Heart stickers

Hearts in her eyes

There was a photo of an adult out, and one child looked at it and then at her, back and forth. “That's you.”

Heart stickers came out. That child peeled them off without help and put them on the photo.

One went on an eye. “Eye.”

“You've put hearts in my eyes! Boing, boing.”

“Boing boing,” it came back.

When the whole photo was covered in hearts, that child got up, came over and put both arms round her.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And then sat down in front of her and carried on.

It's like a mirror

An adult had covered the faces over in aluminum foil.

“This one's all shiny!”

“Isn't that the paper you wrap kimbap in?”

“What's missing on this face?”

“There's no eyes or nose or mouth.”

“No eyebrows either, and no ears.”

Then one of them got close to the foil.

“I can see my face in it. It's like a mirror.”

They rubbed at it with a hand to see what it did.

Markers came out, and they looked properly at whoever they were drawing before putting the eyes and the nose and the mouth on. Then hearts went on the finished face.

There was a line printed on the back, and they read it out loud and then copied it letter by letter: be my friend, let's play nicely.

As many as you like her

There was a drawing of a friend on the table.

“What's this?”

An adult said they could color her in and put stickers on if they liked, so that child picked out a pencil and colored over the drawing.

“What if you put on as many stickers as you like her?”

“I'm putting on loads.”

And the stars and the hearts went all round her.

I love you, balloon

An adult blew the balloons up and each of them took the color they wanted.

They threw them and caught them coming down, and kicked them, and then sat down on one and bounced, up and down, up and down, riding it like a horse. Somebody made the noise of hooves and the others copied.

Then the stickers came over. One child looked at the hearts.

“I love you, balloon.”

And peeled them off, one at a time, all over it.

The big ones came off on their own

One child pulled a paper heart out of the art things.

“There's a heart. It says I love you.”

And made one overhead with both arms.

There were heart stickers out too, in different sizes. The big ones came off the sheet on their own. The little ones needed a corner lifting first, and then they came.

The white ones have to go where it's snowing

There was a winter scene to put stickers on. All they had were hearts and circles.

“There's a snowman here!”

“The white ones have to go where it's snowing.”

Another child peeled the same sticker off and put it back down, off and down, and made a snowman out of them, and somebody on a sledge, and named each one.

There were no eyes left

One child remembered the dragonfly from the day before and folded it again from memory. Another said they didn't know how.

“It's easy.”

And showed them, fold by fold.

Then a bigger square, folded into a triangle: “This one's like a sandwich. Delicious.”

The finished dragonfly went up into the air. “It's a dragonfly airplane.”

The other one wanted eyes on theirs, but the googly eyes had all gone. So the puffy heart stickers went on instead, and the body got done in hearts as well.

Twinkle twinkle

The paint on the train from the day before had dried, so stickers came out for it.

Stars first. “A star! Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

Then the hearts. “I'll show mommy and daddy. I love you, mommy and daddy.”

I'm the mommy one

They had been putting toys into the box the day before, so an adult brought out a picture of the shark family.

“Shall we stick them on the box?”

“I'm the mommy one.”

“I'm the daddy one.”

They each chose their shark, glued it, and pressed it onto the box.

Then the boxes went up in a stack, and hearts went on, and toys went inside to be shaken about.

Come to my school if you miss me

It was nearly the end of the year, so there were pencils and stickers and colored paper out to make each other, and the adults.

“That one looks like her.”

“He's a boy, so his hair's short like this.”

And then, while they worked: “I'm going to miss you.”

“Let's still play together when we're at school. Come to my school if you miss me!”

Later they wrote letters to each other. The ones who couldn't write yet drew instead, or made marks that looked like writing.

“I'm putting loads of my favorite heart stickers on.”

“I'm doing stars.”