Valentine's Crafts for Elementary Students

One fun Valentine's Day craft for elementary students is to make a heart bloto. You will need paper, tempera paint, paintbrushes and containers for water. You will also need aprons and newspaper to keep things from getting to messy.

Simply take a piece of white typing paper and fold it in half. Paint half a heart on one side of the paper and then fold the paper the opposite way so that the paint blots onto the other half. Decorate the outside of the paper with a creative border or simply thumbprints using the paint to create additional hearts and/or flowers.

This heart blottos work well for almost any elementary aged child, the older they are, the more creative they will be with their designs.

Another fun Valentine's Day Craft for Elementary Students is a foam Valentine Bear Card Box.

You will need a bear pattern, heart patterns, glue, permanent markers, googly eyes, a cardboard box, and various colored craft foam. Simply decorate the bear using brown and tan craft foam and googly eyes. Attach the bear to the back of the box after you have wrapped the front of the box with red, tan or brown foam. Decorate the box with foam hearts and add a message such as "I love you beary much" or "Thank you beary much for the Valentines!"

This craft works well for elementary students in the primary grades. It will require them to bring their own box to school and will also set them up to make an attractive Valentine's Day Card mailbox.

Another fun craft to do with Elementary age children is to make pop up Valentine's Day cards.

You will need two pieces of different colored paper, as well as a few scraps of other colors. You will also need a photograph, markers or crayons, scissors, and glue. You will need to fold each piece of paper in half and cut one of the pieces of paper in half along the fold.

The two new pieces will then need to be folded in half again and cut out half hearts along the fold so that you have two small hearts and one large piece of folded paper. You will then take one of the hearts and cut out the middle so that the heart makes a frame. You will also need to trace the heart around the picture so that the hollow heart frame lays overtop of the heart shaped picture. Take the full heart and use it on the front of the card. The extra middle of the heart frame can also be used inside the card on the left side or on the back of the card. It could also be discarded.

To make the heart frame pop-up, use two narrow strips of paper about 8 inches long. Placing the two strips of paper perpendicular to one another and meeting at the end, fold them over one another to make an accordion type spring. Attach the spring to the right side of the middle of the card and attach the heart framed photo to the other end of the spring. Glue or tape can be used to attach the pieces together.

Your Valentine Photo will then pop out as the receiver opens the card. You may also decorate the pop-up cards with glitter or chalk to make extra special Valentine's Day cards that will certainly 'pop-up.'

Be sure to tell the children in advance that they will need to bring a small photo of themselves to make the card. If they want to make more than one card, let them know they will need two photos, etc.

3-D Heart-Mobiles are also very fun Valentine's Crafts those Elementary students will love. Teachers will also love to decorate the classroom with the Heart Mobile's.

Just take red, pink, white, purple and any other Valentine's Day patterned craft paper or gift wrap and use a pattern to cut out about 45 hearts per student. To keep things a little less messy, have the students start by cutting out 15 hearts.

The hearts will be grouped in threes.

Take one of the hearts and place it on the desk. Next, add glue to the surface of that heart. Then take the string and place it tightly down the center of the heart. Then take another heart and fold it in half. Place it on top of the glue, aligning the center lines of the hearts. Take a third heart and fold it in half and place it on the other side of the glue. Allow a few moments for the glue to dry, then fold the first heart in half so that the hearts are in a 3-D shape. Continue so that five hearts are on the string. Each student will end up with three strings of 3-D hearts.

The strings may then be suspended from a clothes hanger or a decorated paper plate. The plates can then be strung to a light from the center of the plate.