Preschool Valentine Games - Will You Be Mine, Valentine?

Valentine's Day is a favorite for children since itlarge heart shapes from construction paper or
provides an opportunity to express their love forcardstock.
the important people in their lives as well as aNext, cut each of the hearts in half length-wise.
clever excuse to eat candy. It's also a great timeWrite a number on the left side of the heart, and
of the year to incorporate some preschooldraw that many dots or small hearts on the
valentine games into the lesson plan to reinforceother side. Next, mix up the halves and try to
the central theme of love.see if the children can match the numbers with
Most of these games focus on the theme orthe correct amount of dots or hearts.
image of the heart, which is central to Valentine'sHere's a fun game that has children identifying
Day festivities. Also, since Valentine's Day is apictures on a heart shape. Cut out one heart for
non-secular holiday, parents won't raise anyeach child in the class. Next, have the children go
objections to these preschool valentine games.through magazines to look for interesting pictures
While the most obvious of the preschool valentineof animals, people, flowers, or anything else they
games is the making of and distribution offind intriguing. Once they've decided on a picture,
decorated or store-bought valentines, don't bethey cut it from the magazine and paste it to the
afraid to move beyond this classic activity. Aheart.
great variation of the valentine making game is toAfter all the children have finished, gather the
have each child make a valentine for their familyhearts and place them in a bag. One at a time,
using paper, paint, glitter, stickers, and whateverchildren pull a heart from the bag and identify the
other art supplies are on hand.picture on the heart. They can also try to guess
Once the valentine is completed, place it in anwhose heart it is.
envelope and help each child write their addressYummy Sorting Game!
on the envelope. If time and the weather permits,Last but most certainly not least for these
take a short field trip with the children to the postpreschool valentine games is one that uses little
office so that they can mail the valentines to theircandy hearts to help children with their sorting and
families.matching skills. Place a small amount of candy
Heart Numbershearts in a bowl and have children sort them
Some preschool valentine games allow children tobased on color or words. Try to see if they can
work on their sorting and matching skills. Forfind two identical hearts. Once the game is over,
example this game called "Heart Numbers", hasthe clean up is simple- children get to eat the
children matching numbers with the correspondinghearts!
amount of dots or hearts. Cut out a number of