Valentine’s Day Book – A String of Hearts + Paper Heart Chains
It’s time for another Read and Play blog hop – this time the theme is Valentine’s Day! All the participating bloggers have chosen a Valentine’s book to share along with a craft or activity inspired by it. We have chosen the book titled, A String of Hearts by Laura Malone Elliott. The craft we made based on this cute book are paper heart chains – string of hearts! We went a little crazy and made quite a few because they were so fun to make.
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links to the book mentioned in this post.
About the Book A String of Hearts
This is about a bear named Sam who wants to make the most popular girl in class the perfect Valentine. His best friend, Mary Ann, shows him how to make Valentines even though her ‘face fell’ when he said that he wanted to make a really good valentine for Tiffany (the popular girl). Together they make all different ones following the teacher’s instructions to write something special about each classmate.
The next day while in class, Sam found something in his pocket that Mary Ann secretly put there – a string of hearts! On each heart she had written something that she liked about him. He could think of a hundred things to write to Mary Ann so he ran home and made her a special Valentine.
How to make the Paper Heart Chains:
Cut construction paper or scrapbook paper into long strips by folding it in half or even thirds. Fold it accordian style. Next, draw a raindrop shape on the folded paper. You will want to keep a section of the curved part uncut so that it forms a heart chain when opened back up.
We made all different sizes and colors. I cut out the centers from several of the heart chains as well. To do this, just cut another raindrop shape out from the middle of the folded heart (so before opening it up).
Let the kids decorate them as they please. I couldn’t resist joining in on the fun too! We made different designs to hang up as a string of hearts Valentine’s decoration.
For cards, Big Brother made one for Grandma with designs and words written on it. For my son, I wrote sweet Valentine’s Day sayings around the hearts for him to unfold and read. I made one that said I ♥ U for my daughter since it’s easy enough for her to read.
My daughter (4 years old) turned hers into family members and different animals such as a dog and panda. She is so into cutting with a scissors and insisted on cutting all of her hearts apart from each other.
More Valentine’s Day Books + Crafts
Head on over see the whole list of Valentine’s Day Read & Play posts!