Valentine's Hug Cards

Last week play group at the Library was on National Hug Day. We read "Hug" by Jez Alborough. In honor of this day and the upcoming love holiday, we created Valentine's Hug cards courtesy of Joyfully Thriving.

Together, parents and children created a personalized Valentine for someone in their child's life.

You will need:
thick white paper
red paint
paint brushes (we used small foam brushes)
hole punch
scissors
yarn or string
colored paper for the card

We printed cards with the sentiment:

We cut and glued the poems on a slightly larger piece of construction paper. We used various colors of paper: red, purple and pink.
We also have a nice border craft punch so we dressed up the edges and glued onto the colored paper.

Apply paint on one hand at a time and press onto a heavy white piece of paper. A four year old was able to paint her hand while the 2 and 3 years old children needed some help.
Be sure to have a wet cloth and/or sink ready. 

Repeat with the other hand.

While the paint is drying. Read the poem and have your child stretch their arms out when you say, "I love you this much!"

Cut the yarn or string the distance from their wrist to wrist. We offered pink, purple, red and white yarn.

Cut out hand prints when dry. Hole punch the card and both hand prints near the heel of the hand and tie onto the string.

If your child shies away from painting their hand, trace their hand with a red pencil or pen and have them paint or color the inside.

Happy Valentine's Day!