Valentine’s Day Craft: Conversation Heart Shooters

Activity for ages 4 and up.

One rainy day last week, my boys were getting antsy from being cooped up indoors. Needing a quick distraction, we started whipping together these simple paper cup shooters. We opened a box of conversation hearts we had lying around and viola! Our Valentine’s Day craft was ready for play. Swap out the conversation hearts for pom poms or marshmallows and this awesome Valentine’s Day craft turns into a play anytime craft. Gotta’ love that!

Getting Ready

To make our shooters, I grabbed a pair of scissors, a balloon and a paper cup {an empty toilet paper roll works too}. I tied one end of the balloon in a knot and then cut off the top with scissors.

Then I used our utility knife to carefully cut out the bottom of the cup. {This step is definitely a grown up job.}

With the grown-up only work complete, the boys helped me stretch the cut end of the balloon over the bottom of the cup. Then we dropped a couple conversation hearts into the shooter so it was ready to launch.

Rules

Ideally, we would have been launching our hearts outdoors but, since we were stuck inside, it was especially important that we go over a few rules:

• Aim away from people and animals.
• Aim away from breakable objects {the tv, windows, lamps, etc.}
• Announce that you’re going to launch before you do it so that other people can stand clear.

Conversation Heart Shooters

Promising to abide by all of the rules, the boys eagerly grabbed their Valentine’s Day craft, pulled back on their balloon and watched the hearts fly. I have to admit, it was pretty exciting for me too!!

More Ways to Play

Ready to take your Valentine’s Day craft to the next level?

• Spread out a few plastic containers and tried launching the conversation hearts inside.
• Use a measuring tape to see how far you can shoot the hearts.
• Stack empty soda cans and try knocking them down with hearts.
• Make a graph of your launches. What was the longest? The shortest?

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Malia Hollowell

Founder at Playdough to Plato

Malia is a National Board Certified teacher who inspires educators with playful approaches to early childhood education. She earned her Master’s from Stanford University and has taught in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Malia shares her motivating learning activities on her two popular teaching blogs Playdough to Plato and The STEM Laboratory.

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