Moonbeams in a jar

We've just had some lovely news from school; Buddy and Daisy have each been made class Star of the Week. I am so proud of them, and they have been on sparkling, star-like form ever since - rightly pleased with themselves. The news put us in mind of one of our favourite songs Swinging on a Star. We talked about the lyrics and how we especially love the line 'carry moonbeams home in a jar'. The children, rather practically, said they would like to work out exactly how to collect the moon's silvery glow and keep it. And I tried to explain, too metaphorically probably, how I want them to have all the glowing moonbeams they can comfortably carry, always...

In order to satisfy their want for the moon and my desire to reward them for being Stars of the Week I came up with the idea of a little prize; their very own jar of moonbeams. Here's how to make one:

1. Take a clean, empty glass jar (label removed) and apply a generous coat of PVA glue (thinned with a splash of water)

2. Cover the jar with small pieces of silver and white tissue paper just as you like

3. Apply one further coat of PVA glue to give a glossy hard-wearing finish

3. Add a few silver stars or sequins for a bit of daylight sparkle

4. Coat the jar's lid with PVA glue then cover it with kitchen foil

5. When the whole thing is dry, pop in a bicycle (white) light and screw on the lid

Now, how to get them swinging on a star?

One year on...

As it was Valentine's Day yesterday we played our game of hunt for hearts and made sweetheart art with our findings. It was very interesting to see how, one year on, my children's treasure hunt tactics and arty endeavours have developed.

Once all the hearts had been collected they counted and sorted them enthusiastically. Buddy casually scattered his hearts on the card (as pictured above) to make sure every single one could be seen and therefore counted. And this year he even applied glue to each one - all 21 of them. Daisy on the other hand, went for a more extreme interpretation of the rules this year; piling the hearts on top of one another (pictured below) so that they could still - according to her - definitely be seen.

I love them both!

They each received some mini baked pretzels and a ribbon as a prize. We used these to make some edible heart necklaces which vanished during the next 20 minutes during an extensive (and crunchy) game of hide-and-seek.

Happy heart art

Here's a lovely Valentine's themed activity for younger children. It starts with a high energy party game - a twist on the classic treasure hunt, and ends with lots of making and sticking to win prizes.

Treasure hunt for hearts

A little bit of preparation is needed before starting the game.

You will need to:

1) Collect scraps of decorative paper to make the hearts for the hunt - I stuck to a theme of gold and red, as pictured above. Include newspaper and wrapping paper if you like.

2) To make lots of different sized hearts quickly, cut the paper into squares of various sizes; you'll need at least 30. Put a few similarly sized squares together and fold in half. Then draw half a heart on one side - the centre of the heart towards the fold. Cut along the drawn heart outline and then separate the satisfyingly symmetrical heart shapes.

3) Now hide - well, put - the hearts all around your home (use sticky tac if you want them on vertical surfaces).

How to play:

1)Provide everyone with a basket or box and send them off to find and collect the hearts.

2) When all the hearts have been found, provide each player with a large piece of card. This could be covered in foil or plain wrapping paper, whatever you have to hand to make an attractive background.

Create heart art:

3) Now to count up those hearts. To do this, get them to stick their collected hearts over their background card. We used a glue stick rather than gloopy PVA to avoid too much mess.

4) They can do this just how they like, but the hearts should be arranged so that every heart can be seen and so counted. If they put a heart on top of another that's OK but it should be a smaller heart so both can be seen.

5) Lots of prizes can be given; for the most hearts collected, for finding a shiny heart, or a patterned heart etc.

We played this last year and my children - three and four at the time - really loved it. I knew they'd like the treasure hunt part, but it was great to see them so enthusiastic about selecting, comparing, counting and arranging their hearts before sticking them to the card.

We'll be playing it again tomorrow of course. Happy Valentine's Day.