Valentine's Day Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Oooh, bring on all the lovey dovey happiness of Valentine’s Day! I love getting to teach my little guy about love and kindness and how to be a loving little guy to the people around him. So, what better time to REALLY drive that point home than Valentine’s Day?!
So, I’m sharing some of my favorite activities to do with toddlers and preschoolers for this lovely holiday! Scroll down to check out these quick, fun ways to play and learn this February!
1. Valentine’s Day “Play and Learn” Activities
The activities where kiddos can learn new things while they just feel like they’re playing are my absolute FAVORITE kind. :) Little learners definitely learn so much through play, so these fun activities are intended to feel like play, but be practicing important skills too.
Inside these busy books and busy boxes, your kiddos will find activities for practicing matching pictures, tracing, sorting by color, identifying letters and numbers, counting, naming shapes, and even coloring and covering for some fine motor practice! My little guy has so much fun with these, so we pull a new one out for each season and holiday. :)
2. Valentine’s Day Books
READING TIME!! Such a simple, but precious activity to snuggle up with your little one and read together. Toddlers and preschoolers LOVE that one on one time with you. :) And, the more you read for yourself AND read to them, the more they see that behavior modeled and want to do it too. So, I’ve linked to some of my all-time FAVORITE Valentine books HERE (FOR LITTLES) and HERE (FOR KINDER).
Sensory bins are a GREAT way to get your kiddos learning and playing at the same time too! I love pulling out a container of dry beans or pom-poms and adding in some buttons, mini erasers, or even just different-colored beans! My little guy loves to just dig his hands in there and play.
You can create sensory bins by tossing your favorite filler (like dry beans, rice, oats, pasta, pom-poms, vase-fillers, etc.) into a container and then adding some fun activity cards or learning component to it. My toddler just turned 3 and we usually use dry pinto beans (with lots of mini erasers and pom poms) to practice matching pictures, letters, or numbers. These Valentine's centers and activities are perfect to throw into a Valentine’s sensory bin for your toddler or preschooler this year! :) And here are a few other Valentine sensory bin activities for your littles too!
4. Valentine’s Hands-On Centers
Something else we do together all year round is hands-on centers. This basically means any kind of activity that has your little ones using their hands, bodies, and brains all together to complete an activity. As kids get older, activities tend to get less “hands-on” and more paper/pencil related. And, while there’s nothing wrong with paper/pencil activities, it’s usually best for younger kids to learn through playing and using their bodies to practice and internalize new skills. SO, hands-on centers give us a fun way to play and learn WHILE using our bodies. We do a lot of sorting, matching, running back and forth from one spot to another, playing games, and singing songs to learn the early literacy and math skills that my kiddo needs to learn. These love themed centers make up the bulk of the learning activities that we do together and they’re perfect for toddlers and young preschoolers.
Practicing letters is another activity that I feel you just can’t get enough of! Your little ones will benefit so much from being exposed to letters as early (and often) as possible. Pointing out and naming letters as you go through your day is a great way to build early literacy skills. Another way we’ve been learning letters is through playing with some simple puzzles and matching activities! This free Valentine’s alphabet match activity is simple enough for little ones to play with, but definitely will build your learners’ letter knowledge and recognition. This free activity is in my Free Resource Library! Just click below to sign up to get the password and download your freebie!
6. Valentine’s Day Crafts
Making crafts together is such a sweet way to play and learn together too! I love letting my little one paint or get out the glue to make something together. So, I pulled together a bunch of sweet Valentine’s Day crafts on THIS PINTEREST BOARD and linked to a couple free craft projects below too. Check out whichever are best for you and your kiddos!
Beary Special Valentine's Day Craft
And last, but DEFINITELY not least, FREE ACTIVITIES!! Check out a few Valentine’s Day activities that are totally FREE and great for your little ones. Click any title below to hop right to the resource!
Valentine’s Day Literacy and Math for Littles (Just hop on the email list HERE to get the password!)
Free Color Sorting Sensory Bin
Free Valentine's Day Shapes Sensory Bin
Valentine's Day Shape Sort Sensory Bin Activity
Valentine's Day Letter Recognition Game
Valentine's Day Number Counting Towers
Valentine's Day Cutting and Tracing Lines Fine Motor Skills
If you want ALL these activities for your little ones, CLICK HERE to grab the Valentine’s Activities Bundle! I hope these Valentine’s ideas and activities will help you and your little learners enjoy this lovely time of year while playing and learning together! Feel free to drop a comment below or email me if you have questions or if I can help with anything. So happy to do that!
Cheering you on!
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