After narrowing down to two crafts and finding a book that was just right for my theme, it was time to prep and put on the program. The prep for this wasn't that bad. I did have to trace hedgehogs and cut out a bunch of hearts, but it could have been done easier if I had a smaller heart die-cut and trimmed my construction paper so it fit into the copier to make my hedgehog templates.
Today's Preschool Picasso made up for last night's storytime turnout. No snow today and everyone came out for a Preschool Picasso kind of day!
We talked about Valentine's Day and read the perfect book for a hedgehog and hearts kind of theme. Happy Valentine's Day, Gus! by Jacklyn Williams is an easy reader about a hedgehog named Gus who desperately wants to make his mom a Valentine's Day gift, but just can't seem to get it right. Despite this story being a little wordy (I knew I had an older group who could handle it) and it being a smaller book with little illustrations, I still think this was a very fun story that tied-in beautifully with the crafts, especially when you read the ending!
Once we were done reading about Gus, it was time to make our own Gus...a Valentine's Day hedgehog made out of painted hearts. Each child had some cutout hearts that could be painted red or pink and could be glued to their hedgehog to make "spikes." Once the hearts dry, they do spike out for a nice effect. The kids liked painting their hearts, we used thinner paint brushes, and completed their hedgehog with a red pom pom nose and a pink craft eye. These turned out so unique and cute!
Our other craft was making a Valentine just like Gus did for his mom. I cut card stock in half and used a heart die-cut to make a heart shape in the middle of the paper. Different colored ribbon was glued onto the solid card stock and then the heart shaped cut-out was glued on top to make a ribbon heart.
Both crafts were a hit and the kids enjoyed picking out different colored ribbon to make their own special hearts.
Other books that could have complimented this theme were Hedgehog: A Sharp Lesson in Love by Benn Sutton, Panda's Valentine's Day by Tara Morrow, and My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. Panda's Valentine's Day mentions using ribbon for a Valentine's Day craft and My Heart is Like a Zoo uses heart shapes as illustrations for the animals in the story.
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