Here’s the final craft we’re putting together this Valentine’s Day, this time thinking of a few special friends. Even if it’s not Valentine’s, this is a great craft to ask your kids who their best friends are, and to talk about budding concepts of friendship and the emotions that go with it. Also, the idea of keeping half of something for yourself and giving the other half away was a bit novel for my preschooler, so I’m glad we did the activity!

First, we needed simply to have fun with clay! Travis has become quite adept at rolling clay between his hands to form a ball.

From here, I showed him how to flatten the balls into discs, and I asked him how we might cut out a heart shape. You can just use cookie cutters, but Travis is very into his chisel tool, so we chiseled. It helped if I made the outline of a heart for him to follow, first.

Next, chisel each heart in a zig-zag down the middle, so you have two halves for each one.

Punch a hole into each heart piece near the top with a chisel or straw, then let the clay air-dry overnight.

The next day, we decorated. First, Travis applied a coat of watercolor. He decided the jagged halves looked a bit like teeth, ha!

Then we painted on a layer of tacky glue so he could adhere beads and confetti pieces. Glitter would be pretty, too.

We had the perfect beads with letters on them that could be used for friends’ initials, a great find in the craft bin!

I cut strands of colored twine for necklace strings, and then our friendship hearts were ready to be shared with good buddies.