Fun Littles

Fun and easy kids activities

Valentine Learning Activities with Heart Stickers

Feb 9, 20134,970 views
Valentines Day
Ages2–5 yrs
Ideas12
From1 blogs
Leveleasy
MessLow
Works for1:1 · Small group · Class

One bag of foam heart stickers becomes a week of Valentine's learning for toddlers and preschoolers: sorting, counting, matching, patterns, CVC words and addition. It also gives you a few simple crafts. Two more heart-sticker ideas from another blog close out the list.

⚠️ Safety first

  • Small foam stickers are a choking hazard. Supervise toddlers closely and keep loose stickers and backing paper out of mouths.
  • Glitter stickers can shed glitter. Wash hands after play and keep hands away from eyes.

Before the kids arrive

  • For CVC words: write vowels on the white hearts and consonants on the red hearts.
  • For matching: write a few numbers on paper with a different heart sticker beside each one.
  • For addition: draw heart outlines with plus and equals signs, and write numbers in the first two hearts.

12 ideas

sort foam hearts stickers learning for toddlers

Sort the hearts

Sort the stickers by color, size or pattern. For preschoolers, add a timer and make it a mini game.

Idea from Fun Littles

hearts stickers counting activity

Count glitter hearts

Line up the shiny glitter hearts in rows and count them together. Touching the glitter makes it a sensory experience too.

Idea from Fun Littles

count and macth for valentine's day activities

Match and count

Write a few numbers, each with a different heart sticker. Kids match the heart and collect that many hearts for the number.

Idea from Fun Littles

preschooler learning activities patterns with hearts

Heart patterns

Start rows of glitter-heart patterns and let preschoolers figure out which heart comes next. Adjust the difficulty to age and interest.

Idea from Fun Littles

vowels and consonants

Vowels and consonants

Write vowels on white hearts and consonants on red hearts, then sort them into two groups.

Idea from Fun Littles

learn cvc words with hearts

Build CVC words

Take turns thinking up 3-letter words and build them with a red consonant, a white vowel in the middle and a red consonant.

Idea from Fun Littles

addition for preschoolers hands on valentine activities

Heart addition

Use the hearts as a visual aid. Place hearts in drawn heart outlines to add two numbers and find the total.

Idea from Fun Littles

decorate paper frames for valentine activities

Decorate paper frames

Stick hearts around a paper frame to show off the kids' latest artwork.

Idea from Fun Littles

glitter wand with heart stickers

Glitter heart wand

Stick shiny glitter hearts up a craft stick to make a heart wand. It's great fine motor practice.

Idea from Fun Littles

create critter for valentine activities

Create with hearts

Combine hearts into flowers, butterflies, birds or faces. Make whatever catches the kids' fancy.

Idea from Fun Littles

valentine-heart-craft

Heart tree with stickers

A paper hand-and-arm tree trunk topped with a canopy of heart sticker leaves.

Idea from Putti's World

sticker resist painting

Sticker resist art

Hearts are left white against red paint for a framed sticker resist painting.

Idea from Putti's World

Tips

  • Every time a new holiday rolls around, modify your usual learning activities to match the theme. It gets the kids excited about the holiday and spruces up the usual routine.from the author
  • With a toddler, simply sort by colors, sizes or patterns. With a preschooler, add a time factor and make it a mini game.from the author
  • Something about the glitter made counting more fun. It's a sensory experience too, because they touch and feel the stickers while counting.from the author
  • Based on the interest and age of the child, you can very easily modify the patterning activity.from the author
  • In a 3-letter (CVC) word the middle letter is a vowel, so give the vowels a different colored heart. Take turns coming up with words to build.from the author
  • Sticking hearts on a craft stick is great for developing fine motor skills.from the author

Make it your own

  • Fold two hearts and place them strategically to make a bird.
  • Make a bigger version of the heart creations: see our Valentine's Heart Butterflies post.

The story behind it

By TurkeyMom · February 2013
sort foam hearts stickers learning for toddlers
We would simply sort by colors, sizes or patterns. This was a fantastic exercise I did with my toddler; with a preschooler I added the time factor and made it into a mini game.
1 / 10

Valentine Learning Activities with Heart Stickers: the original post

We are shifting gears today and moving towards some intentional learning Valentine activities. Every time a new holiday season rolls around we like to take advantage of the theme and modify our usual learning activities to go inline with the new season. It gives the kids excitement about the upcoming new holiday and spruces up the usual learning routine. Today we share many Valentine activities using just hearts stickers. I purchased a small box of foam hearts stickers available at many stores now. They come in a clear bag and there are so many different sizes, colors and patterns inside. With so many variations come the numerous learning opportunities for the kids. Here is a run down of Valentine activities you can do with the kids using just stickers.

Sort

This is a fantastic exercise I did with my toddler. We would simply sort by colors, sizes or patterns. With a preschooler I added the time factor and made into a mini game.

sort foam hearts stickers learning for toddlers

Counting

This was a toddler activity as well. My toddler and I simply starting lining up the shiny hearts and counted. Something about the glitter made the counting process more fun. It was a sensory experience as well since she touched, felt the stickers while counting.

hearts stickers counting activity

Matching and 1-to-1 correspondence

This was again for my toddler. I wrote down a few numbers with a different heart sticker for each number. My toddler was invited to match the heart shape and collect hearts corresponding to the number.

count and macth for valentine's day activities

Patterns

This patterning activity was for my preschooler. She loves any kind of patterning exercises and throw in some glitter hearts she is all game for this. Based on the interest and age the child you can very easily modify this activity.

preschooler learning activities patterns with hearts

CVC words

This is by far my favorite. I wrote down vowels on the white hearts and some consonants on the red ones. I pointed out that in a 3 letter word (cvc) the letter that comes in the middle is a vowel and hence we have a different colored heart for that. We took turns coming up with words and my preschooler built those cvc words with the hearts. We will definitely be visiting this activity quite often.

vowels and consonants

learn cvc words with hearts

Addition

We have to do an addition activity with such cute manipulatives. With these hearts as a visual aid, addition comes naturally.

addition for preschoolers hands on valentine activities With the foam hearts stickers we also did a couple of crafty Valentine activities.

Decorate paper frames

Very simply, we used the heart stickers to decorate a paper frame for the art the kids make almost on a minute by minute basis.

decorate paper frames for valentine activities

Glitter hearts wand

We stuck the shiny glitter hearts on a craft stick to made a heart wand ( that’s what she calls it) This activity was great for developing fine motor skills.

glitter wand with heart stickers

Create with hearts

Have you seen our hearts butterflies? This one is a teeny tiny version. Create anything that catches the kids’ fancy. We love nature so you will see more of that in our creations. Yesterday she made a bird with 2 strategically placed folded hearts.

create critter for valentine activities My favorites from around the web

Hearts Trees with stickers

Click on the image to take you to the original post

valentine-heart-craft

Fantastic sticker resist art

Click on the image to take you to the original post

sticker resist painting

Other Valentine’s day crafts we have done.

Thanks for reading

What readers say

No comments yet. Be the first to tell us how it went.

Tried it?

Reviewed before it appears. No links, and please no children's names.

Similar activities