Forget about store bought cut out cards for this Valentine's Day. This guide will give you several ideas to choose from that will help any young child to create special, personalized Valentine's Day crafts. The activities in this article are geared towards a preschool aged population (i.e., ages three through five), but can be modified for older or younger children.
Valentine's Day Heart Collage Activities
The following projects all utilize collage techniques in one form or another to create interesting, unique heart art. It should be noted that the substitution of materials based on availability is always a great alternative.
- Tissue Paper Heart: Precut large paper hearts in red, pink, or white. Give the children different sizes of tissue paper to choose from. Invite the children to tear, cut, and glue the tissue paper to the heart. Point out and encourage the overlapping of paper in collage. Allow the children to create different textures by scrunching and bunching the tissue paper.
- Heart to Heart Collage: Cut out hearts in a variety of sizes and colors. Make some thin and some wide. Have the children glue these onto a piece of construction paper. Encourage them to overlap the hearts in all different directions, and not just glue the hearts side by side in a line.
- Valentine's Day Photo Collage: Ask the parents to send in pictures of people that the children love (e.g., family members or friends). Make sure to tell the parents that these photos will be used for an art project, and will be cut and glued. Cut a large sized heart of a sturdy paper such as card stock or poster board. Help the children to trim and crop the photos so that they can fit within the heart. The children can then glue the photos to the heart.
Valentine's Day Crayon and Drawing Activities
These art projects use crayons and drawing process to create Valentine's Day themed art. In many cases markers or colored pencils can be substituted for the crayons.
- Heart Shape Crayon Rubbings: Precut heart shapes from a thick paper such as cardboard or card stock. Have the children place a thin sheet of light colored paper (construction paper or printer paper can be used) over the heart. Give each child a crayon with the wrapper removed. Demonstrate turning the crayon on its side, and using it like a rolling pin. The children can now roll the crayon on the paper over the heart to reveal its shape.
- Simple Card Drawings: Give each child a piece of construction paper. Demonstrate how to fold it in half to make a card. Invite the children to draw hearts or any other picture.
- Heart Friends: Cut out large hearts from 8 X 11 construction paper (one heart per piece of paper). Ask the children to draw a face on the heart. Add arms and legs with additional strips of construction paper and glue.
Valentine's Day Painting Activities
Using paint can be a messy, yet developmentally beneficial process for any young child. Have fun with these paint made projects, and allow the children to explore on their own.
- Color Mixing: Red and pink tend to be most often used during the Valentine's Day holiday. Instead of giving the children pre-made pink, allow them to explore color mixing by providing only red and white paints.
- Color Splatter Hearts: Cut out hearts from construction paper or poster board. Give the children paints in Valentine's Day colors. Provide a selection of brushes in different sizes and shapes. Invite the children to splatter the paint onto the heart. This is a great activity to use with a lesson on famous artists. Show reproductions or books with works by Jackson Pollack. Ask the children to discuss how he might have created his art.
- Heart Prints: Heart prints can be made in many different ways. These can be created using heart shaped sponges, cookie cutters, or stampers. Children can dip the sponge (or the material that you have chosen) in tempera paints, then stamp it along a sheet of paper.
Collage, crayons, and paint are all fun ways to explore art with young children. Create one (or many) of these Valentine's Day themed projects in the classroom for a very special holiday activity.
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