I want to organize a little Valentine's Day party for my son's playgroup. There would probably be about 8 kids and their Mom's. They are all around 2-3 years old.
I'm looking for inexpensive ideas to decorate and for food as well. I know I could do the balloon and streamer route but am hoping to be able to do as much as possible without overspending.
Any suggestions based on your past experience?

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Children Learn What They Live, And Live What They Learn.
What have you taught your child today?
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Forgot to mention that the party would start at 11:30, right after their playgroup so they would have already had a snack there. They will need something for lunch though.

__________________
Children Learn What They Live, And Live What They Learn.
What have you taught your child today?
When life throws you a curve ball...it's up to you how you catch it!

Forgot to mention that the party would start at 11:30, right after their playgroup so they would have already had a snack there. They will need something for lunch though.

__________________
Children Learn What They Live, And Live What They Learn.
What have you taught your child today?
When life throws you a curve ball...it's up to you how you catch it!

I'm doing something similar and haven't worked out all the details and my kids are a little older. I'm thinking about decorating a heart shaped cookie and another type of a craft. I'll let you know of anything else I come up with!

Decorating a paper bag for their Valentines and other goodies from the party.
Make a special card for their teacher or grandparent.
Make heart necklaces: construction paper, hole puncher & ribbons. Cut out hearts, punch hole, add ribbon.
Write sight words on hearts and tape them around the room or a few rooms. Have a hunt to find the hearts and read the sight words. (We do this regularly with sticky notes)


Here is a cute craft from BH&G:

Sweet Cards

When my girls were in preschool, they did a valentine exchange ( most just made their's) then at the party they decorated boxes and handed out their valentines and candy to each other to put in their boxes.

The boxes were just shoe boxes, we got a bunch from the walmart here that they were throwing away. Just wrap the box and lid in pink or red tissue paper and the kids did the rest.

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This is what we did for my dd's preschool class last year (the 3 year old class). Someone brought in plain heart shaped sugar cookies- the kids iced and decorated them (as part of one of their treats). The craft was making hearts out of chenille stems- they beaded them with the larger "pony beads" and you just twist it into a heart shape (fairly inexpensive and a good motor skill for them). We read a book (I forget the book) and played a few games- Valentine (like duck,duck, goose only will you, will you, be mine- the person running around is valentine!), pin the arrow on the heart and we did a Hershey Kiss hunt. For their "snack" which is also to be healthy- we did sandwhiches and used heart shaped cookie cutters, the cookie they made and jello jigglers cut out with a heart shaped cookie cutter!

As for decorating- you can get those heart doilies for reasonable and making a lot of different sized hearts from construction paper.

If you want to have the kids and their parents do a craft together- here is a cute one that we are going to do for the preschool class this year: We are making wax paper hearts to hang on windows (or wherever). We will have the kids cut out a heart shape from wax paper and trace that heart on another piece of wax paper so you will have 2 heart shapes- I will shave crayons before hand and the kids can "sprinkle" the crayons on the one sheet of paper. You will iron the wax paper (of course crayons shavings inbetween the wax paper) til it melts. When it cools- you punch 2 holes at the top and just use yarn to hang the heart.

BTW- this year we are going to be having the same snack- but in addition to the sandwich, cookie and jello- I will be making "arrows" out of fruit. I will cut out heart shapes on a watermellon, and cut orange slices (with peel on)- I figured one slice per arrow- on little section for the arrow and the larger section for the back of the arrow. I will secure them together with either scewers or toothpicks (have not done it yet so I don't know which will work better!).