Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for Valentines Day
Books
Rhymes
Queen of Hearts Nursery Rhyme
The queen of hearts,
She made some tarts
All on a summer’s day.
The knave of hearts,
He stole those tarts
And took them clean away.
Songs
Printables
Valentine Treat Bag Toppers
Valentine Picture-Word Cards
Valentine Lacing Cards
Look for the Valentine Bingo game on the Bingo Games page.
Look for the Valentine Grid Game on the Grid Games page for math.
Valentine Alphabet Game
Valentine Letter Sounds Mats Set 1
Valentine Letter Sounds Mats Set 2
Candy Heart Patterns
Candy Heart Sorting, Counting, Graphing
Activities
Valentine Mailbag
[Art]
The simplest Valentine holder is a white lunch bag. Children decorate their bag with heart doilies, Valentine stickers, paper hearts, and crayons.
Valentine Mailboxes
Read about how to make these mailboxes with recyclables.
Tissue Hearts
[Art]
I trace a heart onto white paper with a black Sharpie. Children put red and pink tissue paper squares on the heart by painting over the pieces with liquid starch. When they are dry, the children cut out the heart.
Doily Hearts
[Art]
Every year (so far), the Dollar Tree has had these doily hearts. The children painted these using Colorations liquid watercolor with Q-tips. The Q-tips worked great with the liquid watercolor.
Valentines Class Book
[Literacy]
Children dictate the rest of the sentence: “I love ___” and draw a picture to illustrate. To make our class books, I use “presentation book covers” from an office supply store or Walmart. It has a sturdy plastic cover with a clear insert, and the pages are also clear inserts. I just slip in a page for the front cover, and slip in the children’s pages inside. These can be reused.
Story Retelling
This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling
Valentines Sorting
[Math]
I use a heart shaped Martha Stewart craft puncher to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Give each child a bowl of assorted paper cutouts. Have them sort the paper cutouts onto the sorting sheet and glue them on.
Sorting Sheet
Valentines Patterns
[Math]
I use a heart shaped Martha Stewart craft puncher to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Children glue the cutouts on the paper pattern strip. You can do AB, AABB, ABC, ABB, AAB, etc.
Pattern Grid
Valentines Counting
[Math]
I use a heart shaped Martha Stewart craft puncher to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Print out the numeral sheets. Have children count out the correct amount of paper cutouts to glue onto the numeral.
How Many Hearts
[Math, Large Group]
Cut about ten pink and ten red hearts from construction paper or craft foam and place the hearts on the floor. Call on two children to come collect some hearts: “Zoe, come find 2 pink hearts. Brady come find 4 red hearts.” Ask the children to lay the hearts on the floor in a row and have the class count together to see how many hearts there are in all.
Queen of Hearts Tarts
[Cooking]
Children make their own tarts by mixing two spoonfuls of cream cheese with two spoonfuls of strawberry preserves in a cup. They spread the mixture onto vanilla wafers, and add red hots.
Packets Available from “Teachers Pay Teachers”
