Cupids Arrows Game

Valentines Day is as good as any to sneak a bit of maths in to your child's day. This time, it comes in the form of a game that involves Cupids arrows. The game was really simple to make and we had lots of fun playing at the park with a friend. 

Who can play?
Children aged 3 years and above. All activities depend on your child's age and stage of development.

Safety:
Talk to your child about aiming the arrow towards the floor rather than heads/eyes as this could cause an injury

What do you need?

• Straws
• Card/Foam
• Scissors
• Cello tape
• Chalk

What do you need to do?
Fist we need to make the arrows. They are really simple to do. Firstly you need to make a small slit in the end of the straw. Next, cut out a feather shape from either a piece of card or foam and slot it through the slit you made in the straw.

Finally add an arrow head to the tip of the straw. For this Just cut out a heart from a piece of card (making sure that the point is slightly curved so it will not poke anyone) Next, cello tape it to the other end of the straw. We made four arrows for our game.          

How to play the Cupids Arrow game:

To set up the game, we drew a heart on the ground with a piece of chalk.

Taking it in turns we threw our arrows into the heart (be aware of the way the wind is blowing... We had to draw another heart, going in a different direction as our arrows were getting blown the other way in the wind and the children were getting frustrated) 

Bee and her friend loves throwing the arrows and showed pride and excitement when they got one in the heart.

Once all the arrows were thrown, we counted how many went inside the heart and how many were outside.

To record our findings we made a tally on the floor with chalk. The children recorded how many arrows went into the heart by making lines on the tally. At the end of the game, the children can count how many arrows went into the target, compare who got the most in and least.

This helped us with understanding number bonds to 4 , encouraged mark making skills and promoted knowledge of how to recording information.  

We had so much fun and have a feeling that this game will be played well after Valentines Day.

Learning outcomes:
Communication and Language- Listening to instructions. Talking about what has happened
Literacy- Recording information with chalk. Developing their writing skills.
Mathematics- Developing an awareness of numbers, addition and tally making.
Art and Design- Creating our own game
Personal, Social and Emotional- Cooperation and turn taking. Fun and enjoyment. Pride when they manage to get an arrow in the hula hoop.
Knowledge and Understanding- Learning about Valentines day traditions. Talk about how arrows were used for fishing and hunting.
Physical- Large manipulative skills when aiming and throwing the arrow. Hand eye coordination.

What could be done next?

• Substitute the heart with a hula hoop or a bucket for younger children, who have difficulty with their aiming and throwing skills.
•  Draw a heart inside a heart and mark it with a number two. Taking the counting and adding one step further.
• For children who are confident with numbers ask them to write the numbers instead of lines to represent each arrow. 
• If your child does not enjoy the number side of this game. Just have fun throwing the arrow at the target and introduce it another time.

'You blow me away' Valentines gifts

Today I received a letter from Bee's preschool asking her to bring in 16 Valentines cards/gifts for her friends. My first thought was "Oh no... do we have the time and what are we going to do?" After a quick rummage in the garage, I came across some bubbles, that were left over from Bee's birthday party... just enough for her school friends. We then set about transforming them into a cute Valentines offering.

Who can play?
Children aged 2 years and up will love sticking the love hearts on the bottle and mark making/writing their name on the card. Supervision is needed at all times.

Safety
When younger children are handling the bottle of bubbles, ensure that they do not drink the liquid. Please see warning sign on the bubble bottles.

What do you need?

• Small bottles of bubble solution. (I picked mine up from the dollar/pound store)
• Love heart stickers
• Card
• Hole punch
• Split pins
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Pens

What did we do?

The first thing we had to do was decorate our bottles. For this we chose love heart stickers. Bee showed precision and concentration when placing them onto the sides of the bottle.

We then cut out two love hearts out of card. On the first love heart I wrote the words:

You blow me away!      

On the second heart Bee wrote her name. Depending on your child's age and stage of development they could write their friends name too.
The final thing was to use the hole puncher to create a hole in the top left corner of each heart. A piece of ribbon was then threaded through both hearts to attach it to the bubble bottle... and voila... a cute and home made Valentines gift.

Development outcomes:
Communication and Language- Following instructions
Literacy- Making marks for a reason, practicing writing their name and their friends names. Writing recognizable letters.
Mathematics- Talking about the heart shape. How may sides does it have. Does it have curved lines?
Design and Art- Creating their own gift. Using tools for a purpose.
Knowledge and Understanding- Learning about Valentines Day, what the festival stands for and what it entails.
Personal, Social and Emotional- Making gifts for their friends. Fun and enjoyment. Pride from finished product and working as a team. Cooperation.
Physical Development- Hand eye coordination and fine manipulative skills. Developing threading and cutting skills.

What could be done next?

• Wrap a note around a pencil and write "you are just 'write' for me!" You could also attach a small note pad.
• Make a flower out of some tissue paper and a straw. You could even perfume the flower with some essential oils.

Valentines bath fun

To celebrate Valentines Day I decided it would be fun to make Bee an 'I Love You' bath.

What you need

Bath and water (to the safe desired temperature)

Bath foam

Glow sticks

Sponge letters

False flowers or rose petals if feeling extravagant 

Bowls to put items in

Bottle and a wooden spoon in case she wanted to make a 'love potion'

Battery operated candles (kept out of the water)

Towel and bath mats

Pink shaving cream

Valentines Day is almost upon us (14th February) So Bee and I are getting into the mood. I know she loves getting messy and sensory play, so I thought she might like to explore shaving foam with a touch of red paint, to get us into the Valentines spirit. This is a perfect opportunity for not only learning about textures, but also communication, language and literacy, by building on her fine manipulative and pre-writing skills.

   

Who can play?

Children aged three years, however I used to do this activity with my daughter when she was two, it all depends on their age and stage of development.

What do I need?

Shaving foam (sensitive) 

Washing up liquid

Water

Brushes

Sponge

Are that you do not mind covering in paint and shaving foam

Two bowls one filled with water and washing up liquid and the other for the shaving foam

Apron to protect clothing for you and the child.

Towel just in case the child does not like the experience or if it goes in their eyes

Hearts and kisses (noughts and crosses/tic-tac-toe, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on)

Whilst celebrating Valentines Day, why not give a simple game a loving twist. Instead of noughts and crosses, we transformed some stones into hearts and kisses.

Who can play?

Children aged three and up. However younger children may enjoy exploring with the stones, twigs and making patterns. 

Safety

Always use non toxic, waterproof paint.

Be careful that little fingers do not get hit or caught in between the stones. 

What do we need?

• Stones x 10
• Long Twigs x 4
• Red and white paint
• Silver glitter
• Two Paintbrushes
• Two paint pots
• Aprons to protect clothes
• Area where the activity can be carried out 

What did we do?

Our first job was to paint hearts and kisses on the stones. We painted 5 with heart shapes and 5 with crosses. Isabella helped paint the kisses and apply glitter to them.

Once the stones had dried I arranged the twigs in a grid and placed the heart stones in one bowl and the kisses in the other and placed them on out path outside.

As soon as Bee saw the activity she showed an interest and said "do you want to play?"

She placed all the heart stones, from her bowl into the grid and said "you can put your crosses on now" making up her own game. She would also use lots of mathematical language such as "I am putting mine in the middle... At the top"etc.

After a few times of playing her game, I explained the rules of noughts and crosses (the aim is to get three of the same symbols in a row, either going horizontally, vertically or diagonally) 

Isabella tried her best, but needed a little guidance with the concept of the game.

Her little face did light up when she won a few rounds.

She also thought it was funny that if you went last you had a stone remaining in your tub, developing mathematical concepts.

At the end of the activity Bee enjoyed arranging the twigs into a grid pattern

Like most of her play it ended up being imaginative, as she pretended one stones was a mummy and the others were babies, going to bed in their spaces on the grid.

The day after this activity, Isabella played with the hearts and kisses set outside on her own. She enjoyed lining up the stones and twigs and making up her own patterns.

What did we learn?

Knowledge and understanding of the world- Learning and playing with natural objects in the outdoor environment.

Creative- Designing patterns with the decorated stones and twigs.

Physical- Fine manipulative when picking up and placing stones in the grid

Mathematical- spacial awareness when placing twigs and stones on the ground and learning about positioning e.g, up, down, left and right. Developing knowledge of shapes.Make sequences and patterns

Communication, language and literacy- following instructions and talking through what she was doing and what she wanted to do.

Personal, social and emotional- making up her own game and joining in with others. Lots of pride and self esteem when she won a few games.

What could our next steps be?

To make this set last, you could varnish them and keep them in an outdoor games box. If you have chalks you could encouraging your child to use it to draw a grid, noughts and crosses.

flowers and leaves could also be used instead of the stones, or letters/numbers that your child is learning.