I John 4:8 tells us that "God is love," but what does that really mean? Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to explore what love is and how we can share it with others. Enjoy these fun preschool activities as you teach children about love!
For many, Valentine’s Day is a time to enjoy crafts, delicious treats, and fun activities like Valentine’s Day scavenger hunts. But how can you help children understand the true meaning of the holiday and the concept of love? Check out the Parenting to Impress blog post "How to Explain Valentine's Day to Children" for helpful tips.
Using riddles, your children will find nine clues in the refrigerator, by shoes, and throughout the house leading them to understand God's love for them.
Provide the child with a pile of candy hearts or cut out-hearts of various sizes and colors. Invite the preschooler to sort them by size or color. This is a fun way to practice fine motor skills and color recognition.
Place hearts on our child’s doors or in a special place to affirm their uniqueness and gifts, and to share spiritual truths.
Fill a bin with red, pink, and white rice, beads, or pasta. Hide small Valentine-themed objects like heart erasers, candy hearts, or small toys for the children to find and explore.
When you think of Valentine's Day as a kid, many people think of making homemade Valentine's to share with friends and classmates. These can be as simple or elaborate as you desire. Because children's attention spans are limited, I encourage you to keep them simple or spread it out over several days allow the child to do a little at a time.
Make Valentine's Day Cards using markers, glue, scissors, etc. Use this activity to review shapes, colors, and have your child practice writing his name.
Fold a piece of red construction paper in half and cut out a heart. Set aside the outside paper. Leaving the heart folded, cut out a second heart by cutting parallel, 1" from the outside of the first heart. You are left with a smaller heart and a 1" wide heart frame. Set the full heart aside. Cut a piece of contact paper slightly larger than the heart frame. Peel off the backing of the contact paper and center the frame on the sticky side of the paper. Lay small squares of tissue paper inside the heart, on the sticky contact paper. When the heart is filled, lay a second sheet of contact paper on top of the heart (sticky sides together). Avoid wrinkles or air bubbles. Leaving a 1/4" border, cut away the excess contact paper. Hang on the window, or hole punch and hang with string.
Paint your child’s hand with washable paint and stamp it onto a piece of paper, with the fingers close together, upside down, and slightly angled. Repeat with the other hand so that the fingers overlap slightly, forming a heart shape. Let it dry. Once dry, outline the heart shape created by the handprints by drawing a large heart around it.
This activity will require an adult to align the papers but the child can help cut and staple.
Cut a piece of paper in half creating two 11"x4 1/4" pieces. Cut eleven 1" strips of colored paper measuring 4 1/4" long. Lay two stripes together and staple at the bottom. Fold the unstapled ends down and around to form a heart. Lay another strip on each side of the bended stripes. Align and staple the four-layer end. Fold the unstapled ends to form a second heart. Continue the process to form a chain of hearts. Sometimes construction paper is too stiff to bend. You may also use felt.
Image directions available here.
Cut the center out of a paper plate and have your child decorate the rim with heart-shaped stickers, tissue paper, or pom-poms to create a cute heart wreath. Turn into a frame by taping a picture of the child in the heart.
Turn the handprint heart into a Handprint Calendar.
Bend the top of a toilet paper roll into a heart shape, dip it in paint, and stamp onto paper for easy, fun Valentine’s art.
Supplies:
Directions:
Using the Heart Template, trace one large heart on a big piece of paper. On a different color paper, draw two small hearts and one medium heart.
Help your child cut out all the shapes.
Glue the eyes and mouth onto the large heart.
Cut 4 strips of paper, each 1" wide. Teach your child how to make an accordion fold, helping them get started—they’ll pick it up quickly!
Glue or tape the accordion-folded strips to the back of the heart as arms and legs.
Let your child decorate the heart with colors, glitter, or other craft supplies.
This craft is a blast from my past. My children enjoyed it as well!
Supplies:
Activity:
Show the kids how to loosely wrap a piece of tissue paper around the eraser end of a pencil. Dip just the tip into the glue and place it onto the heart.
Have your child practice writing their name on Valentine’s Day cards. If there are many to address, be sure to give the child plenty of time to complete them. It may help to do just a few each day, depending on how many cards you need. If your child is in a classroom and you don’t know everyone’s name, you can address the cards to “My Friend.”
I love the idea of having the classroom make Valentine’s bags instead of boxes, because children of any age can easily decorate a bag!
Here’s how to do it:
This simple activity allows every child to participate and create a personalized bag they’ll love!
Print and place in your home or classroom to remind yourself and your family what love is based upon I Corinthians 13:4-8. Use with:
Choose to print either Option #1 with Heart Background or Option #2 with Heart Border
Kiss Cookies are peanut butter cookies with candy kisses on top. Allow the child to unwrap the kisses - a great fine motor activity - and put them on after baking the cookies.
Serve heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast or dinner—our kids love them! After pouring the batter onto a hot skillet, use a utensil to gently spread the batter into a heart shape.
Place a blowpop sucker on a Valentine that says "_____, you blow me away!"
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Here is a sweet treat
From us(me) to you!
