Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to bring love and learning together with engaging, hands-on activities for early learners. These Valentine-themed journal ideas are not only fun but also promote essential literacy and math skills. Here are 10 creative activities you can include in your Valentine journal for early childhood education.
Matching Hearts
- Provide cut-out paper hearts in various colors.
- Children match and glue the pieces onto corresponding hearts in their journals.
- This activity promotes color recognition, fine motor skills, and matching abilities.
Color Code Shape Bugs
- Create Valentine bugs using different shapes (e.g., circles, triangles, squares) on printables.
- Color each shape according to a key (e.g., red for circles, blue for triangles).
- Great for reinforcing shape recognition and following directions.
Heart Symmetry with Dot Markers
- Provide half-dotted hearts and ask children to replicate the pattern on the other half using dot markers.
- This activity helps develop symmetry awareness and fine motor skills.
Math: Color by Code
- Use addition and subtraction problems as color codes to fill Valentine-themed pictures.
Example: Solve 3+2, and color all spaces with “5” in red. - This combines math practice with creative expression.
Real vs. Nonsense Words
- Write real and nonsense words on heart cutouts.
- Kids sort them by gluing real words into an envelope and “trashing” nonsense words.
- A fantastic way to build phonics and decoding skills.
Stamp the Heart Words
- Shape a paper roll into a heart and use it as a stamp.
Kids stamp the heart words (e.g., come, does - that cant be decoded) in their journals. - This activity reinforces sight word recognition in a fun, creative way.
Skip Counting in the Candy Jar
- Draw or use a printable of a candy jar.
- Write skip counting sequences (e.g., 2s, 5s) and fill the jar.
- Helps children practice skip counting and number patterns.
Word Family Dice Game
- Write word families (e.g., -at, -an, -it) on dice and onsets (e.g., c, b, r) on hearts.
- Kids roll the dice and match the onset to make real words.
- Encourages blending and word family practice.
Vowel Sorting with Words
- Write words on a large paper roll and on the end draw envelopes labeled with short vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u).
- Kids circle the word by vowel code and drag to the corresponding envelope.
- This activity sharpens vowel recognition and sorting skills.
Count Forward with Cookies on a Tray
- Create a big cookie jar with a heart and write a number on it. Draw some more hearts next to it.
- Kids add the next few numbers to “count forward” and complete the sequence.
- A simple way to introduce forward counting skills.
Enhance Learning with Looms
Looking for more structured resources? Explore Learning Looms for early education. These annual subscription resources cover:
Phonics Loom: Hundreds of activities for blending, sight words, and decoding skills.
Math Loom: Interactive tools for skip counting, addition, subtraction, and more.
Early Education Loom: Topics like prewriting, symmetry, visual discrimination, and logical reasoning.
With free updates for a year and engaging themes, Learning Looms make teaching fun and effortless for homeschool parents and teachers alike.
Here’s a list of additional 30 Valentine-themed activities perfect for kids aged 2 to 6:
Creative Art and Craft Activities
- Heart Handprints: Paint hands and stamp them to form heart shapes.
- Valentine Cards: Decorate cards with stickers, glitter, and stamps.
- Paper Plate Love Bugs: Use a paper plate, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes to make a love bug.
- Tissue Paper Heart Collage: Glue torn tissue paper onto a heart template.
- Marble Painted Hearts: Roll marbles dipped in paint over a heart-shaped cutout.
- Lacing Hearts: Punch holes in heart shapes and let kids lace yarn through them.
- Fingerprint Heart Art: Create heart patterns using kids’ fingerprints.
- Heart Suncatchers: Use contact paper and tissue paper to make suncatchers.
- Heart Crowns: Craft crowns with heart shapes and decorate with stickers and glitter.
- Love Tree Craft: Make a tree trunk and add heart leaves with fingerprints.
Sensory Play Activities
- Valentine Sensory Bin: Fill a bin with rice, pom-poms, heart-shaped trinkets, and scoops.
- Pink Playdough Fun: Add heart cookie cutters and beads for Valentine-themed creations.
- Frozen Heart Rescue: Freeze small hearts in ice cubes and let kids melt them with warm water.
- Heart-Shaped Sand Mold: Use molds to shape hearts in kinetic sand.
- Rose Petal Water Play: Add rose petals and heart-shaped toys to water play bins.
Literacy Activities
- Heart Letter Match: Match uppercase and lowercase letters on heart cutouts.
- Valentine Word Hunt: Search for Valentine-related words (e.g., love, hug) in a simple grid.
- Name Tracing with Hearts: Write names in heart outlines for kids to trace.
- Valentine Letter Bingo: A bingo game with letters instead of numbers.
- Heart Word Families: Match onsets and rimes to build CVC words (e.g., “c-at”).
Math Activities
- Heart Counting Cards: Count hearts and match them to the correct number.
- Shape Sorting Hearts: Sort heart cutouts by size or pattern.
- Candy Heart Graphing: Sort and graph candy hearts by color.
- Heart Addition: Use heart cutouts to solve simple addition problems.
- Heart Number Line Jump: Jump along a heart number line to practice counting.
Movement and Active Play
- Heart Scavenger Hunt: Hide paper hearts and have kids find them.
- Cupid’s Arrow Toss: Toss straws (arrows) into heart-shaped targets.
- Heart Hop: Hop on large paper hearts placed on the floor.
- Valentine Freeze Dance: Dance to music and freeze when it stops.
- Heart Relay Race: Balance a paper heart on a spoon and race without dropping it.