmas Reindeer, Snowman, and Little Puppy. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links.

Cute Cardboard Tube Crafts.

1. Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

We used cardbboard paper towel rolls and toilet paper tubes to make these little creatures. They are skinnier than most, because we cut a 1" strip out of each roll and then hot glued the cardboard back together. Each holiday creature is cut at a different height, so they can be displayed in an attractive centerpiece for the holidays.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts Thanksgiving Turkey.

Cardboard Tube Valentine Treat Creature

If you want to make Cardboard Tube Crafts for Thanksgiving, purchase some felt leaves. We found a Thanksgiving garland kit on clearance and used the pieces to make turkey feathers. An autumn pack of pipecleaners. pom poms, and felt bits were used for his beak and head.

To attach the head, it is best to use hot glue. Place a bead of glue around the top of the cardboard tube and then press and hold the pom pom down until the glue sets.

If you want to paint your tube, do that before you begin decorating it. We like the natural look of of the cardboard roll.

2. Cardboard Tube Puppy

Cut a 2" section of cardboard roll to make a little puppy.

Make Cardboard Tube Crafts for Holidays

Mini Cardboard Tube Creatures.

Make Cardboard Toilet Roll Christmas Tree Decorations

3. Cardboard Paper towel Roll Snowman Craft

Use a vegetable skewer to make hands
for your cardboard toilet roll snowman.

Fun Snowman Craft

Twist two pipecleaners together to make a scarf for your snowman.
We glued two cottonballs together to make  his head.

4. Reindeer Toilet Roll Craft

Wrap pipecleaners around your finger or a pencil
to make spiral antlers for the cardboard reindeer.

More Cardboard Roll Crafts for Thanksgiving

Mayhem designed her own Easy Cardboard Toilet Tube Turkeys.

Cut 1/4" strips approximately 3" down the toilet paper roll to make the turkey feathers. Then, bend 1 strip down folding the end up to attach the turkey's head. Cut two orange strips and glue inside the tube to form legs. Now, you have a shelf sitter turkey for Thanksgiving.

Share your ideas with us in the comments.


Recommended:


Paint with Cardboard Tubes

The Night Before Thanksgiving

Holiday Salt Dough Ornaments

Make an Envelope Barn and Toilet Roll Silo

Felt Leaves

Cardboard Toilet Tube Rocket for New Years

Plan a Ladybug Picnic Party & Learn about the Ladybug Life Cycle too!

A Ladybug Picnic Party is a Fun Way to learn about the Ladybug Life Cycle

Spring and Summer are the perfect time to throw a Ladybug picnic or Ladybug theme birthday party! We love to sneak in educational elements whenever possible, so we've come up with some fun Ladybug activities and added an educational one too. Learning about the Ladybug's life cycle is fun - Scroll down to find more Ladybug learning activities from Teaching Mama. Enjoy!

Plan a Ladybug Picnic Party and Learn about the ladybug Life cycle.

Online, you will find lots of different Ladybug tic tac toe games. Some are made of construction paper, others use painted rocks, blocks of wood, or even sticks.

Collect walnut shells and paint them like ladybugs and bumble bees
for Tic Tac Toe and Checkers games.

We enjoy taking hikes around our property. It is like our very own nature park. So, on a recent hike, we collected broken Walnut shells to paint like Ladybugs and Bumble Bees in honor of the book, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy!

These are so cute and perfect to leave sitting out for an impromptu game of Ladybug Tic Tac Toe or Checkers. 

Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy Party.  Want your own? Let us know in the comments.

Just store your bugs in a woven basket, and leave them sitting on a table or bench as an invitation to play. We tossed in sidewalk chalk, so that kids can make a board anywhere they want! Sticks make a perfect natural Tic Tac Toe board.

Make and play Ladybug Tic Tac Toe and Checkers.

Playing games are a great way to build friendships and teach about compromise too! Read the book, LADYBUG GIRL AND THE BUMBLEBEE BOY, the theme is “friendship and compromise.” 

In the story, Lulu and her dog Bingo meet up with Sam on the playground and want to play together. Sam likes the sandbox but Lulu thinks the monkey bars are better. They just can’t agree…until Lulu asks, “Have you ever played Ladybug Girl?” Quickly, Sam becomes the brave Bumblebee Boy, and he and Lulu, a.k.a Ladybug Girl, are superheroes who save the playground from scary monsters and mean robots. New friends want to join their game too, and soon the Bug Squad is formed with Ladybug Girl, Bumblebee Boy, Dragonfly Girl, and Butterfly Girl using their imaginations to keep the playground safe.

Gather walnut shells, paint, and brushes to make a Ladybug Tic Tac Toe game.

Paint walnut red to make a ladybug.

Paint walnut yellow to make a bumblebee.

Hop over to Teaching Mama to print a ladybug life cycle printable activity the kids can make at the party!

Ladybug life cycle printable available at TeachingMama.org

This is one of my all time favorite Sesame Street Videos: Ladybug Picnic.

Don't forget to leave a comment to enter to win Ladybug Girl items for your own party!


Recommended:

Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy*

Things to do with Walnuts

Paper Ladybug Tic Tac Toe Valentine

Frog Birthday Party Ideas 

Valentine's Day Skit for Kids: Hide and Seek Hearts

Hide and Seek Hearts is a Fun Play for Valentine's Day   

This Valentine's Day, get into the spirit of kindness with this fun play for Valentine's Day. This skit is perfect for elementary kids and can be adapted for preschoolers or junior high. All of our FREE play scripts include a companion craft. Hide and Seek Hearts is a fun activity that kids will love. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Skit for Kids: Hide and Seek Hearts.

Hide and Seek Hearts is a play for 8 participants. Get other children involved in creating the hearts and props needed to perform the skit.

This skit has a literacy focus. It teaches adjectives, action words, and encourages brainstorming for positive affirmations. Use it as a classroom companion project for language arts. Have the students come up with a kind, descriptive word for every class member and design a heart to share with them. Isn't that so much nicer than candy? We think so.

Free Printable PDF: Valentine's Day Skit for Kids

Recommended Reading:

Crafts for Valentine's Day Ideas

St. Patrick's Day Skit

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! :)

Valentine's Activities that Incorporate Sensory Play

Valentine's Day Activities that are perfect for the classroom

The Sugar Aunts are back with this fun classroom Valentine activity that includes sensory play. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day activities are so much fun!  This party activity is perfect for classroom parties or even a themed play date. We loved the sensory aspect of it and played for a long time!  

Incorporating sensory play into learning and play activities is a great way to explore textures, scents, and so much more.  The learning that comes from sensory play is vast!  For children, sensory play builds language, self-esteem,  and independence...all as they learn through the five senses.

Our classroom Valentine's Day activity does just that, with a little fine motor thrown in!

Sensory play activity for Valentine's Day.

We started with a bin of water and a half cup of pomegranate scented bath salts.  Any scent would do for this activity. We loved the pink color of these salts and the smell was divine!


Mix the bath salts in the water until all of the salt dissolves.  Depending on the amount of water you have, you may need more or less salt.  Add a little at a time until all of the salt is dissolved.

Next, I drew a heart shaped bulls eye on our chalkboard easel.  You could also do this activity on a white board.  I added some small numbers for keeping score. 

I added some hearts cut from foam sheets to the scented water and set out a pair of kitchen tongs.  This activity alone was enough to inspire sensory play and exploration!  It was fun to just play in the sweet smelling water and grab the hearts with the tongs.

Grabbing the hearts with the tongs required fine motor coordination (especially to use the tongs correctly and not with two hands!)  Little Guy, age 4, was able to do this, but tended to switch over to using two hands on the tongs.  What a great pre-scissor skill this was! 

Eye-hand coordination was needed to grab the hearts with the tongs as they swished around in the water.  As we did, we were enjoying the scent of pomegranate!

After they caught a heart in the tongs, they could apply them to the bulls-eye.  Little Guy closed his eyes and tried to get the heart into the middle.  Baby Girl (age 2) liked to just play around in the water and stick the hearts up on the chalk board.  This was a good age-appropriate modification for her!

We had so much fun with our scented water bin, that we kept it out for a good portion of the day and enjoyed more sensory play!

 

The Sugar Aunts are three sisters who blog about all things creative in motherhood.  They love playful learning, creative kid's crafts, sensory and fine motor activities, kid's party themes, DIY, and so much more.  Between the three Aunts, there are 6 cousins (with more on the way!) who are around each other so often, they are more like siblings than cousins! You can see the action at www.sugaraunts.com.


Recommended Reading:

Kids Creative Chaos Cooks: Kitchen Kids Series: Holiday Recipes*

Printable Clipart Hearts for Valentine's Day Cards











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! :)

February Holidays Calendar for Special Days to Plan Activities

February 2017 Holidays Special Days Calendar Helps Plan Winter Activities Curriculum

Our Pin it! Preschool Scavenger Hunt on Pinterest has ideas for crafts and activities to plan your 2017 February classroom or homeschool monthly curriculum calendar. Check out the special dates here and then hop over for fun ideas. Click here for January Holidays? Scroll down for free printable February calendar. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.*

February Holidays printable calendar.

February 2 isn't just Groundhog Day - nope, it is also Hedgehog Day - actually, the Hedgehog had it first! Groundhog Day History

February 7 is Bubble Gum Day. Chew some gum for a charity.

 February 12 is Charles Darwin's and Honest Abe's Birthday.

February 14 is of course, Valentine's Day! You should have a great time with your Classroom Valentine's Parties, but don't confuse the good time you have and call it ValentiMe's Day. 

 February 15 is Gumdrop Day. Goody Goody!

February 17 Washington's Birthday. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February 12.

February 20 is  President's Day and Toothfairy Day.

.

2017 Calendar Printable

Recommended Reading:

The Groundhog Day Book of Facts and Fun*

Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum*

The Night Before the Tooth Fairy*

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! :)