Activities Using Valentines For Kids

We happen to have lot of heart shaped cookie cutters. Some came in a set we got years ago in a gift exchange.  We have used them in lots of different ways.(Making cookies, creating fun lunches, and exploring learning concepts in sensory bins.)  We must recently used them to create a valentines for kids activity.  There were two main skills I wanted to work on while this activity was being done. I wanted  to work on visual discrimination and fine motor skills.

The First Activity For Valentines For Kids

This activity with valentines (hearts) could be used with young children as well as children in the lower grades of elementary school.  The first part of the activity is to have your children trace each of the hearts onto a piece of construction paper. You could have them trace them with a pencil, crayon, colored pencil or marker. The hope is that they will spread out their tracings so, this heart filled paper can be used for the fine motor activity. Some of our hearts ended up overlapped  a tiny bit and was were still able to complete the activity.

Activity with Valentines  For Kids Tip One

We used only one color to only to trace our hearts. You may decide it is easier for your children to see each of the hearts more clearly if they use different colors to trace them. That choice is yours.

Activity with Valentines  For Kids Tip Two

It may be hard for the children to hold the cookie cutter and place and trace it. You may want to have two children work on this activity together. One child can hold the cookie cutter and the other can trace it.

Activity with Valentines Hearts Tip Three

Some cookie cutters have a sharp edge and flat edge. You will want to make sure that children use the flat edge face up.  You could always place masking tape over the sharp edges to eliminate the chance that children might touch it.

The Second Activity with Valentines For Kids

Once all of the hearts have been traced, children will need to try to place the correct cookie cutter onto the correct tracing. Some of our heart shaped cutters looked very similar. Each tracing had to be looked at carefully to find its match.  A second element of the cookie cutters we used made matching a little tricky. Some of the cookie cutters were tilted or had a twist at their base. It was important to make sure that the right side of the cookie cutter was facing down. The right cookie cutter might not look like it was matching if the wrong side was down.

Activity with Valentines  For Kids Tip One

You may want to borrow some heart shaped cookie cutters from a friend to make sure that you have enough of a variety of heart shaped cookie cutters.

These are really simple activities, but I think they both cause use their fine motor skills along with visual discrimination.

Here are some more heart or valentines for kids activities:

Five Little Valentines Craft and Song

Valentine’s Day Alien

Valentine’s Day Puzzle Find

Activities Using Valentine’s Day Cards

If you try any of these valentines for kids activities, please leave me a comment below telling me about it  or share a picture of it on my Facebook page.