The concept of celebrating Valentine's Day with young children can be lovely if approached appropriately. It can be a positive experience if the focus is on love, friendship, and kindness rather than romantic love. The following article provides information on Pros and Cons Of Celebrating Valentine's Day, Themes For Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Activities For Children and more.
Pros and Cons Of Celebrating Valentine's Day
Pros:
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Social Skills: It can be an opportunity to teach children about kindness, friendship, and showing appreciation for others.
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Creativity: Activities like making cards or small crafts can engage their creativity.
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Inclusiveness: Celebrating with peers can foster a sense of community and inclusiveness.
Cons:
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Commercialization: The holiday can sometimes lean heavily on commercial aspects, which might not be suitable for young children.
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Misunderstanding: Young children may not fully grasp the concept of Valentine's Day and might misinterpret its meaning.
Themes For Valentine's Day
Here are some themes you might consider for celebrating Valentine's Day with young children:
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Friendship: Focus on the importance of friends. Activities could include making friendship bracelets, drawing pictures for friends, and discussing what makes a good friend.
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Family Love: Celebrate love within the family. Activities could include creating family tree crafts, making thank-you cards for family members, or sharing stories about favorite family memories.
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Kindness: Encourage acts of kindness. Activities could include a kindness challenge, where children do something nice for others, or making kindness jars with notes of positive actions they can do.
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Animals: Incorporate animals into the celebration. Activities could include making animal-themed Valentine cards, reading stories about animals and love, or crafting animal masks.
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Heart Shapes: Use heart shapes as a central theme. Activities could include heart-themed art projects, making heart-shaped cookies, or playing games like a heart scavenger hunt.
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Colors: Focus on Valentine's Day colors like red, pink, and white. Activities could include color-themed crafts, decorating the room with these colors, or having a red and pink dress-up day.
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Nature: Celebrate love for nature. Activities could include a nature walk, creating flower arrangements, or making bird feeders.
Choosing a theme can help structure the celebration and make it more engaging and enjoyable for young children.
Valentine's Day Activities For Children
The following provides Valentine's Day Templates, Songs, Printables and Activities that will help you celebrate love at your service that can be implemented into the curriculum for children.
Songs
I Love You, You Love Me - A sweet song to sing to children at group time to promote a sense of belonging.
Skidamarink A Dink A Dink - A silly and fun song for children to learn about loving you in the morning, afternoon and evening.
Love My Family - A cute rhyme to introduce toddlers and preschoolers to loving their family.
Templates
Valentine Family Heart - The Valentine Family Heart template gives families an opportunity to participate in the program with their child by decorating a heart for Valentine's Day. The family can decorate however they would like along with their child at home. Then return it back to the centre for it to be displayed within the room. The Valentine Family Heart is a nice, fun and simple way to get families involved.
My Valentine Portfolio Template - Share the love this Valentine's Day, 14 February, with the "Valentine's Day - My Valentine" template. This sweet template can be used to show how Valentine's Day was celebrated at the centre. It can also be used as a Valentine's Day gift from the child to their family and loved ones.
Valentine's Day Heart Poem - To celebrate Valentine's Day (February 14th), the Valentine's Day Heart template is a cute template to add to a child's portfolio to describe the experiences and activities the children participated in for Valentine's Day Celebrations. It can also be used as a display on the wall or as a keepsake for families to remember this year's valentines day celebrations that their child participated in.
I Choose You - Free Template - It's a simple template that can be used for younger children. It can be laminated and given to families as a memento for Valentine's Day.
What I Love About You - This template is to write what you love about each child.
Love Is - This template is for children to share their thoughts on love.
I Miss You Poem - This template can be given to a family member or friend to show how much they are missed by the child.
I Love You Because - A child can complete this template for someone they love for Valentine's Day.
Printables
Valentine's Day Cut and Paste Worksheets - Here are 8 FREE "Cut and Paste Pictures - Love" worksheets that a child can use to practice their cutting skills. These can be used to show love to a child's loved one by completing the cut-and-paste worksheets. Create a love picture by encouraging the child to cut the images on page 1, and paste them into the background on page 2. The completed picture can be given to a child's loved one on different occasions such as Valentine's Day.
Chocolate Box Letter Matching - Chocolate Box Letter Matching enables children to recognise the letters and match the correct chocolate in the correct chocolate box.
Counting Heart Biscuits - Counting Heart Biscuits is a counting activity from 1 to 10 for children to match the correct number of heart decorations o the corresponding number on the biscuit.
Heart Animal Cut and Paste - Heart Animals Cut and Paste enables children to make animals from heart shapes.
Colour Heart Sorting- Colour Heart Sorting enables children to categorise and sort hearts based on their colour. This is a great experience for children to distinguish between different colours and to begin to match and sort based on colours too.
I Love You In Different Languages Posters - The I Love You In Different Languages Posters include how to say I LOVE YOU in languages from all over the world. Each poster includes the flag, the country and the phrase on how to say I LOVE YOU.
Valentine's Day Colouring Pages - Valentine's Day Colouring Pages enable children to colour, collage, and paint a valentine's day picture. It can be used as a Valentine's Day card for children to share with families and friends. Colouring pages enable children to develop good pencil grip as they practice holding a pencil while colouring. Children also develop their hand-eye coordination and support children to concentrate and focus.
Activities
From My Heart To My Toes - For Valentine's Day, using a child's handprints and footprints you can let others know they are loved.
I Love You To Pieces - Using cut pieces of paper, children can spread love to their loved ones on Valentine's Day.
Love You Berry Much - Using a child's handprints create this cute craft for Valentine's Day to give to families.
A Pizza My Heart - A simple and cute idea for children to create to give to mum or dad to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Further Reading
Valentine's Day Activities For Children
Valentine's Day Art and Craft Activities
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