I just LOVE Valentine’s Day! I think it’s wonderful that we’ve set aside a special day each year to celebrate the gift of love that God has given us! It’s a wonderful opportunity to show family and friends how much they mean to you- and to teach your littles to love themselves, God, their friends and family members well too! Plus I adore all things pink, glittery and heart shaped sooooo…. without further adieu- ALL the Valentine activities!
–Valentine rock painting: I got these really cute painting rocks at the Dollar Tree and had my littles decorate them with paint and glitter. Then I traced the words on them with black paint so they’d show up better and decoupaged them to seal everything in! I let each little decide whether they would like to gift the rocks for Valentine’s Day to a friend of family member, or hide them at the park so someone would find a surprise gift (we have a bunch of rock decorating/hiding clubs around here- so this is actually a thing! LoL We find them at the playground all the time!) If you don’t have a Dollar Tree, you can always have your littles paint plain rocks with red, pink and white then sprinkle glitter on top too! They’d come out just as pretty!
–Love wooden sign painting: I grabbed a 10×10 wooden “canvas” with my Walmart grocery order for $5, had the boys take turns painting it (I had my toddler go first, then had my preschooler fill in the spots he missed). Then I used my vinyl cutting machine to add a “love” decal to the front. If you don’t have a vinyl cutter, you can just paint “love” on the front, or make a heart using your little’s hand or feet prints (with the heels or palms overlapping a bit and the toes/fingers pointing out).
–Valentine card decorating: I think it’s so much fun to have littles this age decorate their own Valentine cards. You can make them simple by cutting out a few paper hearts and giving them some stickers to decorate them with, or you can get more elaborate and buy a set of felt hearts and stickers for them to use (actually I found both at the Dollar Tree!)
–Valentine free art: My littles adore free art! It’s a great way to let them grow their creativity by exploring craft supplies and creating using their own imaginations- plus it’s a super easy set up! You just gather all of your red, white, pink and purple craft supplies and place them on the table with scissors and glue and let your littles explore! We used construction paper, pom-poms, Valentine stickers, washi tape, pipe cleaners, feathers, and do-a-dot markers. My toddler made an abstract piece of art by sticking all the things to a sheet of construction paper as well as some pom-pom and pipe cleaner flowers. My preschooler made a “Cupid cuff” to wear on his arm out of construction paper taped in a tube shape then decorated with heart stickers and a pipe cleaner person.
–Heart name puzzle: I cut out hearts for each letter in my little’s name, then wrote one letter per heart and scrambled them up on the floor. Then I named each letter in order and asked him to find that letter (ie. The first letter in your name is S, can you find the letter S?” …of course being 2 he pointed with his feet…hahaha) I placed the letters in order as we went. When we had spelled his whole name, I spelled it again with him by pointing to and saying each letter then having him repeat it one by one.
–Valentine heart threading: I picked up a pack of felt Valentine hearts last time I was at the Dollar Tree and they had small holes all around the edges so I thought they would be perfect for a threading activity! You just tie a piece of yarn or ribbon to the bottom hole, place some tape around the other end to make it easier to thread, and have your little weave the yarn through the holes. You can play around with how it looks too- if they stitch downwards each time you get a wrapped look, and if they stitch up then down you get more of a sewn look. You can also make your own threading hearts out of craft foam and a hole punch!
–Hook the heart fine motor practice: I made some different sized hearts out of pipe cleaners, then made a hook from another pipe cleaner and had my little catch the hearts with the hook and place them a bowl! To make it a bit easier for tiny hands, bend the hearts in half a smidge so they don’t quite lay flat, or place them in a cake pan filled with Valentine sprinkles so they can get the hook under the hearts more easily.
–V is for valentine: I printed this V is for valentine coloring page, then had my little use a do-a-dot marker to make a letter V. I also wrote letters all around the page and had him find and dot the Vs he saw (of course he dotted half the other letters too…after all, he’s barely 2! LoL I just told him what those letters were called as he went to town)
–Heart hop: I cut out 10 hearts, wrote the numbers 1-10 on them, then taped them in order to the floor. My little practiced stepping on the hearts while we counted the numbers, and I also helped him hop from heart to heart while counting (which he adored!)
–Supply/shopping list:
- wooden canvas
- Valentine message rocks (plain rocks, or paintable rocks from Dollar Tree)
- felt Valentine hearts or heart doilies
- heart stickers
- various Valentine colored art supplies
- string
- heart with holes for threading (foam or felt)
- pipe cleaners
littlelovesandlearning.com 
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