Friendship Wreath

Friendship Wreath 

Every holiday, whether it's a Hallmark one or not, deserves a wreath! This craft uses holiday photo cards and recycles them into a fun Valentine's Day tribute to friendship. You can also sneak in a color mixing lesson by making pink paint with red and white if you want. As you will see further down, when a 2 year old has decided he is done- there isn't much you can do. Roll with it!

1. Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate, a cereal box, some paint, glue, a marker, scissors, some ribbon, photos and a heart-shaped paper punch.

2. Draw some hearts on your cereal box.

3. Have children paint the hearts. Let dry.

4. While they are painting, cut out pictures of your friends using the paper punch. Older children can do this step themselves once they are done painting.

5. Cut out the center of the paper plate.

6. Cut out the hearts.

7. Try and try and try to get your child to step away from the sink to come and glue the hearts on, but understand that bubbles and water are second only to Dora the Explorer and accept defeat.

8. Glue the pictures in the center of the hearts.

9. Glue the hearts onto the paper plate-even if your child hasn't staged a mutiny this step is tricky so be prepared to help a lot.

10. I put my plastic place mat on my wreath for a few minutes to press it down, it did the trick!

11. Let dry.

12. Loop some ribbon around it and hang it up to cherish your friends this Valentine's Day!

Allison McDonald

has been teaching young children in various capacities since 1993. She started as a day camp leader in high school, taught various preschool programs at community centers through university, worked as a tutor while pursuing a second degree in elementary education, and most recently worked as a director and preschool teacher before becoming a full time mom. Now that she is at home she keeps one foot in education while sharing that side of her life with her son and the results have been amazing.