Let love take center stage this Valentine's Day through heart-to-heart connections with your kids, Mama! These are most appropriate for kids aged 3+ but use your best judgement about your little one's readiness and interest!
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Valentine's Day Activities: Preschool + Up
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ACTIVITY #1: Musical Hearts
This fun interactive activity for kids all ages gets them moving and burns some energy.
ITEMS:
Cut out hearts (Self-made or purchased from a craft store)
Sharpie or marker
Music playing device like a phone or tablet
DIRECTIONS:
Write different activities on the hearts (run in place, give a high five, do ten jumping jacks, skip across the room, bark like a dog, sing your ABC’s, hug someone)
Place them on the floor in a circle
Ask the kids to walk in a circle while the music plays
When you stop the music, they pick the heart closest to them and perform the activity.
Repeat for as long as you would like.
If you have older kids, let them create and write the ideas. Lauren shares, “My 10 and 7-year-olds love creating their own ideas and adding some really fun ones to the circle.”
ACTIVITY #2: Finger Painting Heart Craft
Create a masterpiece or a gift for family members!
ITEMS:
Cut-out hearts (Self-made or purchased from a craft store)
Full-size paper or construction paper
Finger paint
Tape (Painter tape works great)
Paper plate
DIRECTIONS:
Use the same heart cutouts from Activity #1
Tape it to the center of a white piece of paper
Add finger paint to the paper plate and allow the kids to paint around the heart
Once it dries, carefully pull off the heart
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ACTIVITY #3: Letter Match
My 4 and 6 year olds LOVE this activity. Easy to modify for older and younger kids -- instead of matching letters, match upper and lowercase, or even make it math by writing numbers on the hearts and math problems on the paper. For younger kids, try drawing shapes on the hearts and matching shapes on the paper, or putting dots on the hearts and the corresponding numbers on the paper. The possibilities are endless!
ITEMS:
Cut-out hearts (Self-made or purchased from a craft store)
Large sheet of paper (Or use chalk outside)
Markers
DIRECTIONS:
Write each letter of the alphabet on the cut out hearts.
Write each letter on the piece of paper (or on the sidewalk in chalk)
Ask the kiddo to match the letters on the heart to the letter on the paper.
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ACTIVITY #4: Candy Heart Pickup
This is simple but great for all ages! Littles practice working with the tongs to strengthen their fine motor skills, while older kids challenge themselves to stack the most hearts in a certain amount of time.
ITEMS:
Candy hearts
Small tongs or large tweezers
DIRECTIONS:
Make small piles of candy hearts on the table.
Ask each kiddo to use the tongs or tweezers to stack the hearts.
Instead of stacks, try forming letters, numbers, and shapes too
ACTIVITY #5: VALENTINE’S SNACKS
Heart-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls:
ITEMS:
Pre-made cinnamon rolls
Sheet pan
Parchment paper
DIRECTIONS:
Line the sheet pan with the parchment paper
Unravel the cinnamon rolls
Let the kiddo reform the roll in the shape of a heart
Heart Shaped Quesadillas
ITEMS:
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Your favorite quesadilla recipe
DIRECTIONS:
Follow your recipe to create quesadillas for your family.
Using the cookie cutter, create hearts out of each quesadilla