Share the love by getting creative!
Holidays are a great time for kids to work on creative projects but also opportunities to use challenges and games to build self-confidence, appreciation and team spirit.

For this Valentine’s Day celebration, we are sharing our Sugar Hearts game that you can play with family members or in the classroom.
It can work perfectly with only a few family members of a full class of 20+ students. Feel free to use it with both children of different age-groups and adults. The main idea of the Sugar Hearts game is to encourage players to think about and write sweet things about each other – at the end of the game, every participant will have an envelope full of nice, sweet things others have written about him or her.

What you need:

• Printer – you can work with a professional printer you might have at school or simply use the one at home;

• Printable envelopes – here’s one of our favorite Valentine envelopes from Geographics.com;

• white or colored cardstock

• Simple or colored pencils – here are some Valentine pencils from TheRoyalStore.com;

• Computer.

Preparation:

Step 1: Handwrite or use IClicknPrint Design Center to create a personalized envelope for each player.  Each envelope should have the name of the player clearly written and easily readable.

Step 2: Cut cardstock to heart shapes or use the Clip Art offered by Iclicknprint to print small size heart themed postcards for the players to write on.

Step 3: Use the envelopes, cut cardstock and pencils to play the game

How to play:

• Stick all the envelopes on a wall or just spread them all on a table or directly on the floor – you should have one for each player;

• Give pencils and cut cardstock to each participant;

• Explain that each player will write one thing they like about each of the other players and will put the notes in the appropriate envelope – they should check the name on the envelope before placing the “sugar heart” in;

• Give players enough time to write and place the notes in the envelopes;

• When they’re are done, give each player the envelope that had his or her name written on it

• Allow players to discover and read the notes they find in their envelopes;

• Ask each player to share one thing they found surprising, interesting or simply super sweet in their envelope;

• If you are playing the game in the classroom, you could allow the players to keep just one note from their envelope and then ask them to give the envelopes with the rest of the notes to you. You could then mail the envelope you’ve personalized using to each of them after a few weeks. They will love reading through the sweet notes just as much as the first time.