Making crafts can be a wonderful way to teach little one’s motor skills. These could be skills such as learning to cut paper, glue things together, mold clay, folding paper or cloth and measuring things. Now that Valentine’s Day is upon us, there are many fun valentines crafts for preschoolers that will enforce the use of these skills. Children are naturally curious, and they love to learn. When we make it fun for them, they learn even faster. Below is a list of some of our favorite Valentines crafts for preschoolers.
Best Valentines Crafts for Preschoolers
Heart Garland
To make heart garland you need construction paper, glue, and yarn. Let the kids pick their favorite colors after all hearts don’t have to be just pink and red!
- Cut the construction paper into heart shapes.
- Next, fold each heart in half making sure to have a solid fold line.
- Glue the yarn on the bend of the heart.
- Continue this process with the next heart, spacing the hearts a few inches apart on the yarn. This is a fun and simple craft that the kids will love!
When the garland strings are done, decorate the house with the garland by hanging it from chandeliers, stair rails or anywhere that the kids would like.
Heart Charms
Little heart charms are one of our favorite valentines crafts for preschoolers and can be made from buttons and put on small chains, string or yarn. Choose buttons that are fairly large so that they are more easily handled by little hands.
- Paint hearts or arrows on the buttons to decorate them. If you do not have buttons or want to make buttons, you can use clay to make flat round, square or heart-shaped clay discs. If you are using clay you will need parchment paper for the kids to roll out the clay (or smash it flat). Once they have the clay flattened out (about ¼ inch thick), have them cut their shapes with a plastic knife and poke a hole in the center for the chain or string (the clay will need to dry overnight to be used). Once the clay is dry, the clay buttons can be painted and decorated.
- To create the charm, slip the chain or string through decorated buttons.
- If you do not want the buttons to slide, tie a knot on each side of the button.
- Tie the ends together in a knot if it will be a bracelet. If not being used as a bracelet, tie a knot on one end and create a loop knot on the other end so that the charms can be hung on the wall or added to mom or dad’s keychain.
This is a fun craft that preschoolers will enjoy and learn new skills as well as putting their own creativity to work!
Valentine Heart Necklace
Some of our valentines crafts for preschoolers may be a little bit harder for little ones, and they may need some help. You will need yarn or string, beads, foam paper sheets, and a hole punch.
- Cut the foam paper into hearts, about 2 inches in diameter and use the hole punch to create a hole at the top of the heart.
- Cut yarn or string to the length desired for the necklace and then loop the yarn or string through the hole, being sure that the string is even lengths on both sides. Then tie a knot so that the heart stays in place.
- String beads on both sides of the yarn.
- Once you have all the beads you want on each side, tie a knot at the ends of the string to close the necklace and keep the beads in place.
The perfect handcrafted piece of jewelry from your little sweethearts!
Heart People
Making heart people is a fun and simple craft that preschoolers and older children can make. You will need a few supplies to get started: construction paper, glue, scissors, markers or crayons, and a few optional items like googly eyes and glitter.
- First, have the kid’s cut a heart out of pink, red or white construction paper.
- Next, cut strips of paper for the arms and legs and folder them back and forth like an accordion.
- Once the strips are ready for the arms and legs, have the kids glue them to the heart that they cut out.
- The last step is to decorate the heart by coloring a face and adding some pizazz. The eyes can either be drawn or substitute with googly eyes.
More Valentines Crafts for Preschoolers – Valentine Tree
Who says trees are just for Christmas!? You will need construction paper, beads, glue, and yarn. Start with green or white construction paper and draw the shape of a Christmas tree or in this case Valentine tree (help may be needed).
- Cut out the tree and set it to the side.
- Next cut small hearts (white, pink, red or any color they would like) to use as ornaments for the tree.
- Once all the hearts are cut out and ready, glue the hearts and beats on the tree.
- Use the yarn as garland for the tree and glue it into place.
Have the kids sign their name to their work of art and display the tree in a place of honor so that they can show off their work to everyone!
Heart Butterfly
We combine butterflies and hearts for our next valentines crafts for preschoolers. Heart butterflies are a good craft for toddlers and up. To get started you will need clothespins, red acrylic paint, construction paper, glue, white pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and scissors.
- Paint the clothespins and set them aside to dry
- Fold construction paper in half. From the crease of the paper cut a heart but leave the crease connected so that you end up with two connected hearts.
- Cut smaller hearts to glue onto the connected hearts so that the hearts appear layered (create at least one layer but you can have as many as you want).
- Once the clothespin is dry, pinch the end of the clothespin open and place it where the hearts are connected in the center.
- Glue the google eyes to the top (face) of the clothespin.
- Glue two of the pipe cleaners (cut in 3-inch pieces) to the top of the clothespin to create antennas.
Voila! Cute heart butterflies to keep or give away to mom, dad, siblings or friends.
Valentine Mobile
Mobiles can be a fun and easy craft that is sure to spark your preschooler’s creativity. You will need dowel rods (12 inches long), yarn, construction paper, ribbon, and glue.
- Cut the construction paper into hearts, different colors and sizes.
- Cut strips of yarn (5 pieces per mobile) in 3 different lengths. The longest piece will be the center strip for the mobile, the next longest pieces will go on either side and then the shortest pieces will be on each end. We recommend 6, 8 inches and 10 to 12 inches for the lengths.
- Glue the hearts onto the yarn spacing them apart an inch to two inches apart down the length of each piece of yarn.
- Tie each piece of yarn to the dowel rod, spacing them apart along the dowel rod.
- Cut a piece of ribbon approximately 12 inches long. Tie the ribbon to one end of the dowel rod and tie the other end of the ribbon to the opposite end of the dowel rod.
Hang the mobile where everyone can see the art your little one has created!
Homemade Valentine Cards
Homemade Valentine cards are the best! Kids get to be creative and practice writing. To get started you will need construction paper, glitter, glue, crayons or markers, tissue paper, and scissors.
- Let the kids pick the color they want their card to be. Have them fold the piece of construction paper in half.
- Next is the creative part. Have them cut hearts out of construction paper, and tissue paper as well as arrows or any other shape they would like to decorate their card with. Glue the hearts, arrows and other shapes to the front of the card.
- Place dots of glue on the front of the card and sprinkle glitter on top of the glue.
- Once the glue is dry, have the preschoolers write inside of the card whatever they would like for the person they made the card for. Have them practice writing words and signing their name on their Valentine’s Day cards.
We hope you enjoyed our article on fun and easy Valentine crafts for preschoolers. Now it’s time to pull out the craft supplies and let your little ones get creative. If you haven’t already, make sure you visit Summit Children’s Center for a tour, and take a look at our website for more tips, tricks and advice when it comes to child care and preschool.
