Valentine’s Day is coming up. This year, you swore to yourself you were going to be “on top of it” and plan themed activities for the children in your life. Whether it be for your classroom, therapy sessions, or your children at home. But, Valentine’s Day snuck up on you. Or you have run out of fresh ideas. No worries, we’ve got you covered!
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Hi, Chelsea here! I have been a certified speech-language pathologist, fancy name for a speech therapist, since 2015. And while the first paragraph description above is usually me 😉 I am here to share some simple, low prep, tried & true Valentine’s Day activities. These will be implemented in all of my therapy sessions with kids 0-5 and adapted for a few of my older kids as well. I will also use them at home with my toddler and preschool age child too!
For a downloadable version of this post, with a printable game, picture examples, instructions, and affiliate shopping links, check out the Valentine’s Day Activity. You can also find it in our Resource Library along with a bunch of other FREE resources!
Activities
Sensory Bin
I. Love. Sensory Bins. Any of the families I have ever worked with can probably attest to this. And many of them may cringe a bit when I walk into their home carrying one. Because no matter how diligent I am, I know I always leave at least 14 grains of rice or a handful of oatmeal on their floor when I leave. Dear parents, I am sorry. Dear children, you are welcome for the session of fun and new sensory experiences 🙂
Children benefit from learning in a multi-sensory way. That is, when they can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear something, they learn more quickly. It takes significantly less exposure to learn a multi-sensory concept than it does to learn it in a two dimensional way (e.g. worksheets).
When we create a bin of themed items amidst a filler, such as beans, rice, pretend snow, slime, rocks, etc. we activate natural curiosity. Natural curiosity sparks true learning. Think about the last time you looked something up on your phone … why did you do it? Because you were curious about it.
Now, because children are very curious about manipulating the items in the bin, they are often more quiet during this type of activity. This is OK. Of course, many people think – “you are a speech therapist, you want them to talk”. While the answer to this is “yes”. I have learned in my years of experience and LOTS of hours of training, that understanding is more important than expressing.
How to Make a Sensory Bin “Therapeutic”
During a sensory bin, it may look like we are just digging in some beans, but I make it “therapy” by using some of the following evidence-based strategies:
- Observe Wait Listen: a strategy that will be covered in a couple weeks in our “Waiting” Blog post, stay tuned. But basically I observe their response, wait *quietly*, and listen to the child’s interest and communication. Then, I respond.
- Self-Talk or Parallel Talk: this is where you describe (also known as modeling or narrating *next week’s blog topic*) what you are experiencing or you describe what you perceive the other person is experiencing. During a sensory bin, I may say things like “this slime is so squishy and sticky” or “I wonder where the car went… dig down… here it is!”.
Make the Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin
For this bin, I used White Rice as my filler. Then, I added some Fuzzy Stick hearts and Craft Poms. I like to use Scoops & Tools or even random little containers, measuring cups, etc that I have laying around the house. Last, I added Mini Muffin Liners that correspond to the color of craft Poms for the purpose of sorting.
When I use sensory bins in therapy, I have a few different sized bins I rotate between. At home, this bin is currently in our water table! It is a novel, fun way to engage the kids, because it is so big and they cannot believe I brought the water table inside!
Play Doh Bar
I would say my love for Play Doh is just about as strong as my love for sensory bins. Similarly to all the good things I discussed about sensory bins above, Play Doh is another great multi-sensory activity.
If you search the internet for “preschool” or “toddler activities” you will likely find something similar to this. I did not reinvent the wheel. But, it is a tried and true activity in both therapy and my home.
How to Make Play Doh a Learning Activity
- Modeling: I talked a little about this above, but it is worth mentioning again. When we talk about what we are doing, children benefit from hearing it. With Play Doh, I model action words the most: “push down, pull it, poke-poke, roll”. When I utilize the “bar” style activity, I model what I am putting in and how… “Push down flat… Now my heart cutter. Put it on, push it, cut it!… Little purple poms, push, 1, 2, 3”.
- Expansion & Extension: This is where we take what a child says and expand it just a bit. So, if a child says “pink” when you open their Play Doh, you could say “Pink Play Doh”. Or you could say “You took the pink Play Doh out”.
- Structured Choices: This is a great strategy for children – it gives them the power of choice, but you get to control what they are choosing. For instance, your child indicates they are thirsty. You are obviously not going to let them have the coffee you are drinking, so instead you offer “milk or water?”. They feel important because they got to choose, but you ultimately controlled what they could choose. Within this activity, you can ask about the items they want to add to their Play Doh. “Big or little hearts”, “Pink or Purple Poms”, “Poms or Hearts” etc.
Make the Valentine’s Day Play Doh Bar
For this bar, I used some different colors of Play Doh and various sizes of Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters. Then, I made various sized hearts and curly Fuzzy Sticks. Craft Poms and Popsicle Sticks are also fun additions.
We decorated hearts and made “love bugs”. I organized all of the supplies in a muffin pan. A topping organizer is another good option that you might have readily available in your kitchen.
Crafts
Craft activities are always a fun approach to engage children in a creative way. Allowing for creative expression and manipulation of a variety of novel materials will spark some new vocabulary or learning opportunities. Plus, many craft activities support fine motor development too!
While many of the strategies discussed above could also be applied to crafts, I tend to use crafts to focus more on pragmatic language. This is also known as social language, so the way we use language rather than its content or form.
- Initiation: This is both an executive function and a social skill. The act of starting requires a bit of fore-planning to know how and where to start.
- To support all of this, I put out the materials and an example of what the craft looks like, and then I wait. Try not to tell the child how to start. Let them try to plan, problem-solve, and start themselves. Maybe they do, and that is self-initiation. Or maybe they don’t know how to start, so they look to you for help. This is conversational initiation. Either are great skills to develop!
- Turn-Taking: This is where children learn the rules of taking turns. This could be done non-verbally, with sharing the craft materials. Or verbally, also known as conversation maintenance.
- Non-Verbal: I intentionally set up times when I extend my turn with an item- say a certain marker, so the child naturally has to wait an extra few seconds. If they try to take it from me, I gently show them how to rest their hands and I say “waiting hands”. Or, I show them how to hold out their hand to wait for me to place the item into their hand rather than grabbing it.
- Verbal/Conversational Maintenance: I may describe the colors I am using and then wait quietly for them to describe their heart. Try to avoid overuse of questions, as this can put a lot of pressure on the child, and it may feel like “testing”. I talk about questioning vs. testing in my blog post 7 Tips for Reading With Children.
Tie Dye Hearts
Make the Tie Dye Hearts
Gather Coffee Filters, Markers, and a Spray Bottle. I also recommend a towel or paper towels, because it can be messy – it may stain!!! Cut the coffee filters into heart shapes, of various sizes. If your child is learning, or has scissor skills, allow them to cut some as well. Color on the coffee filters, leaving space between markings. I tend to use circles and lines, spaced out, to allow the colors to run when sprayed. Next, fold the filter and place it on a towel. Spray it a few times, wetting, but not soaking. Refold and respray as needed. Unfold and lay flat to dry.
Torn Paper Hearts
Make the Torn Paper Hearts
First, I cut Construction Paper into long strips. Next, I draw hearts onto White Paper with the same color Markers as the strips I cut. Then, I have the child tear the paper strips into small pieces and Glue them onto the matching colored hearts.
Book List
If you don’t know it already, you will know it soon – I LOVE Books!! I use books in most therapy sessions and we have a home library of hundreds of books. It is actually a bit of a problem. But the best kind of problem, I suppose.
Check out 7 Tips for Reading With Children to learn how and why reading is so important AND learn some practical ways to make it a reality in your day! We also have a Book List in our Resource Library for 0-4 year olds.
Below is a list of 10 Valentine’s Day books, separated into “toddlers” and “preschoolers”. I discuss this in my reading blog post, but the age ranges I give for my book lists are not hard and fast, however they can be a helpful guide for parents.
Toddler Valentine’s Day Books
The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Peekaboo Valentine
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose
Preschooler Valentine’s Day Books
Happy Valentine’s Day Corduroy
Happy Valentine’s Day, Little Critter
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
Games
I, like many other therapists, like to use games in my sessions. Whether it be board games or active games, they are great tools to make therapy a little more fun! I also am a firm believer that the use of games in the home can build family relationships and help members spend intentional time together. Games, no matter the difficulty level, can help build a number of skills including executive functioning and social language.
Now, it may be tempting to use electronic games as a way to entertain your child, but I discourage the use of this for young children and discourage the overuse of this in older children. We will have a post coming in a few weeks, as part of our Language Development Series that expands on this. Also, you can check out our Screen Time Alternatives from our Resource Library for more information and ideas.
Therapeutic Strategies for Games
Similarly to crafts, you can target initiation and turn-taking, but to add some additional strategies, you can also target:
- Following Directions: Using rules, described in a simple, but sequential way, helps children learn time concepts (e.g. first, next, last). It also teaches the novel vocabulary that is associated with each game.
- Adjust games and rules as needed for age and receptive language level, but provide the rules, in order, and help your child follow them.
- Try to use the vocabulary “first, next, then” or “first, second, third” and pair with a visual, if needed.
- This specific game provided below, if printed and used as is, also has simple directions for children to follow.
- Asking/Answering Questions: While this is never my go-to language strategy, asking and answering questions is important. I usually educate and encourage parents to use less questions, but games are a great time to use them.
- Ask who should go first, or for a child with more advanced language skills, why someone should go first.
- After playing for a bit, pretend you don’t know what to do next and ask “what should I do?” to encourage the child to describe for you.
- If a child’s language skills are appropriate, encourage your child to ask you questions. I shape this by doing something silly or out of order and wait to see if they ask me about it or correct me. If not, I will provide a model “Miss Chelsea, why did you go to that spot?”.
Make the Musical Hearts Game
Print the hearts at the end of Activity Pack onto Construction Paper, or other printable paper. You can choose to use the ones with questions and directions or the blank ones depending on your child’s level. You may need to print extras if you have more than 1 child. Cut them and place them on the floor in a circle (or heart shape for extra fun). Turn on some music and stop it periodically. Whatever heart your child is on, have them flip it over and do what it says. Remove their heart from the circle once they complete the action until there are no hearts remaining.
Valentine’s Day Themed Foods
While I did not make this an official part of the Valentine’s Day Activity pack, I wanted to include some additional information here, as I love to incorporate food into just about everything. Here is a list of 5 low prep food ideas:
- Strawberries, Raspberries, & Blueberries dipped in chocolate: this could be melted chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, or chocolate pudding.
- Heart Shaped Quesadillas: melt some cheese, beans, and/or cooked meat into a tortilla shell and cut it with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Add some salsa for extra veggies and some red color.
- Heart Shaped Pizzas: shape some pizza dough into a heart and top with your favorite toppings.
- “Love Bugs”: slice a few different fruits + peanut butter and chocolate chips and allow your child to build bugs. Alternatively, slice some vegetables + hummus or ranch dip and build bugs.
- Heart Shaped Cheese & Crackers: Use a cookie cutter to cut cheese into hearts. Serve with crackers. Add some cherry tomatoes or pepperoni for some red color.
One thing to consider when making fun holiday-themed foods is artificial dyes. It makes food fun, especially during holidays, but we know there are a lot of negative effects associated with them.
Try to opt for a natural food dye rather than a synthetic one. Super Natural is one brand we use: https://amzn.to/3LjSd0Q. They have dye powders as well as sprinkles. Watkins is another artificial dye-free brand and they can often be found in big chain grocery stores or at: https://amzn.to/4sKPFtw. You can also make things colorful with foods that are red, pink, and purple in their natural form.
References:
Hanen Center, (2024). Expand the Child’s Message. Retrieved from: https://hanen.org/getmedia/3c175ef6-a1ef-4126-89cc-c7589e02163a/The-Hanen-Centre-Language-and-Literacy-Tips-December-2024.pdf?ext=.pdf
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