Valentine's Day Party

Today was the big Valentine's Day Party at preschool and the kids and mom volunteers seemed to have a great time. I know I did. The little ones started out with being able to make their own sundaes, vanilla ice cream with a real fruit topping of their choice and the not to be forgotten whipped cream. The kids were excited about the ice cream but I think they would have liked anything besides goldfish. Goldfish are a great snack and they all seem to enjoy them but as a parent you know they are common.

Anyway after the preschoolers finished we moved on to the games and craft stations.

Station 1 - Craft: We painted the kids hands bright red so they could make a handprint heart on paper. Special note to parents - kids love paint and when you paint their hands with a brush they think it's "one of the coolest things ever."

Station 2 - Game: Place the sticker heart on cupid's heart - Valentine version of pin the tail on the donkey. The kids liked helping spin their classmate around three times.

Station 3 - Game: Move the tissue paper heart from the table to the bowl by using only a straw. After the kids got the hang of this, we would give them a minute to see how fast they could go and then they counted the hearts to see how many they had. (I can say this is the game I brought and while I thought it would fail because it wasn't fun enough - the kids really loved it and I was pleasantly shocked.)

Station 4 - Craft: Decorate the I love you sign language heart. No mess, no fuss and kids love stickers.

Valentine's Day School Party

I've been scouring Pinterest for great game ideas to have at the Preschool Valentine's Day Party and there are some really fun ideas but these are preschoolers and b-i-n-g-o is out! I really liked the idea of shooting Nerf darts at hearts or balloons and while I think the kids may have a blast doing this, I'm pretty sure the teachers and principal may not be so keen on this idea for obvious reasons.

I'm a homeroom mom so I'm in charge of finding the volunteers and asking the parents to bring in the snacks, ideas and crafts. I have to say out of the 15 kids in the class, 14 of the parents are absolutely involved and willing to help. Our class and I really lucked out, I know a lot of homeroom moms that aren't so fortunate.

For this party the menu needs to be vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, blueberries, bananas, light whipped cream and water. We aren't allowed to bring in syrups or sprinkles but they get ice cream!!! As for the valentines, well the kids aren't allowed to bring any type of food to distribute but I'm thinking that's becoming the 'normal' thing throughout many school parties which is just fine with me and my little guy. He likes the pencils, books, crayons and stuff much more than the snacks.

Anyway the harder part of the party instructions ... the craft and the two games. The craft I think is much easier - kids love to paint, play with play dough and make things with stickers but as far as the games, I'm stuck in a rut. I want to have something fun, make them move and not be too difficult to learn in a short amount of time. I'm open to suggestions and help is appreciated. Thanks!