Toddlers love doing activities and crafts, and anything you can do to keep them from dumping the trash can in the toilet, painting the walls with permanent marker, or destroying the house is a plus. However, activities and crafts can, also, be educational. Here are 5 Educational Valentine’s Day Activities for toddlers!
#1 Valentine’s Day BINGO
BINGO is fun for kids of all ages and can be played with multiple age groups. You can help your kids recognize Valentine words, Valentine pictures, or numbers and letters. These are all PK skills they need before they start Kindergarten. Valentine BINGO is easy to make on Microsoft Word, or you can download FREE printable Valentine’s BINGO cards. Use conversation hearts as markers, so your kids can eat them when they are finished playing.
#2 The Very Hungry Heart Caterpillar
Read the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to your toddler. Talk about all the things the caterpillar ate, and what happens to the caterpillar after it comes out of its cocoon. Make a very hungry heart caterpillar for Valentine’s Day. Using printable hearts, your toddler learns to use fine motor skills to color, cut, and glue their caterpillar together while understanding the science behind caterpillars and butterflies. You can also make your own hearts to use which helps develop writing skills. To further this craft, you can have your toddler glue their caterpillar onto the center of a big heart transforming it into a butterfly with wings.
#3 Make Finger painted Heart Cookies
Grab some cookie dough from the refrigerator section at the grocery store, or make your own sugar cookies with your favorite recipe. This skill helps your toddler with fine motor skills, creativity, and measuring skills. To make hearts on your cookies:
- Mix red food coloring with egg whites (teaches science).
- Dip your toddlers thumb in food coloring mixture.
- Make one fingerprint at an angle towards the lefts
- Make another fingerprint next to the first at an angle towards the right to make a heart shape.
#4 Teach Colors with a Heart Candy Box
Knowing colors is an important part of learning. Using a heart candy box, you can easily teach your toddler their colors using circles and dauber markers. Here’s what you do:
- Pull all the paper and candy out of the heart candy box.
- Cut out a heart that will fit inside the heart candy box.
- Trace several circles on the heart cut out and put color words on them.
- Glue the heart shape into the candy heart box
- Give your kids some dauber markers to stamp each color word with the right color.
- For each correct color, give them a piece of the candy that was in the heart candy box.
You can also use this idea for teaching numbers, shapes, and letters like a file folder game. Let them match heart pieces to the matching letter, number etc.
#5 Let them Make Their Own Cards
Making Valentine’s Day cards is a great way to let your toddler master their fine motor skills in handwriting, letter recognition, name recognition, and word recognition. Print out a traceable “Happy Valentine’s Day” Heart. You can also make traceable Valentine’s Day cards on Microsoft word by fading out the words. Use Valentine words like: love you, hearts, be mine, hugs, kisses, and friend.
When it comes to Valentine’s Day, you can make any activity into an educational activity. What other educational activities do you do on Valentine’s Day? Share them in the comments below!
Amanda Goodenough
Sunday 1st of January 2017
What cute ideas! I love kids crafts for the holidays to do with my neices. They will be visiting this time in February so ill have to try these!