Valentine Craft for Kids: Strings of Hearts Chandelier

A learning Valentine craft for kids to this Valentine’s Day! String up some pretty [and easy!] hearts to your dining room chandelier and it’ll set the mood with every meal.

I cannot tell you all the levels of learning that Henry worked on when making this chandelier of hearts.

• Counting
• Patterning
• Cutting
• Threading
• Sequencing

Just to name the obvious ones!

I took a two pieces of 12×12 scrapbook paper [in Valentine's day colors]. I used a ruler and drew approximately 1 inch strips on the back [I just used the width of the ruler to make it easy].

Henry cut the strips from one paper, while I cut out the other. His were a little jagged, but that’s what makes it great! He did well following the line, and even went back to ‘touch it up’.

To make the paper hearts:

• Fold the 1 inch strip of paper in half [right sides out].
• Bring the end together [right sides together].
• Staple the ends together!
• Punch a hole at the top and bottom of the heart.
• Thread some yarn of a corresponding color through the holes.

That’s it! Repeat it until you get all your hearts made.

Henry did all the steps at least a couple times himself. The hole punch was a little tough for him to squeeze, so he needed a little help with that. And I, of course, did the stapling.

Next, thread the yarn through the holes. We started at the top of the hearts and went to the bottom.
When we threaded on enough hearts, I tied it off around the bottom of the heart. I then cut off the yarn and tied it to my chandelier.

Henry did 100% of the threading.

Henry did 100% of the counting of hearts.

Henry even did sequencing. He started with the string of five hearts. Next was 4 hearts. And so on. He figured out how many should be on the next string.

We did a string of 5 hearts, 4 hearts, 3, 2 and 1 heart.

Henry also did 100% of the patterning. Red heart, ‘snowflake’ heart, red heart, etc.

I can’t believe what a different a year makes.

Last year for Valentine’s Day, I tried a patterning activity, just to see if Henry knew about patterns. He wasn’t there yet. But this year, he did it completely on his own. I’m so proud of how much he’s been learning!

Henry is 3.5 years old.