Valentine's Day Activities for Toddlers

Valentine’s Day may be a Hallmark holiday, but we enjoy it as an excellent excuse to express love and gratitude, and a reason to talk about kindness and friendship. Not to mention the sweet activities for children that go along with it. You can check out my post last year for some ideas and board books for young toddlers. The following activities and books are best for 2-year-olds and up!

Mailbox Valentine’s - This has been D’s favorite Valentine’s activity. She absolutely loves collecting our mail, seeing the mail delivery person, and going to the post office with me. I gave her a simple set of Valentine’s cards, envelopes, “stamps” (stickers), and a marker. The little mailbox came from Target Dollar Spot. She was so intentional about writing on each of her cards and sealing it up to put in her mailbox. Next week we will make some real valentine’s cards to send to friends and family too!

Heart Beading - Beading and lacing has become a favorite of D’s, and this was no exception. I love these heart beads by Melissa and Doug. The set comes with 5 laces that are easier for small hands to use to thread on the beads. I cut the strings to make them easier for her to work with, and set out a smaller set of the beads too. She was much more interested in beading as many beads as possible than actually wearing her jewelry!

Pom Pom Sorting - I like that this activity combines practice with tongs as well as sorting. D mastered this one quickly, so I’ll have to find ways to make it a bit more challenging with different size pom poms! This sorting tray can be used for all kinds of activities as well. The small tongs are also a favorite for serving snack with.

Tea Time - This is an afternoon ritual for us, to sit down and sip tea, golden milk, or some other beverage together. She serves up our plates and pours us each our “tea”. (I set it up for her at her kitchen beforehand.) She loves taking ownership over this and always makes sure my cup is refilled! :) You can find a simliar tea set here!

Heart Matching - I saw something similar on Pinterest, and had to try it with these foam hearts I already had on hand. All I did was cut each heart in half in a different pattern. This would be trickier if you used the same color hearts, but this was still a nice little challenge for D. She had the idea of adding these little wooden hearts on top of each one! ;)

Heart Stamp Playdough - This playdough recipe from I Heart Naptime is just the best - oh-so-soft. I make a batch of playdough at least once a month and it stays fresh in containers or ziplocks. With some fun new tools from Target Dollar spot, D has had a lot of fun making heart “cookies” with stamps. It’s so fun to see how she finds new ways to play with playdough each time!

Love to Pieces Gluing - This was another Pinterest-inspired art activity, and the template is from Little Learning Club. D helped me rip up some colored construction paper and then used a paintbrush and Elmer’s glue to cover the heart. Super simple and fun, and what toddler doesn’t love glue?

Love and Friendship Books - If you have a baby or younger toddler, check out last year’s blog post for board book ideas. This year, I focused on some picture books with the theme of friendship, love, and kindness towards others. In My Heart (as with all the Jo Witek books) is just beautiful. D loves the rainbow of layered hearts, and I love the vivid descriptions of all the ways a heart can feel. It’s great for giving toddlers more words to express themselves. Love is is D’s current favorite. It tells the story of a little girl who finds a lost duckling and takes it in, but also realizing when it’s time to let it go free. As parents, you’ll love the familiar story of raising your own baby. I purchased I Am Love because we’ve really enjoyed I Am Yoga but I will say it’s a bit advanced for the toddler age. I think preschoolers and older would get more out of it. Lastly, A Book of Love is a brand new book that is all about making, keeping, and mending friendships. D loves talking about the emotions of the children, the interactions between friends, and the beautiful and bright illustrations!

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A Montessori Toddler Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! It’s funny how Valentine’s Day changes through the decades. It starts as trading valentines with friends, then becomes date nights out with champagne, and now we’re at date nights in with a child and a bump. ;) I wouldn’t have it any other way though. I get to celebrate love x3 this year.

A new tradition I’m happy to start this year is Valentine’s themed activities for D. With a busy toddler, there is always a need for some DIY on my part to keep her entertained! This holiday just gives me an excuse to make these activity trays a little extra sweet. I hope one or two of these inspire you to spread the love too!

PS. If you are looking for small trays such as the ones displayed here, my go-to site is Montessori Services. Check out the options here. I find most of my larger wooden Trays on Amazon, such as these.

Valentine “mailbox”

This is D’s favorite of her new trays. I found this Valentine’s gift box for $1 at Target last year, and I’m repurposing it as a mailbox. Using an exacto-knife, I cut a small slit in the top of the box. After searching around the house for something to put in the “maibox” I found the letter tiles from Bananagrams (Scrabble tiles would also work). They fit perfectly and D loves the feel of them. They are just the right level of challenge for her to fit into the small slot in her box. When she’s done inserting her “mail”, she can then open up the box and start again.

Heart stickers

D, like many toddlers, is big into stickers right now. I was excited to find this giant roll of heart stickers on Amazon so she can stick to her heart’s content. To set this up, I place about 6-8 stickers on the tray at once, with a small piece of paper. If your toddler is just starting out with stickers, I find it easiest to fold back the paper backing a bit so that the sticker is easier to peel off. She loves filling the page, and beyond!

Pom-pom transferring

I found these adorable ceramic heart bowls at the grocery store (you could probably find similar ones at Target!) and bought them before I knew how I’d use them. Then I found these assorted pom poms on Amazon and decided to make a little transferring tray. I introduced these little tongs for D, and she is starting to get the hang of how to pinch them to pick something up. Sometimes she just pours the pompoms back and forth or uses her pincer grasp - all good options!

Play dough stamping

My go-to play dough recipe is this one, though you can definitely find hundreds of others on Pinterest. I can make it in less than 5 minutes and it makes a large amount that saves well in a ziplock bag. Though D enjoys play dough on its own, she is especially enjoying a couple of tools to use with it, such as these mini rolling pins and heart cookie cutters (well technically my favorite is a heart ravioli stamp!).

Books

We also have a few favorite “Valentine’s Day” themed books right now. Each of these is simple and sweet enough for your toddler to sit through, and (most) are based in reality. My favorite right now is How do You Say I Love You, which is a story of how to say “I love you” in many different languages! Counting Kisses is D’s favorite because I get to kiss her toes up to her head. :)

You are My Heart by Marianne Richmond

Love by Emma Dodd

How Do You Say I Love You? by Hannah Eliot

Counting Kisses by Karen Katz

Snuggle Puppy! by Sandra Boynton

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, you won’t pay anything extra, but I will get a small commission, which helps keep this blog going. Thanks for supporting Montessori in Real Life!