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We have been working on a simple Valentine’s Day parent gift this week and have it pretty much all wrapped up and ready to go…
I just love puzzles and when I found these large 12 piece puzzles over at United Arts and Education, I decided to pick up a set and hold on to them until I could decide what to do with them…
I gave each child their own puzzle and set out lots of different colors of paint…
Before going to the table, I showed the children how they could use the paint to color each piece of their puzzle a different color. Then I invited the children to the table to give this painting process a try…
The children shared the paint colors with each other. I always enjoy hearing, “Can you pass me the blue paint please?”…
The children continued painting each puzzle piece until all of the pieces were a different color…
This may look like it was an easy process, but it took the children quite some time and effort to get all twelve pieces of their puzzle painted with different colors…
Once all the puzzle pieces were completed, we set the puzzles aside to dry overnight…
The next day, we printed our names on the front of our puzzles with permanent markers….
Then some of the children chose to turn the puzzle over to draw a picture on the back too…
Once all the drawings were finished, the children took their puzzles apart (for the first time) and then placed the pieces in a clear plastic bag…
And finally, the children added a paper heart that said, “I Love You To Pieces” in the bag and added a length of ribbon to tie the bag closed…
And there you have it! Our parent Valentine Gift! But wait….. There’s more!
Give Away
In honor of the heart project…
Click the heart project button above to learn more about how you can get this beautiful collection of heart activities!
I am giving away 10 Twelve-piece craft puzzles just like the ones we used for our Valentine gift. Of course, you can use the twelve-piece craft puzzles for any kind of activity and any time of the year!
To enter this giveaway….
- Leave a comment for me below stating what you might do or make with the craft puzzles.
- Enter a correct and current email address when you leave your comment so that I can notify you if you win.
And that’s all but if you would like another chance to win the puzzles you can….
- “Like” Teach Preschool on Facebook then come back here and leave a 2nd comment telling me that you “Liked” the Facebook page.
- “Follow” Teach Preschool on Pinterest then come back here and leave a 3rd comment telling me that you are now a follower on Pinterest.
Giveaway details…
- This giveaway will be closed on February 13th, 2012 by 10pm EST.
- The winner will be announced on my blog on February 14th, 2012.
- The winner of the giveaway will be notified by email and has 5 days to respond to my email.
- If the winner does not respond 5 days, a new winner will be chosen…
- Winner will be chosen by Random Generator.
ENTRIES FOR THIS GIVEAWAY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY EMAIL or COMMENTS ON FACEBOOK! YOU MUST COME TO THE BLOG TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENT! THANKS!
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Love this! Great idea. The possibilities are endless….mother’s day, father’s day, christmas…..a puzzle for every occasion. Personalize it even more by adding the child’s hand and/or footprints!
I believe that I would have my kids paint the pieces and decorate them with glitter and stickers. I feel that it would be neat for them to make their own unique puzzles that they can eventually pass down to their children one day.
I would make this Valentine’s Day parent gift with my daycare children, just the way you did. We would also place Valentine’s foam stickers to give it some more texture. Thanks for the opportunity!
I love your idea and I would be tempted to do the same but an idea flashed through my brain to use them for reading. We are learning to read and I just thought of using my Dr. Seuss stickers and writing the letters such as cat, hat, bat, mat, sat, and words from Go Dog Go, Green Eggs and Ham, and One Fish Two Fish, Hop on Pop etc…Oh the places i could go and the thinks i could think using those puzzles….
I think this is a great idea. If I won, I’d use your idea of having the kids color each piece a different color. That is so cute!
I would love to have my four yr old make gifts with them
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What a cute idea! I’d love to have my students make Mather’s Day cards with these puzzles!
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Love this idea for grandparents…and her Aunt…she’ll love it!
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Love these. We would make puzzles with lots of different types of volcanoes on them!!
I already “like” Teach preschool on Facebook.
I already follow Teach Preschool on pinterest!
I teach preschoolers and homeschoolers in my home and would let each of the kids decorate their own to take home. They would love this!!
Wow! What a cool idea! I really love your creative ideas and willingness to share them with others.
I could use these puzzles for sight word practice/numbers/letters. Oh the possibilities.
I am a follower on pinterest
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if i won i would do lots of colourfull hand prints on them with a note saying ” Hand made with lots of love”, but i might just try doing it on plain card and get my more able children to cut it up into big bits and make their own jigsaw puzzle.
I love your ideas bc they are developmentally appropriate, yet open-ended enough to be age respectful for even my oldest student iny K-6 special education classroom.
I only have twelve children in my class. I would place children’s photos on each piece and give each child a puzzle piece to decorate with markers. We would then have a class puzzle to promote friendship.
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And I follow all of your boards on Pinterest.
I love this idea for a Valentine’s Day gift. If I had these puzzles, I think I might have the children draw a self-portrait on them for a Mother’s Day gift.
Sure wish I had some of those puzzles today! We would start right away and be ready in time for Valentine’s Day. I’ll certainly have some on hand next year!!!
I have ” liked” your wonderful teach preschool on FB for a whole now. Such a happy place to start the morning!
I Am now a loyal pinterest follower.
handprints or fingerprints in various shapes
These puzzle Valentines are so cute! (enter me in the contest, please)
I love your site! I look forward to your creative ideas every day. I wish this was around while I was teaching school. Keep it up!
I would use some to make “I love you to pieces” gifts like you do, and also use faith dot art to create pictures on the puzzle….let them dry and have kids put their own creations together! Also follow you on Facebook and Pinterest!
Great idea. could use this for many holidays.
If I won this neat little puzzles I would use them with my preschoolers for our name box activity time!
i love and have used many of your ideas with my preschool class since i started following you first on facebook and just recently on pinterest. would love the opportunity to win the puzzles to use with my preschool kiddos. i spend so much of my own money in the classroom that it always nice to win a few things to supplement and give my pocketbook a break. glad my husband makes enough to support us because my pay is not much and dwindles even more when i am always purchasing for the class. it is to early to come up with diferent idea and i really like yours so i would probably do something similar and give it out on mothers day. maybe add their handprint to it at the end
I would love to make puzzles with my son for all of his cousins.
These would be nice for fathers day. Cute
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What a clever idea! I just love the thought of the kids making a puzzle for their families. I would love to have a set for Father’s Day. Always, great ideas here.
I love it. I would make my 3 and 5 year olds draw their portraits and then frame them.
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I liked Teach Preschool on my FB!
I would use them to make puzzles for the grandparents to have.
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I follow on pinterest.
This is such a precious idea and could be used for many different things! My three year old preschool class loves doing puzzles and would be thrilled to make their own personal puzzle!! I would love to use it for mothers day or for a special surprise end of the year gift for the church staff!
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i would make a name puzzle for each child help learn order and letters of name . I think i love you to pcs be cute mothers day or fathers day give .. great idea thanks for sharing
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This would be a great gift anytime…Mother’s Day would be a great one, mom’s enjoy a homemade gift and personalizing it with hand prints or a message, they would get a real kick out of!
I would like to use the puzzles for a Mothers Day Project!!!
Love this. I would have my preschoolers color these with their fingerprints, as we are now reading what we call the “magic Book” which is actually Press Here by Herve Tullet.
What a cute idea. This project definitely got my wheels turning this morning. I would use this for a fourth of July project. I would have the children color every other row red and skip one for white.They could then paint the corner blue. After it dries I will give them white star stickers to put on the blue. Thanks for this giveaway. Please pick me!!!!
I love this I would take photos of kiddies at our childcare that way they could put their friends together
Lovejoy Play School
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I would take your valentine idea a bit further and mail these to the grandparents when we do our annual trip to the po to learn about the process of the mail
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Love it!! my girl looves puzzles, I will color with her to have a different themes in each and share with our friends.
I would use them for a similar project for my cooperative playschool group. The kids would love this! (especially my 3yo dd who is very into puzzles right now).
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I would take the same idea of having them use different colors of paint but would tie it in with our “Children Around The World” theme (diversity), the point being that when all of us are put together, we make something wonderful. ☺
I “like” you, I really like you (here on FB)! ☺
This is so cool! Creating DIY puzzles is fun, My daughter will love it!
I’m thinking these puzzles would be a perfect mothers day gift!
I would use them as an arts and craft project associated with what we were learning about that week. We could use paint, stamps, stensils, an assortment of items and glue them on, like an “I spy with my little eye” collection/game, and have that child put his puzzle together and then play the I SPY game with a classmate.
I would like to use the puzzle pieces to create photo puzzles of the children. These could be social/emotional puzzles with the children showing “happy faces,” “sad faces,” “angry faces,” or “scared faces.” Photos of children sharing and at play could be included, too. (The photos could be adhered with a spray adhesive so that they are secured and the puzzle would have to be recut)
I showed the picture of the blank puzzles to my 3 year old and he said he would like to “draw on them”. I was thinking I’d like us to paint them and add the alphabet – one letter per piece. This could be a fun letter sequencing and uppercase/lowercase matching activity!
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These are great! Once a month, I host a preschool playdate with our playgroup and we do different preschool activities and these would be great fun for the kids to make!!
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You have such great ideas. Being a preschool teacher myself for over thirty years I enjoy getting new ideas. If I got the puzzles now I would have the children paint the pieces and when it’s dry draw a shape, number, or letter on each one, or write the children’s first name after it was dry.
I love these! I would help my daughter make shape puzzles, letters and numbers, and also different puzzles for holidays. She would love these! Thank you for the opportunity. : )
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I am following you on Pinterest.
I have a couple of ideas I would like to do with these puzzles. Some people do not know it, but the puzzle piece, usually colorful, is the symbol for Autism. I have an Autistic child here, so I would have the children color the puzzle piece any colors they wanted. They may not know what theyy represent, but the parents will. Or I would hang them around the Daycare play room. Also I thought of using them for one of the upcoming Holidays, like Mother’s day. Or St. Patricks day to see how many shades of Green we could possible create.
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I love these!! I would let the kds paint them then I think we would do numbers on them. We have alphabet flash cards – but our number ones bit the dust. What a fun teaching tool!!!!
I absolutely love this idea!!! I use puzzles, like this, on the first day of preschool with my 3 year olds and they stamp their handprint on it for The Kissing Hand activity. I love doing a lot of handprint/footprint activities and these puzzles would work well with my ideas. I love personalizing the activities for keepsakes that the parents can look back on years from now. These puzzles would be used for many of my themes and holiday events. LOVE THIS!!!!!!
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I quit my job recently to stay at home with my 2.5 year old daughter and my 2.5 months son, so I would love one of these to do something fun with my daughter with it!!! Thank you for doing this!
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I would also use this a gift for parents. I think this is the perfect combination of process art and something that really pleases parents. The kids get to make their puzzles make however they want, and then in the end it make a great gift for their grownups.
I also went and followed you on Pinterest. I have been coming to your blog for awhile and pinning activities that you have shown, but I love that I now follow all the things that you’ve pinned. Thanks.
I would have my (special needs) students do wheelchair art on the pieces to give to their typically developping siblings. It would be great for them to create something that can bring enjoyment.
I have a group daycare and have used a similar idea in the past using children’s names so that they can practice putting them together. I have also cut apart children’s family portraits so that they can be used as puzzles. I love these because they’re puzzles that can be painted on, but are far more durable than my homemade ones:)
I have been following you on facebook for quite a while and just followed you on pinterest. Great resources and information. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I would have my kids make number puzzles, with a different number on each piece – or a different puzzle for each number with a corresponding number of objects…. oh so many possibilities. Thanks for the chance
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I would use these puzzles with my preschool art class I teach. I think I would have the kids do string painting on them so they could learn to match up the pieces by matching up the lines from the string.
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I have already “liked” Teach Preschool on Facebook.
I am now a follower on Pininterest. I cannot wait to see all the ideas!!
I follow you on Pinterest! : )
I would love to have these puzzles for my boys to create their art on, then send to Grandma’s and Grandpas for special occasions or just because. I love your blog.
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I’m following you on Pinterest!
I have a few ideas for the puzzles and we could probably do both for a long range plan. My daughters are 18mos and almost 3…they are LOVING paint right now so we would follow your lead, then take the puzzle along to their big brothers basketball and/or baseball games to keep them entertained while we root on the big guy. Secondly, after they’ve “mastered” their puzzles I know that my grandmothers’ rehab facility would love these child creations, there are so many seniors who value little people there and need to work with something to maintain some dexterity! Thanks!
I am now following you on Pinterest (that was a no-brainer) keep the good ideas coming
I think that I would save the puzzles and then maybe do a similiar painting project for my students to give as Mothers Day gifts. Awesome giveaway; thanks!
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I already follow you on pintrest
ksworwood@yahoo.com
I “liked” you on FB
I would let my son choose what he wanted to draw on wach puzzle!
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I follow some of your Pinterest Boards
I would ( and most likely will) use this as a Mother’s Day Present.
I think this is a great idea that hasn’t been overdone. Thanks.
Linda
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I would love to figure out a way to print a photo to the puzzles for a great Mother’s Day gift.
I LOVE your ideas of using the puzzle for valentine’s day. How about gluing a photo of the child with the same saying that you used and give it to the child’s dad on Father’s Day. Sometimes those poor fathers get missed because Mother’s Day is such a big day.
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Cute! I would have my boys decorate them and send them to friends with the saying, “Friends come in all shapes and sizes. We’re a perfect fit!”
The parents are going to love your valentine’s!!
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What a great idea! One idea is to use them as a mother’s day present. Another idea that came to mind is having the kids make them textured. Instead of painting them a different color, they could glue different textures to the peces.
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I believe that this could possibly be an excellent service learning project for my Pre-K students. I would have them decorate the puzzles and we could put some story quotes from our favorite Dr. Seuss books on the back…then we would package them up with a little note and send them to one of the local children’s hospitals for Dr. Seuss’s Birthday (Read Across America Day) which is March 2nd.
I would you these at Mother’s Day in much the same way you used them for Valentine’s Day.
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I am following you on Pinterest.
I would love these puzzles! I would have each child paint one piece of every puzzle then they would have a ‘collage’ puzzle painted by their friends!
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I would love to have my kids make a picture for their grandmother for her birthday!
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I teach 3 and 4 year olds. I would set out tempera paint and let the children paint to their hearts content….They are always so proud of their projects.
I would cover the puzzles with different size a styles of the same letter for the students to put together and take apart– again and again.
I love the idea! I’d love to see number groups on each piece to line up for counting!
I’m a follower on Pinterest! (I was already)
What a GREAT idea. I think I’d do something for Mother’s Day, probably painted with a picture or a handprint. So many possibilities.
I would have the children paint then then put a handprints on it and probably use them as a Mother’s Day gift
I also think they could be turned into a sight word puzzle. Two words per puzzle.
I love the puzzle idea. I volunteer in my grandson’s preschool class and would love to use the puzzles with Tyler and his classmates.
Love your ideas and the giveaway opportunity, Deborah. I would set out a varity of paint daubers and markers and have the children create to their heart’s content.
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I follow you on Pinterest.
I would invite little friends over to decorate puzzles for each other.
I would love to have my kiddos create a great Mother’s Day or Father’s day gift from the puzzles.
I follow you on Pinterest!! Love your ideas.
I “liked” you on facebook, actually I love you on facebook. Your ideas are very inspiring!!
I am following you on pinterest and also get your newsletter. I just love your site. I watch my grand daughters several times a week and love your neat ideas for crafts, discovery, and sensory play time. We recently made the play dough bird feeders and the girls had a blast playing in the seed. they didn’t want to stop. The birds enjoyed the end product of their creative play as well. I love your idea with the puzzle for valentines day, hope that I win. Thanks for all of your wonderful ideas for creative learning! ~Gin~ AKA Grammie Gram!! <3
I have 3 year old twins so I’d like them to be creative and have something of their own to play with.
I love making take home projects that they can do at home with family. This a a great idea for any occasion. I love the idea of just setting out different art supplies and letting them create and decorate their own little puzzle that can be kept for themselves or given to a loved one. I love this blog and visit everyday for ideas to do in my preschool class. I will deffinetly be finding you on FB and pinterest.
This is a great item anytime of the year. Quiet time to share with partners would be fun too. (For those who do not wish to lie down.)
I liked you on facebook. And Im going to try the super soft salt dough.
I haven’t found you on pinterest til today! Thanks!!
I teach preschool and would love to make these puzzles as a gift for Mother’s Day. I love your idea of painting each piece a different color.
I have done this before for father’s day gifts. Before we broke the pieces apart I took a picture of the puzzle and glued it to the outside of a box like a real puzzle. However, I got my puzzles from a different source and they didn’t hold up very well. Would love to see how these puzzles do being soaked with paint:)
I just liked you on facebook and then spent another hour on the computer checking out all the cool links. On to pinterest, will I ever get some sleep?
200+ boards to fallow on pinterest. I am a newbie here so I’m not sure if I followed you right. I can’t decide which board to go with. I fallowed you through the letter C. They are all so great, how do I choose?
By the way, I am such a big fan. Been teaching preschool for 10+ and feel that you give me daily inspiration!!!
I have really been enjoying your site. Thanks for some great ideas! I think the puzzle would be great as a self portrait gift for Mother’s Day.
I just found your site and I love it!!!! I’m sure I will be coming back for new ideas for my kids! Thank you!
I loved this idea for a parent gift. I think this would also be a great beginning of the year activity. Give each child a puzzle piece to decorate. Then when all are finished put the puzzle together. “We all fit together” . You could also give the children their piece on a home visit and then have them bring their piece the first day to put together with all the other pieces. (Have an extra one in case a child forgets their piece or did not decorate it at home) I love the ideas I have found on this website. They are easy and so age appropriate. Thanks for sharing.
I would love to win these so that my 4 and 5 year old students could draw and picture on it of their mom and give it to her on Mother’s Day.
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If I won this i would probably use a few to create a collage of family photos. I think it would be fun for my kids to put together puzzle pieces and see the faces of family members come together. The rest I would probably have them create their own picture(s). There are so many things to do!
Use with kids at church.
Would like to tutor kids.
i love this project! not enough time to do it for this year but I am definitely going to use this next year!
I would use these puzzles in my family child care home. I love your puzzle valentine idea but I think it would also be fun to collage pictures of the kids and their families on them.
I’ve been a facebook fan since I came across your blog several months ago.
I’ve been following you on pinterest since I became addicted to that site as well.
Love your ideas! Have saved this one and will definitely use it in the future. I did like you on Facebook and signed up for Pinterest. That’s new to me, but I’ve heard many good things. Thanks for your daily emails, they are very inspiring.
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