Description:
Make a Valentine's day gift for someone special.
Links to EYFS:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding of the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Activity:
As Valentine’s day approaches, we wanted to make a fantastic gift for the children to give to someone special in their lives. The children could choose whoever they wanted to give the gift to e.g. mummy, daddy, a best friend, a relative or a teacher etc. The gift will be a hand made pot made of clay, painted and decorated in the colours and fabrics of their choosing.
The children were presented with a homemade kit which contained some air drying clay to make their pot with, some paint and also a paintbrush. We explained that the gift would be for for someone special as Valentine's day is fast approaching. The pot from the kit needed to be made first and then painted. With the clay, the children made a ball by rolling it around in the palms of their hands and then used their fingers to press in the middle of the ball to make the borders. To make the flat bottom they pressed it onto the craft table. Then it was time to let the clay air dry. After they drying process they decorated their pots by painting them and then sticking on various things such as leaves, ribbons or colourful beads. They were encouraged to write their names on the bottom of their pots. They could also make a card for Valentine’s day to give along with the gift if they chose to do so.
This activity introduced the children to different festivities/celebrations as well as working on their fine motor skills through modelling the clay and painting their pots. We talked about colours and how we could change primary colours (red, yellow, blue) into secondary colours by combining the primary colours together. Writing their names and also writing their cards helped them to improve their writing and spelling skills and also helped them to practice how to hold a pen or pencil correctly.
Home Activity:
Make your own home made pot with your child out of paper mache:
Mix one part flour with one part of water (eg, 1 cup flour and 1 cup water, or 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water) until you get a thick glue-like consistency. Add a bit more water if it's too thick. Mix well with a spoon to get rid of all the lumps. Fashion a pot and leave to dry. Then paint or decorate it.