Valentine’s Day is not for lovers anymore since we all enjoy the pink and red decorations, and use them as a theme for our kids too. Simply because love symbols are so adorable, we want our kids to know more about this occasion. They notice Valentine’s decorations anyways, and some of your little ones might already have their first crush.
We made a list of our favorite Valentine’s Day activities for toddlers and their siblings, which we wanted to share with you. They are easy to prepare and the kids will love them!
Besides these don’t forget to check out our lovely Valentine’s heart glasses too!
Spaghetti Hearts and Valentine’s Day Vocabulary
Did someone mention spaghetti? Most kids love it, especially if they can make a huge mess while eating it.
Since we like playing with our food (not during the family meal) we turned spaghetti into an educational accessory with free templates available that you can download.
What Will You Need?
- Spaghetti
- Food coloring (optional)
- Tray
- Printable templates
- Clear tape or laminator
What to Do?
Start with cooking the spaghetti. If you rather have it in vivid Valentine’s colors, dump the plain spaghetti into a ziplock bag with a few drops of red or pink food coloring, and shake it. Rinse in a sieve, then pour the colored spaghetti on a tray.
Print the appropriate templates and laminate them with a machine or simply with clear tape. If you have a toddler or preschooler use the heart shapes. Have fun tracing the pattern with the spaghetti.
If you have children, who already know how to write, give them the spaghetti (playdough or a whiteboard marker) to write the name of the different objects in the template.
If you run out of spaghetti or for some reason spaghetti is not what you have planned for playing, playdough can be a perfect replacement for this activity.
Lovely Twig – Easy Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids
Let’s make an impressive piece of art to decorate for Valentine’s.
Your kids will love joining in on the crafting fun and you’ll all love TREE-mendously the end result because it’s all about hearts.
What Will You Need?
What to Do?
Have a walk outdoors and gather fallen twigs. Grab your glue gun and make a few hearts, full patterns, and outlines. Once they turn solid, give them to the kids to paint them with red acrylic paint.
Connect the hearts with white string and hang them onto the twig next to each other. Tie a piece of red string on both ends of the twig to hang your new Valentine’s craft up.
Valentines Hot Air Balloon
Valentine’s Day is a time for love, romance, and crafting with your toddlers! With this hot air balloon-inspired sensory craft, you can help your little ones develop their fine motor skills too.
What will You Need?
- Clear plastic cup
- Cardboard
- Red construction paper
- Pony beads
- Pipe cleaners
- Glue gun
- Toddler Craft Scissors
- Scoops
What to Do?
Before starting the crafting part, dye the rice you will use for playing. Pour rice into a ziplock bag, add acrylic paint with a few drops of water, then shake the bag to evenly dye the rice.
Flatten the bags, open the zip locks and let them dry for a few hours. Then spread the colored rice on a tray and allow it dry thoroughly.
Prepare a piece of cardboard for the base. Cut a clear plastic cup in half with a hot knife. Cut 1-2 cm long stripes from red or pink construction paper for the hot air balloon’s frame.
Using a glue gun attach the half cup to the cardboard’s bottom part, then make a heart shape from the construction paper stripes and glue it above the cup.
Attach 4 pipe cleaners to the bottom of the cup and give pony beads to your toddler to thread onto them. And finally, give them the rice to fill the hearts and cups and have fun playing.
Cardboard Heart Stamps for Crafty Valentine’s Day
Recycle those empty toilet paper rolls and add a touch of love to your craft project with these little heart stamps. Decorate a large piece of paper with kids and enjoy crafting together.
What will You Need?
- Toilet paper roll
- Craft paper
- Paint for stamping
- Watercolor Paint
- Plastic bowl or cup for the paint
- Foam heart stickers
- Craft feathers
- Googly eyes
- Cotton balls
- PomPoms
- Glue Sticks
- Serving Tray
What to Do?
Pinch one edge of the toilet paper, then pinch the opposite end and invert a crease to get the arch of the heart. If the cardboard loses its shape, attach a piece of tape across the top bent part of the heart.
Prepare a large craft paper, dip the heart into paint and start stamping. Add stickers, feathers, googly eyes, or anything that the kids like to decorate with.
If the craft paper is too plain, and you want to add some colors before stamping, tear a few pieces of construction paper and glue them onto the plain paper.
Valentines Sensory Tea Party
Do you have an aspiring little tea party host in your family? Whether they’re a toddler, a preschooler, or an elementary-aged child, this is the perfect Valentine’s Day activity to bring out their creative side and provide sensory exploration. This activity is full of creativi-TEA.
What Supplies Will You Need?
What to Do?
The very first step is to make bright sensory rice. Depending on how many colors you plan to have, divide the rice into different ziplock bags.
Add acrylic paint and a few drops of water, then shake the bags to paint the rice. Flatten the bags, open the zip locks and leave them for a few hours to dry.
Then spread the colored rice on a large tray and let it dry completely. Once the rice is dry, dump it into the sensory bin along with the tea set and the kids can start to play. It’s time to get this par-TEA started!
Pink Bubble Foam for Sensory Valentine’s Day
When I plan to prepare a sensory activity, I prefer it to be low prep, because usually, it’s a first aid engaging project for my daughter when I need a quick coffee break.
Bubble foam will make the kids excited and it can also be prepared in minutes with a mixer. It will also whisk you off your feet onto your favorite chair to have a cup of coffee. You will enjoy this playtime too and thank a latte for us.
What will You Need?
- ½ cup bubble bath soap
- 1 cup water
- Red food coloring
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Large bowl
- Large bin
- Foam hearts
What to Do?
Pour the liquid soap, water, and a few drops of food coloring into a bowl, and mix it well using a hand mixer. Dump the bright pink bubble foam into a large bin, that you can use for sensory play.
Add some Valentine’s accessories, or cut some hearts out of pink and red foam sheets. And the kids can enjoy playing with their lovely soap foam.
Read more details about our favorite bubble foam recipe and learn about this fun and foamy sensory play.
Hunting for Hearts – Valentine’s Water Sensory Bin
And here we go again with another sensory play. It’s no question why both parents and kids love sensory activities. It’s time-saving to prepare and kids love making their hands messy (in most cases).
We combined kids’ love for sensory exploration and searching in one activity and made it filled with hearts of course.
What will You Need?
- Large bin
- Corn starch
- Food coloring (pink or red)
- Acrylic Hearts
What to Do and How to Play?
Fill a large bin with water, add red food coloring, then mix it. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and mix it further.
The water won’t be clear anymore, so you can dump in the plastic diamond hearts, and let your lovely toddler search and hunt for the hearts.
Dinosaur Lovers Valentine’s Day Activity – Sticker Fine Motor Activity
Stickers are so classic and can do more than just provide entertainment. They can also help kids develop their fine motor skills.
Save this DINO-mite activity for an occasion when the kids are bored and antsy.
What Materials Will You Need?
What to Do?
Cut out a big heart from craft paper and simply invite your toddler to fill it with dinosaur stickers in Valentine’s colors.
Playing with stickers is always a good choice. It develops fine motor skills and strengthens the small muscles in the hands and wrists. Also encourages hand-eye coordination.
Find Hidden Valentine’s Hearts – Sorting Sensory Bin
I can’t ESPRESSO how much this activity BEAN beyond me. The beans function as play kitchen fillers, we put them into the play kitchen’s sink instead of a sensory bin.
This sensory play is about sorting and digging through the Valentine-colored beans. It helps your child concentrate and relax at the same time. And of course, you can take a deep breath or have a sip of coffee while the kids play.
What Supplies are Needed?
- Large bin or play kitchen sink
- Beans
- Pink acrylic paint
- Ziplock bags
- Foam paper (pink and red)
What to Do and How to Play?
Paint half of the beans pink in a ziplock bag using acrylic paint and a few drops of water. Shake the bag then leave the ziplock open so the beans can dry.
Expect a day for them to absorb the paint. Once it’s ready fill the sensory bin or play kitchen sink. Cut small and big heart shapes from foam paper or cardboard, and hide them in the beans.
Let your little one dig through the beans to find the hidden heart, then sort them by size. This fun activity provides an opportunity to practice size recognition and make a difference between big and small.
Don’t forget to explore our website for more ideas, you never know what you might find! It’s like going on an adventure, except without having to leave your sofa!
