This heart animals coloring page is a sweet Valentine's Day activity for kids, but of course, children can also enjoy it as a fun puppet craft all year long! Children's book illustrator, Melanie Hope Greenberg designed this coloring sheet exclusively for readers of What Do We Do All Day?, so we are feeling all the love right now!
Coloring pages are a calming activity for kids, and sometimes get a bad rap for not being creative or inspiring artistic expression, but there is room in a child's life for both process art projects and coloring pages!
Whenever Melanie sends me over the monthly coloring page I always look at it to see if it inspires an activity or craft to extend the fun beyond coloring inside (or outside!!) the lines. For example, it was so much fun turning this leaf design into window suncatcher! Melanie specifically designed this Valentine-themed page so kids could make their own animals out of the extra heart shapes and I thought, "why not also turn them into puppets!" Perhaps your children will even come up with additional creative ideas!
How to make Heart Animal Puppets
What you need:
- Heart animals coloring page. Click HERE to download and print the pdf. (By clicking here you agree to our terms of service* see below)
- Colored pencils, crayons, etc.
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Craft sticks
Stick Puppet Instructions:
Print the heart animals coloring page on plain paper or card stock.
Color as desired. No need to use "normal" colors or stay in the lines. Let the kids be free!
Cut out the heart animals and the extra hearts. Kids have varying degrees of scissor skills. Don't fret if they cut out the hearts in a jagged, messy way. Help them only if they ask for help! Don't seek out perfection, you want this to be the child's project, not yours.
Arrange the extra heart shapes as desired to create more animals and creatures (or whatever else they want!). Draw eyes or other features.
Using the glue stick, glue the hearts together to make the animals. Again, help your child if they ask for help. Otherwise, as they get sticky and make a mess, remind yourself they are strengthening their fine motor skills!
Glue the animals made from heart shapes onto the top part of the craft sticks.
Tell stories with your puppets! Play!
More Valentine themed coloring pages:
- Heart air balloon coloring page and mobile craft!
- Valentine card template - use this template for several card variations
- Sweet double valentine card printable
- Sweet children making a valentine coloring page
- Whale and fish in love coloring page
Meet the Illustrator
Melanie Hope Greenberg is an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books and she loves to teach about the art of children's books in the classroom! Her cheerful book, Mermaids on Parade, which depicts the iconic Coney Island celebratory Mermaid Parade, was selected as a Bank Street Best Book, and for the Texas Reading Club and PBS Kids Summer Reading Lists.
Melanie also does wonderful school and library visits where she shares with children the process of writing and illustrating children's books.
*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like for personal, library or classroom use. If you would like to share this coloring page, you MUST link to this blog page. It is expressly forbidden to link directly to the coloring page pdf file.
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