Ten Valentine's Day Activities for Little Children

Jan 21, 2011
Lorelei Sieja

Frosted Sugar Cookies Are Always Popular - photo by R. Steven Rainwater

Ten fun activities for preschool and toddler children, including music, movement, sensory play, art, science, and literature.

Valentine's Day is a fun holiday children look forward to as soon as the Christmas decorations are taken down. It is a time to exchange cards with friends, and make gooey art projects to adorn the family refrigerator. This month, focus on teaching your child the heart shape, the color pink, and the words "Valentine, friendship, forgiveness." Depending on your child's skill level, you might teach the number fourteen. Here, then, is a short list of Valentine's activities, whether you want to host a party for preschoolers, or just entertain your own little ones.

Bury Chocolates in Pink Rice

Color about 20 pounds of white rice with pink and red food coloring or tempra paint. Directions here. Place in a sand/water play table or large plastic container. Bury small, wrapped Valentine's Candies in the rice. Children will love digging through the rice to discover the treats! You can spread a sheet beneath the rice table, to aid in clean up. When the candies are gone, give children measuring cups and spoons, scoops, small cars, shovels, pitchers, and other small toys to play with in the rice.

Make Peppermint-Scented Playdough

Mix up a batch of your favorite home-made playdough (see recipes here), but add a teaspoon of peppermint extract and pink, white, and red food coloring. Set out cookie cutters and rolling pins to go around. Children will love the scent as they make yummy playdough cookies. Watch them – some will want to take a bite! Thankfully, homemade playdough is not toxic.

Make Valentine's Cards

Set out paper doilies, glue sticks, heart shapes cut from red, pink, white construction paper, gummed foil stars, scraps of ribbon, and other craft materials. Let children make their own Valentine's cards to share with parents and grandparents.

Play Musical Hearts

Set large, cardboard cutout heart shapes of varied colors on the floor (about nine or ten inches big). Play music, and children dance around the room. Stop the music, and everyone scrambles for a heart. There should be enough hearts for EVERYONE. Preschool children are not mature enough for competition, such as in traditional musical chairs, where there are not enough chairs to go around. Once everyone is on a heart, call out a color. Everyone who chose to stand on a heart of that color, wins a piece of candy or chocolate. You control the game, calling out a different color each time, until all the children have won at least once.

Read a Valentine's Day Story

There are many to chose from, such as The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond, or The Story of Valentine's Day by Nancy Skarmeas. Check out your book early – or all the library books will be taken! You may want to read a dozen Valentine's Day books in the library yourself, then purchase two or three from a bookstore that you prefer.

Make Heart-Shaped Cookies Together

Make your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Roll it out and let your little children make cookie cutouts with a heart-shaped cutter. Bake according to recipe directions, then cool and frost. You can spread white or pink frosting over each cookie, then let your children decorate with sugar sprinkles, colored jimmies, cinnamon hots, or even holiday M&Ms. Serve with a glass of milk at the end of your party, or as desert after dinner.

Toss Valentine Bean Bags

Bean bags are easy to make and a wonderful toy for young children. They love to throw things! Bean bags are cheap, don't go very far when thrown, and don't hurt much when you get one in the face. Cut out some heart shapes from a sturdy pink or red fabric, stitch almost all the way around. Partially fill with dried beans (navy beans, lentils, something small). Sew the gap closed, and you're done! If you do not sew, or cannot find someone to sew them for you, there are a couple of other options. You can buy some pink or white socks. Put some beans in the toes of each sock, and tie a knot in the sock just above the beans. Or, put a handful of holiday M&Ms in a freezer zippy bag, zip shut and toss. In a real pinch, just throw some Beanie Babies around.

For a target, cut out some holes big enough for the bean bags to pass through in a large sheet of cardboard. Paint it and let it dry. Stand it up in a doorway, or against a table.

Finger Paint With Shaving Cream

Children love to fingerpaint! But if you're throwing a Valentine's Day party, chances are that some of the kids will be dressed up in pretty clothes. Shaving cream makes a great substitute paint, and it is easy to clean up. You can spray shaving cream directly on the table top, and let the children smoosh it around. You can sprinkle red food coloring or tempra paint on top, but then make sure the children wear paint smocks. You can sprinkle red-colored sand in the shaving cream for a different texture. When each child finishes, he simply wash his hands, and you can remove the excess cream with a paper towel. Then spray some fresh shaving cream for the next child.

Make a Valentine's Matching Game

Cut out pairs of Valentines from colored foam, attach a refrigerator magnet to the back. Then, depending on the skill level of your children, write matching letters, pictures, or numbers on the Valentine's. Mix them up. Place a cookie sheet on the table for children to match the pairs, or put them in front of the refrigerator. You can label one set of Valentines with upper case alphabet letters, and the other set with lower case. You can label one set with numbers, and the other set with dots to represent the numbers.

Explore What Happens When You Mix Colors Together

This project doubles for both science and art! Set a sheet of colored construction paper in the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan. Help child to drizzle small puddles of red and white paint on the paper. Then add two marbles to the pan. The child tilts the pan to roll the marbles through the paint. See what happens when the red and white mix together? The child should be able to see red lines, white lines, and pink lines in his picture. Remove the marbles, and let his picture dry.

With a little planning, you can turn this Valentine's Day into a special memory for your little ones. Don't forget to take pictures!