Valentine's Day Preschool Activities: Play & Learn Preschool

It's raining hearts. Valentine's Day activities are so much fun and I am sharing over 20 Valentine's themed activities for your preschoolers from my Valentine's Day Play & Learn Preschool Unit. Each unit is full of activities that work with toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary aged students. 

Each Play & Learn preschool unit comes with a calendar of activities that you can use with your children or students. A planning calendar has been included for one week or you may choose to spread the activities out over two weeks and a calendar has been included for that as well. As with all Play & Learn Preschool units, you can do all the activities or just some and can do them in one week or spread out over the course of several. You do what works best for your children and family.

Each unit comes with a list of suggested books to read while you are completing the units. This is a list of books that I have personally vetted and my children have enjoyed, but there are many others out there that I am sure your children would also love. Be sure to read through the books to make sure they align with your family's values before reading them to your children. The activities (with the exception of one craft in this unit) are not dependent on any specific books.

Valentine's Sensory Play

Valentine's Day Sensory Bin: There are numerous materials you can include in a sensory bin that will provide hours of fun for your children. Crinkle paper, colored rice, sand, sprinkles etc. are all wonderful options. 

Valentine's Day Letter, Number, Shape & Color Activities 

Each of the Play & Learn Preschool Curriculum Holiday & Seasons units will focus on reviewing all of the shapes, colors, numbers, and letters. This unit focuses on all letters, hearts, all shapes, and all colors. 

Love Letter Match: This activity is one of the cute printables from the unit and works on matching capital and lowercase or capital and capital letters together. 

Dot Marker Resist Art Hearts: Dot markers are one of my favorite preschool materials. These resist art hearts are so much fun to make and will leave the kids oohing and ahhing of the blank space left behind. 

Color Word Heart Sensory Bin: I love being able to incorporate activities into existing sensory bins. This printable activity practices identifying and reading color words. 

Eating Shapes Love Monkey: This cutie monkey is hungry and he LOVES to eat Valentine shape cookies. Kids will love identifying the shapes on each card and feeding them to the monkey. 

Valentine's Day Number Sense & Counting Activities

These activities work on practicing counting, 1:1 correspondence, and number identification. 

Spoon & Count Hearts: This activity not only works on counting, but is a wonderful motor skills activity that practices transferring. Children will spoon hearts into a bowl and while they do they will count each heart. These little plastic hearts are wonderful for this activity. I got mine years ago at the Dollar Tree. 

Counting Hearts: This activity can be completed in several different ways, but the end result is the same: practice counting hearts. You will write numbers in cupcake wrappers or a muffin tin and then children will work to count out the corresponding amount of hearts into each one. Another options would be to create some playdough "cupcakes" in each muffin tin, use a number stamp to stamp the top of each one and then put the corresponding number of sprinkles on each cupcake. 

Box of Chocolates Counting Cards: Each one of these cards has a different number of chocolates in each one. You can use brown playdough, pom poms, or even real chocolates to count out how many are on each one. This activity is great for practicing 1:1 correspondence. 

Box of Chocolates Counting Mat: This activity practices counting when given a number. You can use brown playdough, pom poms or real chocolates. Simply write a number in the box at the top of the mat and then children will count out the corresponding number of "chocolates" onto the mat. Repeat with other numbers. 

Valentine's Day Math Activities

These Valentine's Day math activities focus on counting, tally marks, and graphing. 

 

Valentine's Day Count & Tally + Graphing: These activities are spread out over two days and focus on counting, tally marks, and graphing. 

  

Candy Hearts Sort & Graph: Candy hearts (or conversation hearts) are an iconic Valentine's Day candy. For this activity, children will sort out the candy by color and then graph their results. 

Valentine's Day Literacy Activities

These Literacy activities practice ending sounds, sight words, CVC medial vowel sounds, and name writing. 

Mailing Letters Ending Sounds: Children will have fun mailing each of these letters as they identify the sound they hear at the end of each of the words when they say the picture on each letter. Once they have identified the ending sound, they can place it in the mailbox. You can create the mailbox by attaching the printable mailbox to box with a slit cut into it or if you have little tin mailboxes you can use those too. 

Who Stole the Cookies: Sight Words: For this activity, you can take the sight word cookie cards and place them in your sensory bin (or use them by themselves). Children will take a sight word card for out of the bin, read the word, and place it on their cookie jar mat. 

Box of Chocolates CVC Word Medial Sounds: Children will identify the medial Vowel sound in each of the CVC words represented on this Medial Sound Chocolates Mat. You can use brown playdough, pom poms, or real chocolates to cover each of the words. 

Sticker Names: For this activity, you can write your child's name on a piece of paper for them to trace or they can write it and then use heart stickers to trace their name. 

Valentine's Day Spiral Review + Motor Skills Activities

The activities on this section of the calendar are included in each unit so that your children can continually be practicing the basic skills (letters, numbers, shapes, and colors). Each of our base curriculum units (A-Z) focus on a specific letter, number, shape, and color, but I feel it is important to continually practice seeing all of them together as well. These activities will also often practice fine and gross motor skills. 

Salt Painted Heart: This is such a fun and exciting craft idea that kids are always amazed at. You use liquid glue and trace out a heart and then cover it with salt and shake off the excess. Then you will use liquid watercolors to "paint" the salt. As you touch a spot of the salt the color will run and color more of the salt. Once it is dry it looks so neat. 

Arranging Flowers In A Vase: This one can be completed with either real or fake flowers, but is a fun way to practice arranging something in a vase. Another option, that increases using those fine motor skills, is to place each stem in the holes of a colander. 

Foam Heart Sorting: Foam hearts often come in a variety of colors and shapes. Children will sort the hearts by color and/or size. 

Valentine's Day Salt Writing Tray: These are always such a hit with my kids when practicing writing their letters, numbers, and drawing their shapes. I use a wooden tray from a Melissa and Doug toy for mine and it works perfectly. To create colored sand, you can add some food coloring or liquid watercolors to some salt in a bag and shake to cover. Dry out on a tray before using. Children then use the included letter, number, and shape cards to practice writing them in the sand. 

Valentine's Day Crafts & Other Activities

The activities in this section of the calendar are usually crafts or other hands on activities. 

Hedgehugs Fork Painting: This activity is the only one in this unit that goes along with a specific book, Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson, but it's fun to do regardless if you have the book or not (but I highly recommend it because it is the sweetest). Forks make the perfect "paintbrush" to create the spikes on a hedgehog. To create the spikes, dip your fork tines in some paint and use it as a stamp on the Hedgehog printable included in the unit. 

Valentine's Day Playdough Tray: Kids love playdough. My kids love having little playdough kits, but also love when we switch it up and use a playdough tray. For this one I put some red homemade playdough in the center of our veggie tray (Dollar Tree has these cheap) and then added some heart cookie cutters, heart table scatter, and some fake flowers.  

Valentine Straw Necklaces: For this activity, cut apart chunks of Valentine's themed/colored paper or plastic straws and then lace them onto some string to create a necklace. 

Torn Tissue Paper Hearts: This is a cute craft that can be used for Valentine Cards for family and friends. Cut out a heart from construction paper and then use tissue paper or construction paper torn into pieces and glue it to the heart. Glue the finished heart to a piece of paper and write "I love you to pieces." 

Valentine's Day Themed Journal Printables

Journal Activities + Narration: These printables are included as Day 5 activities in case you are looking for something to do on Day 5 in your week (the curriculum is only 4 days of activities) or to add in throughout the rest of the week. These are just extra and can be skipped entirely if you would like. For the weekly narration, you can have your child retell one of the books you read from the week and then draw a picture to match.

Want the Plans & Printables?

Grab the calendar, lesson plans, and printables for the entire Valentine's Day Preschool Unit here.

Plans on TPT: Valentine's Day Play & Learn Preschool

Plans on ETSY: Valentine's Day Play & Learn Preschool

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Bundle on TPT: Play & Learn Preschool Bundle

Bundle on Etsy: Play & Learn Preschool Bundle

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Read more about the curriculum here.