I Love You To Pieces

1-2-3 Come Make A Mother's Day Craftivity With Me

My Y5's enjoyed putting puzzles together. Since it was one of our report card standards, I made time for them to work on puzzles for a few minutes at the end of the day. With this in mind, I thought I'd design some "paper love" using puzzle pieces.

reeses pieces activities, i love you to pieces, puzzle activities, puzzle crafts, end of the year gifts for kids, mother's day activities, ideas for gifts for mothers day, mothers day cards, mothers day activities, mothers day crafts, fathers day activities, fathers day crafts, fathers day gifts, grandparents day activities, grandparents day crafts, grandparents day cards, While I was diddling around with the puzzle idea, I wondered if there was some sort of easy & inexpensive gift my kiddos could make to give their mom to go along with their card. Since the card was all about pieces, Reese's pieces came to mind.

You certainly don't have to include them with this craft, but it's a simple way to add a little something to their creations, so you don't have to make something else. Thus, there are several options for putting this activity together.

reeses pieces activities, i love you to pieces, puzzle activities, puzzle crafts, end of the year gifts for kids, mother's day activities, ideas for gifts for mothers day, mothers day cards, mothers day activities, mothers day crafts, fathers day activities, fathers day crafts, fathers day gifts, grandparents day activities, grandparents day crafts, grandparents day cards, Take a photo of each of your students and then have them cut it into puzzle pieces. You can make them look more like a puzzle by placing my puzzle template over the photo and then cutting on the lines, or you can use carbon paper and trace the template onto the photo for easier cutting.

If you think this is too difficult for your students, they can simply cut their photo into several pieces. Remind them to cut their photo into only 3-6 pieces, or you can bet that they’ll snip away, with no chance of gluing things back together.

For preschool kiddos, have a room helper do this for you and then put each photo in a snack Baggie for students to put together. They'll be surprised to find that it's a photo of them.

Students can glue their photo puzzle together onto a sheet of construction paper, so that all of the pieces fit snuggly together, or you can have them trim a bit from the edges so there is a gap between the pieces.

I like the effect of this better, but I made sure that I cut my puzzle, so that it did not slice up the facial portion of my photo. If you're going to have your kiddos glue their puzzle this way, make sure you show them a sample, and explain the importance of not cutting through the center of their face.

Have students sign their picture puzzle and then glue it to the “I love you to pieces” paper and trim.
I’ve included a template for mom, as well as a blank one for students who don’t have a mom, or if you wish to use this card for Grandparent’s or Father’s Day.

It's nice to give children color options, but I chose orange and yellow construction paper, because I wanted to include some Reese’s Pieces as a gift, with a double play on words.

To keep the cost down, you can buy small packages of the candy and staple the little bag to the bottom of the photo puzzle, or you can buy it in bulk and fill mini snack bags.

reeses pieces activities, i love you to pieces, puzzle activities, puzzle crafts, end of the year gifts for kids, mother's day activities, ideas for gifts for mothers day, mothers day cards, mothers day activities, mothers day crafts, fathers day activities, fathers day crafts, fathers day gifts, grandparents day activities, grandparents day crafts, grandparents day cards, Brainstorm with your students why they love their moms, and make a list on the board, so that students can refer to it as they complete their writing prompt.

Run off the large puzzle template and have students write six reasons why they love their mom (special person) to pieces (one reason in each of the six puzzle pieces).

I mounted the writing prompt to a sheet of construction paper as well. You could also attach it to the back of the picture puzzle and not trim that down.

reeses pieces activities, i love you to pieces, puzzle activities, puzzle crafts, end of the year gifts for kids, mother's day activities, ideas for gifts for mothers day, mothers day cards, mothers day activities, mothers day crafts, fathers day activities, fathers day crafts, fathers day gifts, grandparents day activities, grandparents day crafts, grandparents day cards, I’ve also included an “I love you to pieces” header in two sizes. Have students color the word with a yellow marker.

You can add the larger one to your Snack Baggie, or use the smaller one and glue it to the corner of the writing prompt for that finishing touch. (This is what I did for my sample.)

I forgot to do it in my photo, but have students outline their puzzle pieces with crayons or markers. As I was working on my sample, I thought this would also make a sweet end-of-the-year gift for your students. Have a helper take a photo of you with each of your kiddos.

You cut up the puzzles and put them into a Snack Baggie that you attach to a box or bag of Reese’s Pieces, then complete a puzzle note for each child.

Tuck them into their backpacks the last week of school, or they can put them together at the end of the day, while they eat a few pieces of candy. Make sure none of your kiddos has a peanut allergy.

reeses pieces activities, i love you to pieces, puzzle activities, puzzle crafts, end of the year gifts for kids, mother's day activities, ideas for gifts for mothers day, mothers day cards, mothers day activities, mothers day crafts, fathers day activities, fathers day crafts, fathers day gifts, grandparents day activities, grandparents day crafts, grandparents day cards, Click on the link to view/download the "I love you to pieces" packet. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away.