“As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” February activities for kids is made slightly easier this month with lots to theme around with Valentine’s day, Pancake day, Chinese New Year and the squeezing out the last few Winter activities. We enjoy theming our February activities for kids around Valentine’s day even though some consider it to be more of an occasion for adults. I find it a great chance to encourage learning and play about kindness, sharing and love. You will see there are plenty of heart themed play and activities in this months edition.
Rainbow Heart Suncatchers
I wasn’t too sure if these would actually work but I was pleasantly surprised that they did!
All you need is:
- Variety of tissue paper
- Plastic sheet such as a polly pocket or laminating sheet
- Glue – Either mod pledge or pva school glue
- Scissors and pen
Take your plastic sheet and cover in glue on one side only. Take small cut up pieces of tissue paper and let your child lose sticking the paper to the plastic backing. Leave to dry for around half an hour and apply a coating of glue on top of the tissue paper. Leave to dry ideally overnight.
Once dry you can draw heart shapes all over the sheet with your pen and then cut around the outline. Then carefully peel the glue heart away from the plastic leaving a delicate, pretty heart to hang from the window.
Hang up on a window and enjoy the sunlight shining through on a sunny Winters day. Perfect decor for Valentine’s Day or anyway to help keep you smiling!
Easy Potato Stamping
I was thinking of a easy thank you card for the kids to send out for their Christmas gifts and this activity came to mind. I thought we could combine some star shaped ones and then we moved on to some hearts ready for Valentine’s Day cards for family. This year more than ever it’s nice to send relatives some cheerful post!
I wanted this activity to be mess free as we were busy homeschooling.
You will need
- Potato
- Knife
- Cookie Cutter
- Paint Sticks
Valentine’s chocolates Playdough
This craft was Inspired by a kind message from a friendly follower on social media. Knowing how much we enjoy play dough play in our home this activity was perfect for us and also grabbed the attention of our tween as well as the younger ones.
All you need is
- Play Dough
- Chocolate Box
- Fun decorations such as buttons, shells, stones and gems
Fortunately we had a leftover chocolate box from Christmas that we used to fill with pink Playdough, topped with accessories that we had on hand in our Playdough box. Our tween Daisy even decorated the chocolate box for her little sister Florence. This is great for honing those fine motor skills and being creative! Just make sure they don’t attempt to actually eat the chocolates!
Heart Pancake Kebabs
This year 2021 we have pancake day and Valentine’s Day within 2 days of each other, so I had to think of an activity to combine the both! At this tie of the year I find lots of kitchen play activities really help on the dreary weather days where you all want to hibernate and slow down together.
You can either make your own pancakes. We find our American style pancake recipe works best or alternatively buy soy ready made American style pancakes from the store. If you’re reading this after 2021 then you could cut out different shaped pancakes or just enjoy some heart shaped ones anyway!
You will need
- Heart shaped cookie cutter
- Pancakes
- Fruit – tangerines, strawberries and blueberries
- Kebab sticks
Cut some heart shapes out of your pancakes. Simply thread 2 segment of oranges onto the kebab stick, followed by a smallish strawberry cut in half , 4 blueberries and then your pancake. We also enjoyed using up our leftover pancake scraps with some Nutella dipping sauce (simply melt a couple of tablespoons in the microwave for 10 seconds) to use as a dip.
Pink Wafers / Wands
Mine have really enjoyed icing biscuits or dipping breadsticks into chocolate recently, Our tween usually sets up this activity for the younger ones to do under her supervision.
Simple make up some thick icing with icing sugar, water and pink food colouring and dip your biscuits into the icing and then the sprinkles. Alternatively melt white chocolate with some food colouring in and dip it into the chocolate and sprinkles. You could also do this activity using breadsticks for pink sprinkle wands.
Chinese Lanterns
My littles have really enjoyed watching some Cbeebies Chiese New Year programmes, reading some story books and making some lanterns ready for a Chinese meal on Chinese New Year. We also picked up some fab kids chopsticks which will double up as fine motor resources! These simple lanterns were great fun to make and decorate and again we used paint sticks as they dry so quickly.
All you need is:
Cardboard toilet roll
Paint sticks
Scissors
Card
Eco glitter and glue
Let your little decorate a toilet roll with paint sticks. Then an adult needs to cut some slits into the roll and then bend it to achieve the lantern look. Let your little paint see glue in the lanterns and handle and decorate with glitter. These will be on the table on Chinese New Year.
For older children
Decorate a jar for a tea light lantern
All you need is
Jar
Mod Pledge
Tissue Paper
Eco glitter
Simply paint a jar with mod pledge add some tissue paper and then leave to dry for a little while and then seal with another layer of mod plodge. Sprinkle some glitter on and then the glue will dry transparent.
Outdoor Measuring
My kids are really enjoying all the puddles and ice around at the moment. They Loe breaking the ice up and splashing around. Why not get sticks and let them measure how deep some of the puddles are. They can use the tick to also bash the ice. You could even put measurements on a long stick and take it out to record the depth. You can see that even umbrellas have been used!
I have only included this outdoor activity this month, if you missed least months then you will find a bird feeder activity and an ice lantern activity that is still perfectly in season for February!
Threading and Fine Motor Skills Activities
The first threading activity is mess free and encourages fine motor skills and independent play and concentration.
All you need is
- Leftover cardboard packaging
- Shoelace
- hole punch and scissors
I cut out some heart shapes and run a hole punch around the shape. I started her off with threading the first hole with the lace and tying a knot and then left her to practice her threading.
Pasta Necklaces
The old school activities are often the best! This activity can be extended by your child painting and decorating some penne pasta shapes. This one is a bit messier and requires a bit more adult help and supervision!
All you need is
- Paint and eco glitter
- Penne Pasta
- Needle and wool
Paint the pasta shapes in a tray or Tupperware box and add some eco glitter onto the pasta.
Thread the wool through the pasta shapes to make a necklace.
Pom Pom sorting
We did this activity a while ago now and we will be doing it again closer to Chinese New Year using the chopsticks we bought. In this activity our toddler was using stacking cups to match the correct coloured pom pom to the cup.
Resources for the month
We have found some fab resources for celebrating this month. We have made a seasonal shelf area and are enjoying reading lots of books. Here are some resources that we love.
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