Valentine's Day Themed Centers and Activities

A Valentine’s Day theme can be filled with activities that promote friendship and love! I’m here to share with you all of my favorite, go-to Valentine’s Day themed activities I use with my preschool and pre-k students. I also have a Candy Heart Pattern game FREEBIE for you, too, later in this post!

You can find all of the Valentine’s Math and Literacy Center printables in my Valentine’s Math and Literacy Centers and the STEM Valentine’s challenges HERE.

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>>Grab the FREEBIE here!<<

Take the Valentine’s Day theme to the blocks center by adding a few new props and books. Post Valentine’s Day themed STEM posters on the wall to challenge students to build something new. Add pom poms, mini eraser hearts, buttons, and Valentine’s Day books! The blocks center will look inviting to your students!

Put Valentine’s Day, friendship, and love-themed books on the bookshelf. My all-time favorite Valentine’s Day book is The Day it Rained Hearts! Check out a detailed Valentine’s Book List HERE.

Valentine’s Day vocabulary cards, paper, envelopes, and stickers always get my students excited about the writing center. Add different size hearts for students to cut out too. Making Valentines for friends and family gives students an authentic reason to write and draw!

Valentine’s themed sight word practice is a must. My pre-k students pick a card, read it, build it with letter manipulatives, and write it with a dry-erase marker. My three-year-old students do the same activity using letters. They pick a letter card, identify the letter, build it by finding the letter manipulative, and write it at the bottom. Beginning sounds with a Valentine’s Day twist. Students match the stamp (sound) with the corresponding envelope (letter). Make a Valentine’s Day themed writing tray using salt and sprinkles. Students will want to write letters! It’s also a very calming activity. You can also write sight words, numbers, and shapes in the writing tray.

The trays are from a lacing set I purchased from the Target Dollar Spot.

The sensory bin is filled with pink, white, and red rice. Add measuring cups, measuring spoons, heart eggs, and heart pans to create a Valentine’s Day bakery. When you add measuring cups, you are sneaking in measurement too!

Make a Love Monster play dough tray to strengthen those little fine motor muscles. I cut up beads and pipe cleaners for the tray. I found heart beads at the Dollar Tree. Students will be rolling, poking, and manipulating the play dough to create cute love monsters.

Make Valentine’s necklaces with cut straws and heart beads. Students (or teachers) cut the straws and lace items on the string to create their necklaces. Lacing develops hand-eye coordination and strengthens pencil grasp.

I Love You to Pieces craft is an easy way to sneak in some cutting practice. Students cut paper strips to create their hearts. Super simple and a treasure that parents will love!

When you think of Valentine’s Day, you think of candy hearts! So I made this candy heart pattern FREEBIE BELOW for you! There are paper hearts included, too, if you don’t like using food for games. Students practice extending and creating AB, ABC, AAB, and ABB patterns.

>>Grab the FREEBIE here!<<
A box of chocolates is full of shapes. Students pick a shape card, identify it, and cover the matching shape in their box of chocolates. Valentine’s Day mini erasers are the perfect size to cover the shapes. Valentine’s Cover Up is a fun counting game for my little learners. If you make a rule that the player has to have the exact amount to end the game, it gives students the opportunity to review about more and less.

Want to practice addition? Play the game using two dice. Students roll the dice, add, and cover up the total. Candy heart measure! We are always measuring with a variety of objects and tools. For this game, students measured how many hearts tall each object was. And I did allow students to eat their candy at the end of the game. Valentine Number Dot it is a way for students to practice identifying numbers. Try using stickers to cover up dot-it games. Sometimes all you need is just a new twist on a game that makes it super exciting (like stickers)!

To create Valentine’s collage paintings, students paint with red, purple, and pink. When the paint is still wet, students put tissue paper, ribbon, glitter, and/or lace hearts in the paint. Be sure to mix some glue in the paint to make sure the collage materials stick. For extra fun, cut the paper in the shape of a heart!

Don’t be afraid of this messy activity! Art is messy, but the process is a learning experience, and the finished product is worth it! Don’t stress about the mess. Cover the table with a tablecloth to make clean-up quick. Heart cookie cutter art is another fun art activity (and less messy). Students make prints by stamping the cookie cutters in the paint.

Friends stick together just like magnets! Explore and investigate magnets in the science center is the perfect study for a Valentine’s Day theme. Explore what magnets are the strongest using magnet sensory bottles, what is and what is not magnetic on a sorting board, and make magnet robots! Grab my All About Magnets science unit from my TpT store HERE.

Change the dramatic play center into a Post Office! You can sneak in tons of literacy play experiences into their play at the Post Office. Students can write cards, address envelopes, mail, and deliver the mail. Check out how to change your dramatic play center into a Post Office HERE.

Skip all the creating and grab all my Valentine’s Day Math and Literacy Centers printables HERE. All you need to do is print, prep, and teach! Grab Winter STEM challenge cards (which include Valentine’s Day, winter, and Christmas themes) HERE.