Are you looking for creative ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your little one? Our top ten list of Valentine’s Day activities offers the perfect opportunity to engage your preschooler in fun-loving crafts that ensure creativity, emotional growth, and a hug or two in between! At Inspiring Minds Preschool, we nurture an environment of acceptance, friendship, and kindness in our children so they can become well-rounded individuals who flourish once they step out into the world.
Whether it’s art, music, or movement, our list will help you add some love to the play area, and promote your child’s developmental skills in the process.
1. Valentine’s Stamps with Vegetables
Assemble a variety of veggies and create a sensory-rich art activity where the children can use them to make stamps. Slice celery stalks for a rose-like shape or cut red bell peppers into heart designs and top it off with different washable paint colors. Assist the children as they experiment on large sheets of paper.
Supplies you’ll need: Vegetables, washable paints, (red, pink, white), large construction paper sheets, paint trays, kid-safe scissors, aprons, and wet wipes.
Directions: Cut vegetables into heart or flower shapes, dip them in paint, and stamp them onto paper.
2. DIY Friendship Bracelets
Valentine’s Day is all about love. What better way to encourage love and generosity in early learners, than to help them make a gift? Teach your young ones to grab hold of this opportunity and the concept of gift-giving through friendship bracelets. As they work, encourage discussion about friendship and the value of generosity. To enhance the theme, pair the activity with a short story about friendship. This activity promotes fine motor skills and pattern recognition.
Supplies you’ll need: Soft yarn, colorful beads, pipe cleaners, kid-safe scissors, and a short story about friendship to complement the activity.
Directions: Teach children how to thread beads and tie basic knots to create bracelets. Teach them different patterns while you discuss themes like friendship and gift-giving.
3. Heart Art
Set up a sensory art station. Use colorful, textured materials and add large heart outlines on cardboard. Children can then proceed to glue, sprinkle, or press the materials onto them. Help them to describe the textures they feel, which will grow their vocabulary and tactile awareness.
You can pin up the finished projects on a bulletin board to reinforce a sense of accomplishment and community. Activities like these are a great way to promote cognitive, social, and emotional growth through a hands-on, creative approach.
Supplies you’ll need: Dyed rice grains, pom-poms, foam shapes, glue, large heart outlines on cardboard or thick paper.
Directions: Prepare the materials to glue or press onto heart outlines, and create sensory collages.
4. Wall of Love
Create a community “wall of love” with love notes that the children can write to classmates, family, or even pets. Help them dictate each note in a creative way.
This activity supports language development, emotional expression, and social skills through positive communication. Display the decorated hearts on a large bulletin board and together create a colorful collage. Activities like this promote social-emotional learning and literacy development.
Supplies you’ll need: Pre-cut paper hearts, crayons, markers, and stickers. Think about practical prompts that can help them: “What do you like about your mom/dad/best friend?”, “What makes you happy?”
Directions: Help children write love notes and decorate hearts. Nudge them with positive questions to help inspire thoughtful messages and pin those up.
5. Sweety-Pie Playdough
Play-dough is a go-to for hands-on learning. Add sensory elements like glitter, beads, or small trinkets for more substance.
If you’re worried about consumption, you can replace the sensory elements with dried pieces of strawberry or cupcake sprinkles. Create your own edible version with safe ingredients like flour, water, and a bit of sugar. This activity promotes fine motor skills, creativity, and cognitive development.
Supplies you’ll need: Heart-shaped cookie cutters, rolling pins, Valentine-colored play-dough (red, pink, white), glitter, and cupcake sprinkles.
Directions: Encourage children to use cookie cutters and rolling pins to form Valentine-themed objects like hearts or cupcakes. Add sensory elements. Discuss shapes, colors, and textures to promote creativity, fine motor skills, and language development.
Quick Recipe For Edible Valentine’s Day Play-dough
Two cups flour, one cup water, one tablespoon of vegetable oil and a touch of sugar. Add red or pink food colorant for a Valentine’s feel and edible pieces.
6. Heart-Themed Scavenger Hunt
Turn your classroom or home into an adventure with a heart-themed scavenger hunt. Hidden paper hearts with instructions, such as “Give a friend a high-five”, or “Say something you love about your teacher”, can encourage and foster social-emotional learning, cooperation, and positive interaction.
Supplies you’ll need: Paper hearts with tasks (e.g., “Give a friend a high-five”), baskets for collecting hearts, and space for the scavenger hunt.
Directions: Hide hearts with fun tasks around the classroom. Let the children look for them in pairs and collect them in baskets. Encourage teamwork as they complete each task.
7. Heartbeat Rhythms
Introduce a music and movement activity where children explore rhythms related to love and hearts. This activity supports music appreciation, rhythm development, and movement coordination.
Supplies you’ll need: Tambourines, maracas, and drums.
Directions: Guide children to tap out “heartbeat” rhythms on instruments—slow for calm, fast for excitement. Add music to it.
A few song suggestions include, “Valentine’s Day”, by Jack Hartmann, “If You Love Me and You Know It”, and “H-E-A-R-T” by The Kiboomers.
Prepare a cookie-decorating activity with heart-shaped sugar cookies, icing in Valentine’s colors, and toppings like heart sprinkles or edible glitter. This activity promotes fine motor skills, creativity, and social interaction. Offer whole-grain variations or fruit slices as something healthier, which will give a nutritious twist to their diet. This activity will help them with sensory exploration.
Supplies you’ll need: Heart-shaped sugar cookies, colored icing, sprinkles, edible glitter, or healthier options. Provide bowls for toppings and napkins for cleanup.
Directions: Help the children decorate the cookies with icing, sprinkles, and glitter. Discuss shapes, colors, and patterns as you work. Afterward, enjoy the cookies together or encourage them to take it home as a gift.
9. Pretty Puppets
Host a puppet show where children create their own puppets and perform a short play about love, friendship, or kindness. This fosters creativity, social skills, and language development.
Supplies you’ll need: Puppet materials (sock puppets, paper bags, or felt), markers, crayons, and any simple accessories like googly eyes or yarn for hair. Add a backdrop for the performance and space to play.
Directions: Guide children to create their puppets using the materials. Encourage them to decorate and give their puppets personalities. Once finished, organize a puppet show where children perform short skits about friendship, love, or kindness. You could even invite their parents to join.
10. Mini Valentine’s Concert
Host a Valentine’s Day parade or mini-concert. Let children dress in red, pink, or purple. Provide streamers, paper hearts, and small instruments for them to carry. Another option is to prepare a mini-concert or play where parents can join to celebrate family and the special bonds of love.
Supplies you’ll need: Red, pink, or purple clothing for children, streamers, paper hearts, small instruments, and cheerful music.
Directions: Children dress in Valentine’s colors and carry streamers or instruments while they dance or march to festive music.
Love And Learn At Inspiring Minds Preschool!
Let this Valentine’s Day bring flavor and excitement into your preschooler’s education and help nurture important skills in a meaningful way. For more creative ideas to inspire your little one’s growth, visit our blog.
At Inspiring Minds Preschool, your kids are our kids. Our staff respects and values each child’s individual journey and works hard to help them discover their unique contribution to this world.
Ready to take the next step in your child’s development? Give us a call at 954-933-2982 to learn more about our programs or send us an email. To apply to the preschool, you can fill out our application form. For older children, feel free to contact our K-5 School at 954-746-5437.
We are thrilled to be the safe space where your preschoolers can learn, grow, and broaden their horizons. Give your child a firm footing for the future at Inspiring Minds Preschool.