Celebrating Valentine’s Day in an early years setting can be a wonderful way to help children understand concepts of friendship, care, kindness, and appreciation for others.
Here are some suggestions:
Crafts: Organize craft activities like heart-shaped paper chains, decorating paper hearts, or making heart-shaped sun catchers. Crafts not only encourage creativity, but they also help in developing fine motor skills.
Sensory Play: Set up Valentine’s themed sensory bins with red and pink rice, pompoms, heart-shaped items, and other related items for children to explore.
Acts of Kindness: Use Valentine’s Day as a chance to focus on kindness. You could have each child say something nice about another child, help a friend with a task, or do something helpful for the class like cleaning up toys.
Cards: Have the children make Valentine’s Day cards for their friends, family, or each other. Provide various craft materials like cardstock, scissors, glue, glitter, stickers, and markers. Encourage children to write kind messages or simply draw pictures inside the cards.
Early Years Enhanced Planning Brainstorm Valentine’s Day