Feb 11, 20192 min read

Valentine's Day Craft - with Free Template

Updated: May 18, 2023

Are you looking for a fun and easy craft idea for Valentine's Day? Well you've come to the

right place! Today I'm going to share a fun little craft idea that a former room mom brought in to do with my 4th grade students a few years back. We will call them "dragonfly smarties".

Materials Needed • pipe cleaners (3 per student) • googly eyes (2 per student) • smarties (1 pack per student) • red or pink foam sheets or card stock (1 per student) • glue • pencil • scissors

The first thing you want to do is lay three of the same color of pipe cleaners side by side so their ends line up. Place one pack of smarties on top of the pipe cleaners. Wrap the pipe cleaners around the smarties twisting them one or two times around the smarties until they are snug.

Next, bend the pipe cleaners to form six "knees". Then bend the bottom of each pipe cleaner into small loops to form "feet".

On your foam sheet (or card stock) draw heart-shaped wings for your dragonfly. I also like to draw a small dot in the center so students know where to cut them. Cut out the wings and poke a hole through the center using a pencil or scissors. Sometimes it helps to bend the foam and use a scissors to get the hole started, then have students poke their pencil through the hole to enlarge it to the size of the pack of smarties. I created a template for you to use to create the wings which you can download here.

Note: It helps to have a few samples of the wings pre-cut that students can use to trace on the foam sheets to create their own set of wings.

Slide the foam wings through the back of the smarties and up until they reach the dragonfly's legs.

Glue two googly eyes on top of the dragonfly's legs and let dry. Send the dragonflies home with students at the end of the day for a fun Valentine's treat they can enjoy later!