Play doh Love Bugs

Last year I took this fun invitation to create into my older sons first grade class as a Valentines Day activity. It proved to be a huge hit and my younger son asked that we create some mini kits using similar items for his friends this year on Valentines day so I thought I would dig out some of the older pictures I took and share them here with you.

You will need:

Red play doh the recipe we used can be found here we replaced the lemonade powder for no sugar added red jello but powdered kool-aid packets also work well.

Accessories to decorate with, we went with red, pink and purple for Valentines Day. You can choose  which are age appropriate for your child, for example I might leave the small beads out of the under 3's invitation. Items to include:

• Straws
• Pipe cleaners (chenille sticks)
• Beads (small pony beads or larger wood beads)
• Goggly Eyes
• Foam hearts
• Buttons
• Jewels

At home I had it laid it all out in a help yourself invitation as photographed above. For the classroom I gave each child a paper plate to work on with their own lump of play doh and then put a selection of items in the middle of each table for them to help themselves.

For my younger son I'm going to bag up a small lump of play doh for each child and included a few of each item in the bag with the play doh. He included a little card reading 'Love Bugs'.

This is such a great invitation because you can just leave the kids to it and they have a blast. Some created multiple monsters, others just one. Some created then smooshed it all down and started again. At the end of the session I took a bunch of photos for prosperity and they each got to take their play doh and parts home in a small bag.

Here are a few of the creations,

6 legged love heart bug by Olive aged 6

Darth Maul love bug by Sam aged 7

Mr and Mrs Strawberry Bugs by Emma aged 6

Mrs Strawberry Bug, "you can tell its Mrs because she's wearing her jewels" by Emma aged 6

Mr Kiss Me Tickle Bug by Dylan aged 5

Pucker up!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of their creations and if you make your own love bugs give us a shout out or post a picture we'd love to see them. Hope its not too early for a Valentines idea!