4Th Grade Valentine Party Ideas

My son loves when I do brain teasers with his class. I found a website that has lots of brainteasers. The kids were divided into groups (usually just how they are already seated at their desks). They answer as many as they can as a group. Group that answers the most gets to get their food first. http://kids.niehs.nih.gov.

One year with my class I purchased small flower pots and painted the kids hands red and then they pressed them on the pot upside down together(wrist up toward the top of the pot) to make a heart. We then had them cut out a red heart and list the top ten things they love about their parents, we encouraged them to be specific and creative not to copy each other. The kids loved it. In the spring we started flowers in little small plastic cups that they could take home and put into the pots from Valentines.

Well on Valentine's Day they usually want to open their cards and read them and eat the goodies. I have found that Valentine's Day parties go by really fast with just the cards.
You could make a red handprint like suggested and have a little poem something like From the tips of my fingers to the tips of my toes from the bottom of my heart to the tips of my nose. I love you
If you put the childrens' palms together you can make the hands look like a heart.
I just don't think you will have enough time.

Craft: Go to oriental trading and purchase a picture frame kit, cheap and cute and won't be thrown away. You can either take the picture of the children and send the frame home the next day or let the parents put a picture in.

How about a game like, how many words can you make out of the words Happy Valentines Day.: ten, lent, vent, pan, pen, net, nit, nail, sail, snail, ail, yes, nap, etc..... Then you can put a cap on the time, whoever finds the most words, obviously, wins.

The valentines craft that I still remember doing in school and my parents kept forever was a plaster cast handprint. Plaster of Paris is super cheap ($6 for 8 lbs) and molds can be made out of anything (like paper plates, pie tins, etc). The one I made as a kid was spray painted gold...but I don't remember being the one to do that. Maybe the teacher let them dry and then painted them before giving them back. Maybe my parents painted it after I got it home.

A fun game might be "pin the kiss on the cupid". You can buy a cheap cupid cut out at the dollar store or walmart and then cut out kisses from red construction paper. Blindfold the kids, spin them around and let them go :)

Check out amazingmoms.com for more party ideas...I love that site! Good luck!

Im sure local craft stores carry kits like these, but I'm not overly crafty ...

anyway, OrientalTrading.com has a bunch of crafts... even if you don't purchase there, maybe you can browse their craft section for ideas. A lot of the stuff is the dreaded foam, but they have wooden, cermamic, and plastic crafts too. www.orientaltrading.com

I like the plastic heart shaped keychains that the kids design themselves (4.99 per dozen)

and also the beaded keychains (7.59 per dozen)

They also have paint your own ceramic heart shaped flower pots (you buy the paint separately) for 6.97 per dozen

Paint your own heart mini windchimes (wooden with metal chimes) 9.99 per dozen

Do a Pop-Up card project.

I googled it & there are lots of sites to choose from. You could get a load of colored construction paper from a wholesale club & print some instructions from the internet & let the kids go to town!

Also, they could make mini books, I do this a lot for special things for friends. Check out this instructional video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1000304/make_a_book_16_page...

Make a template, like in the video, open the paper up to see where the pages are , show the kids, & they can color the pages with the paper open.

Use a little glue stick to hold it together. Glue a little cardboard cover on it if you feel like it.

Good luck! Hope this helps you!

P

The prettiest thing I ever got from any of my children was a valentine card made on red construction paper with a white heart shaped doily on top. I think they cut the doily into the shape of a heart. They had the children write a special message to their parents telling them how much they loved them. I still have it!

Why don't you feed them well, and while sitting at their desk, let them write a note to whoever they want, parent, grparent, friend. Kids by that age, aren't all in the same situation, and may not have a parent they want to write to, so leaving it open would be good. By the time you eat and write and they talk a little, the hr will be over. You could also try passing out some magazines or showing a video.

as a mommy i have to say i LOVE getting hand prints. its easy and you can see how much they have grown each year. if you use a sponge and dab the paint on the hands, have them stamp one hand on a piece of paper and put the other hand at an angle to make a heart shape. you can cut the papet to make it heart shaped or let them decorate it then stamp the hands on top of what they draw. put their name and date so they can look back at it

Hey K., My boys are a little older than your now. I very well remember the class party days. It was truly one of my favorite things to do. It seems to me that the Valentine one was usually one of the easiest. I think that the cards from their class mates stole the show. The food was easy. Crafts always revolved around cards or handprints. At a 4TH grade level they may not be into either of those so much. My boys were both anti-gushy by that time. I had hearts pre-cut from construction paper, in pink white and red. one set of three for each child, and each a different size. I gave each child their constuction paper hearts, a pencil and a small handful of conversation candy hearts. I told them to write on the paper, thoughts, like the ones on the candy, to be given to anyone that they would like. I had done one myself for illustration. I gave it to the teacher, after having each child sign their name to it. I layered my hearts one on top of the other, large to small. The kids each had their own glue sticks and pencils. I was only out the cost of the paper and a bag of conversation hearts. We played a brain teaser game. With love or topics related to valentines being the theme. We devided the classroom into two groups, and the winning group simply got to get their snacks first. Oh What Fun Days! If they were only that simple now. Have a great time! I almost forgot. Before I gave the teacher the pre-made one with the children's signatures, I punched a whole in the top, strung a small piece of pink ribbon through it. She hangs it on her classroom Christmas tree every year. The kids love to go visit her room at Christmas just to see their Valentine craft from 4TH grade.

I've always gone to www.orientaltrading.com to get crafts for a cheaper price; especially when it's more than just a few kids. A lot of their projects do include foam in them, but hey. I did like the Fleece Valentine Heart Tied Pillow. It comes already precut for the kids to tie together, stuff, and then finish tying. But there's tons of options out there. Another good site to save money on crafts is www.save-on-crafts.com