10 Ways to Celebrate Valentines Day at Your Childcare Center

Valentine’s Day is a perfect opportunity to celebrate love, kindness, and creativity with your young learners. As early childhood educators, it’s essential to provide activities that promote developmental milestones while fostering an environment of warmth and positivity. In addition to celebrating the holiday, incorporating seasonal activities can also help connect children to the world around them, allowing them to observe and explore the changing environment, weather, and traditions in meaningful ways.

This blog shares 10 simple, fun, and meaningful Valentine’s Day activities that you can implement in your childcare center, helping young children explore the season in a hands-on, child-centered way. These craft ideas not only focus on the spirit of Valentine’s Day but also support children in connecting with the broader seasonal changes they experience.

Process Art and Product Art for Child Development

Before we dive into the activities, it’s important to distinguish between process art and product art. Product art focuses on creating a finished, adult-directed outcome, such as matching a pre-drawn template. In contrast, process art emphasizes the experience of creating, allowing children to explore materials, express themselves, and engage in creativity without the limitations of a prescribed final result. The valentines themed activities in this blog are designed to focus on the process—encouraging children to express themselves through play and exploration while achieving developmental milestones. Let’s explore how you can use these toddler and preschool activities to spark creativity, learning, and fun for your little ones this Valentine’s Day!

1. Heart-Shaped Collage Creations

A heart-shaped collage is a fantastic way to introduce children to textures, shapes and different colors. Start by cutting heart shapes out of construction paper, and then invite the children to glue on stickers, scraps of colored paper, or even fabric. This is a great activity for young learners (2-4 years old) as it encourages fine motor skills, creativity and decision-making.

Developmental Milestone:
This activity promotes fine motor skills as children practice gluing and placing objects on paper. It also enhances hand-eye coordination as they focus on placing pieces on the heart shapes, fostering their tactile development and creativity.

2. Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

Create a Valentine’s Day sensory bin using materials like large pink and red pom poms, pipe cleaners, heart shaped cookie cutters, coloured sand or rice and small scoops and cups. Children can sift, pour, and sort these objects, allowing them to experience tactile sensations while learning about different textures and shapes.

Developmental Milestone:
This sensory activity helps children with sensory exploration and fine motor development as they manipulate objects. Sorting and categorizing objects by shape or color also encourages early cognitive development.

3. Love Bug Hunt

Using paint and large construction paper cut out different shaped “love bugs” and organize a “love bug hunt” by hiding the paper bugs around the classroom or playground. After they find their love bugs, they can decorate them with valentines day stickers or draw on them.

Developmental Milestone:
This activity supports gross motor skills as children bend, reach, and stretch to find the hidden love bugs. It also encourages problem-solving skills and spatial awareness as children follow clues or use a map to locate the bugs. The addition of decorating the bugs enhances fine motor skills.

4. Valentine’s Love Bugs (extension of Love Bug hunt)

Using paint and large construction paper cut out different shaped “love bugs” that children can decorate (crayons, pencil crayons, markers, paint all work so use whatever you have on hand or the children are specifically interested in that day). Once the prints are decorated, they can add googly eyes, pipe cleaners for antennae, and stickers for decoration.

Developmental Milestone:
This activity fosters hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as children grasp paintbrushes or crayons and position objects on their artwork.

5. Special Valentine’s Day Cards for Loved Ones

Children can make Valentine’s Day cards for family members or friends by folding a piece of construction paper and decorating it with stickers, crayons, or even handprints if they choose. This personalized activity allows children to explore the expression and emotions while focusing on motor skills in a fun way. You can ask the children if they would like to dedicate the card to anyone and help them by writing out any messages they want it to say.

Developmental Milestone:
Creating Valentine’s Day cards encourages emotional expression and promotes social development as children think about their loved ones. The act of coloring, sharing messages and gluing small items supports fine motor development and literacy skills, especially as older children practice writing their names or sharing with their educators what messages they would like the card to say, such as “I love you.”

6. Valentine’s Day Sensory Bags

Fill a Ziploc bag with various Valentine’s-themed objects like heart-shaped confetti, colored pom-poms, and stickers. Seal the bag and use strong tape to tie them down to a table in the classroom. Let children explore the materials inside by pressing, squishing, and moving the contents around. This is an easy-to-prepare sensory activity that invites exploration.

Developmental Milestone:
Exploring a sensory bag provides excellent opportunities for developing fine motor skills as children squeeze, press, and manipulate the contents. It also introduces them to the concept of cause and effect and promotes cognitive skills by allowing them to discover how objects inside the bag move and shift.

7. Valentine’s Day Themed Sorting Activity

Provide children with a set of Valentine’s-themed objects in various colors, such as red, pink, and white items (paper hearts, pom-poms,and heart-shaped stickers). Have them sort the objects by color, shape, or size. To further the activity you can get cups of various sizes and label the cups based on the items the children are sorting. The children can then use small tongues to try and pick up the items and put them in the corresponding cup.

Developmental Milestone:
Sorting activities build early cognitive skills by promoting categorization and pattern recognition. It also enhances fine motor skills as children manipulate small objects, and encourages early problem-solving as they figure out how to organize the materials.

8. DIY Valentine’s Day Banner

Help children create a festive banner by cutting out heart shapes from construction paper and stringing them together to form a garland. This activity provides a great opportunity for children to work together, choose their materials, and practice hand-eye coordination as they work with you to string the hearts onto the twine. Help children put their name on their decorated hearts and display the garland on the front door of the classroom, above the cubbies or on a classroom wall so children can see and share their work with their families.

Developmental Milestone:
This activity supports fine motor skills as children decorate their hearts and then work together to string them on the twine. It also encourages social skills as they collaborate on a shared project and take pride in the finished result.

9. Heart-Shaped Playdough Fun

Set up a playdough station with red and pink playdough as well as heart-shaped cookie cutters and various tools like rolling pins, stamps, and plastic knives. Children can roll, cut, and shape the playdough into shapes, creating their own little valentine masterpieces.

Developmental Milestone:
This activity fosters fine motor development as children manipulate the playdough and use tools. It also encourages creativity and imagination while offering opportunities for children to practice pincer grip and hand strength as they roll and cut playdough into shapes.

10. Valentine’s Day Heart Stamping

Provide children with various heart-shaped stamps or a heart-shaped cookie cutter to dip in paint and stamp onto paper. This easy-to-set-up activity allows children to experiment with colors and patterns, making it a fun and simple Valentine’s Day craft.

Developmental Milestone:
Stamping promotes fine motor skills as children grasp and press the stamps. The repetitive motion of stamping helps develop hand strength and hand-eye coordination. This activity also encourages creativity as children decide how to fill the paper with their heart designs.

Conclusion

Valentine’s Day is an excellent occasion to celebrate love, kindness, and creativity in your childcare center. These child-led valentines day celebrations are all designed to promote developmental milestones, including fine and gross motor skills, cognitive development, emotional expression, and social skills.

Interested in more developmentally appropriate play-based and seasonal activities for toddlers and preschoolers? Lillio Learning, powered by FunShine Express, provides a thoughtfully designed curriculum created by educators and experts. With comprehensive physical and digital resources tailored for children aged 0-5, Lillio Learning offers valuable support to busy educators. Discover how it can enhance your teaching approach today. Learn more here.