Homemade Valentine's Cards: Potato Print Hearts

Materials:

• pink, purple and red paint
• large potato
• potato peeler
• knife
• cutting board
• heart cookie cutter
• black marker
• large plain paper for painting
• paper plates
• glue stick

Instructions:

1. Peel a large potato. Then, cut at least 3 slices that are about 1 inch thick. (Whether you want to cut across the width, or lengthwise across the potato depends on the size of your cookie cutter, but cutting along the width should make it big enough for most cookie cutters.)
2. Lay each potato slice flat, and cut a heart shape out of each, using your cookie cutter.
3. Pour some purple paint onto a paper plate. Spread it around on the plate so that it is thin enough that the potato won't be dripping paint when you dip it in. Do the same with the pink and red paints, giving each their separate paper plate. Place a potato heart on each plate.
4. Let the child stamp the different colours of paint onto the large white paper. When he/she is finished, let the paper dry.
5. Once dry, fold the paper in half. The painted part should be on the outside, while the plain back of the paper should be on the inside. Glue it together on the inside, so that now, only the painted part is visible. 
6. Fold it in half again to make a card.
7. Have the child write what he/she wants to on the card. If the child is too young (as the kids at the daycare are), ask them where they want to write things like "To ____", "From ____" and "Happy Valentine's Day". Then, ask them what they would like to say to the person for whom the card is intended. 

I prompted the kids to find something to say by starting their sentence off for them. For instance, I would say, "Daddy, I love you because..." or "My favourite thing to do with you is...." Aidas was the first one I wrote for. He said, "Nana...I love you so much because....you let me play with your jet engine toys." (I'm as confused as you are, but it still makes for a cute, funny, and most importantly, personal card!) His message to his mother was even better: "I love you so much because you take me to IKEA". See? Kids this age really know how to enjoy the simpler things in life. 

And Noah really showed his love for his daddy when he had me write in his "I love you like chocolate." That's saying a lot!