Some cute heart themed invitations to play, craft ideas and books to use for Valentine's Day or anytime you feel like something heart themed.
As a parent or educator, we want our little ones to know how much they are loved and cared for. Heart and love themed invitations, books and crafts are a perfect way to remind our children how much they mean to us and help them to explore the meaning of love. Valentine's Day is the perfect time for some heart themed play. Read on to find out some of the ways we have been exploring this theme in our play at home.
⭐️ The ideas in this blog post contain small parts that are recommended for children ages 3+ as they are a choking hazard. All play and craft activities were supervised by an adult.
Ideas for Play and Learning about love for children
Fill the Heart - Invitation to Play
This was a fun invitation to play, that Miss 5 and I did together. We used our a Grapat mandala pieces to fill the heart shape made by using our Grimms rainbow stacking hearts outside pieces.
Miss 5 decided to fill the heart colour by colour. I got photos of a few of them, but not all. We ended up using all the different colours.
This was a fun and easy heart themed play idea.
Rainbow hearts using different colours.
Heart Shaped Craft
This was another simple idea that I have seen made many times. I cut out a heart shape from cardboard and stuck clear contact paper on the back, so the heart shape was sticky.
Miss 5 enjoyed sticking tissue paper confetti pieces and sequins onto the heart.
When she was finished, we put it up onto our window with some blue tac.
It looks very pretty with the sunshine behind it. This would work even better with cellophane for a more transparent look.
Heart Mindfulness Painting
This was a creation by Miss 5 using our mindfulness mats (see blog post here).
She enjoyed painting this heart using her watercolour paints for some relaxing time spent creating. This makes a cute Valentine's Day craft!
Sensory Play with a Heart Labyrinth
This was a simple set up with some pink coloured rice and our heart labyrinth from Array of Whimsy. It was a lovely invitation for some mindful play for Miss 5. She enjoyed filling the labyrinth with the rice.
Pink and Red Heart Themed Sensory Tray
This sensory play tray was for Valentine's Day last year. It was inspired from a similar sensory tray that Miss 5 played with at school.
We used:
Pink rice
Heart ice cube tray from Kmart
Grapat pink flower mandala
Grapat rings and coins
Heart shaped beads from Kmart
Pink and red puzzle pieces
Grimms stacking bowls
Scoop
This type of tray could be set up with any pink and red themed toys or loose parts that you have at home.
Always in my Heart Craft
This is a really simple, but fun craft idea for kids. All you need is pipe cleaners and beads.
Bend the end of the pipe cleaner to keep the beads on and get your child to thread the beads on. They may do a pattern, or just choose some favourite colours. It doesn’t really matter either way.
When the have finished threading, twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together and bend it into a heart shape.
We made our hearts before Miss 5 started school to remind her that she will always be in my heart even when we aren’t together. She kept the hearts we made in the front of her school bag the whole year.
Love Themed Bookish Play
Another simple play idea. We read the book 'You are the Love in my Heart'. I paired the book with two little bears that we got from Kmart and a couple of our Grimms hearts.
A few simple props are a great way to invite some play after reading the book. They don't need to be fancy - get creative with what you already have.
In My Heart - A book about feelings
This is another beautiful book about feelings that goes well with the heart and love theme. This time we paired it with our Grimm's rainbow hearts puzzle for some simple heart themed play.
Heart and Love Themed Play Ideas
I hope you enjoyed looking at and reading about our heart themed ideas for play, craft and a couple of books to read. Heart themed play is really sweet for little ones and can open up a discussion about love and other feelings through play.
I hope you found some inspiration to use with your own child for Valentine’s Day or any day that calls for something sweet and heart themed.
Until next time, have fun learning in a playful way!
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You might also like this blog post and mindfulness mats for kids.
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