Looking for a fun Valentine’s craft for preschoolers? This layered hearts craft is the one to try.
It’s a mix of scissor cutting skills and a measurement activity, all tied up in a cute and simple preschool craft for Valentine’s Day.
Oh, and did I mention? — It’s a wonderful friendship and kindness craft that can be given away as a Valentine!
Valentine’s Day Craft for Preschoolers – Layered Hearts
I don’t know about you, but sometimes practicing scissor cutting in preschool feels like it’s so much darn work! For the preschooler, of course, but for the teacher too!
I’ve written before about the difficulties children have when learning to use scissors. Like learning to read, there are A LOT of things simultaneously going on.
As a teacher, I’m buzzing from one student to the next helping my students make small corrections as they learn to cut, but sometimes that gentle correction still ends in frustration and tears.
Because learning to use scissors is hard.
And it takes practice.
A lot of practice.
But my preschoolers are already hounding me about Valentine’s Day, so this morning we threw together this simple and fast craft: layered hearts Valentine’s Day craft.
You can choose to focus on some scissor cutting skills with this craft or work on measurement skills. Or just have fun doing a hearts craft with your preschoolers.
If you have a Cricut, Silhouette, or another cutting machine, you can cut the hearts out in advance and make this craft even faster during class time.
Depending on the skill level of my class, and my objectives for this activity, sometimes I choose that option.
You can also allow children to cut out their own hearts for some cutting practice and fine motor practice.
FAQ About Teaching Kindness and Friendship to Preschoolers
One of the best ways to teach preschoolers about how to make and keep friends is by being a model for them during your own interactions with preschoolers. Show your preschoolers appropriate interactions and what it feels like to have a good friend by first being a friend to them.
Show them how to be kind and caring. When you help your preschoolers swaddle their baby doll, or open a cheese stick, or listen to their stories and answer their questions, your preschoolers will notice your kindness and want to be like you.
Modeling friendship is the first and best way to teach preschoolers about friends. Preschoolers also need to learn how to recognize their feelings and to reach out to an adult if they are feeling lonely or hurt.
Including friendship activities in circle time is also helpful. Teach your preschoolers to be good listeners, to respond to things that are said, and to be helpful. Friendship activities for preschoolers should also include collaborative activities and games, and random acts of kindness.
The possibilities for friendship activities are endless. Try playing cooperative games, working together on a single shared art project, doing building activities at the block center, or doing a scavenger hunt together. There are countless picture books that teach preschoolers about friendship, too.
This post features six printable friendship activities; each one is designed specifically to be used with preschoolers and toddlers. They are an easy and effective addition to your friendship theme in preschool.
Around the age of 3, children are starting to play more with each other and are forming new friendships. We talk about what makes a good friend, we do friendship activities, we read friendship stories, and we sing friendship songs. All year long.
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Layered Hearts Craft for Valentine’s Day
This layered hearts craft not only looks festive and fun, but it is also a wonderful craft to use to strengthen math skills. You can use this activity to learn about patterns, sizing, measuring, and categorizing things by color or size.
The possibilities are nearly endless, and preschoolers will have a blast no matter what!
Materials
- Valentine’s themed scrapbook paper (or paper of different colors)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Tape
The Set-Up
If using a cutting machine to make the hearts, cut them out in advance. We used hearts that were six inches, five inches, four inches, three inches, and one and a half inches in diameter.
I also cut out each of those sets in different colors. So, if using five different diameters you will also want five different colors, at least, so that there is a complete set for each color. This will add to the measurement and color challenge you’ll read about below.
Alternatively, invite your preschoolers to do their own cutting.
Note: when choosing this option, I offer my preschoolers a set of their own to cut out but then we put all the hearts in a pile together to make it more of a community project. Plus, having all the hearts mixed up add to the level of difficulty because it requires the preschoolers to sort through the hearts for the specific size and color they are looking for!
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How to Make the Valentine’s Craft for Preschoolers
Invite your preschooler to use the hearts to make one layered heart.
Show the preschoolers how the hearts are in different sizes and different colors. The goal is to layer the hearts, one on top of another.
But there’s a catch…try to encourage your preschoolers to do the following:
- layer the hearts so that same colors are not sitting on each other
- layer the hearts so that they use one heart of every size available
I used five different sizes, but each additional size adds to the difficulty! This really challenges preschoolers to think about different measurement concepts.
How this is a Measurement Activity for Kids
Wondering how this is a measurement activity for preschoolers? Before starting the craft part of the activity, work on the math portion. Instruct the preschoolers to arrange the hearts from biggest to smallest, or smallest to biggest. They can then sort the hearts by size, color, or shape.
This step is particularly important for younger preschoolers and it will help them layer the hearts correctly.
If your preschoolers are struggling with five hearts, then eliminate two and invite them to sequence the remaining three. Large, medium, and small.
Then, I like to offer another size heart and say something like,
This heart isn’t the biggest and it’s not the smallest. Where do you think this heart would fit into out line?
Invite your preschooler to place the additional heart where he thinks it goes. Sometimes, I have my preschoolers start on the left and lay the extra heart on top of the first.
Is this heart bigger or smaller? That’s right. It’s smaller. Let’s try the next heart…
If the heart is bigger than the next, the preschooler figures out where the extra heart falls in between the two.
This may sound like simple math, but for preschoolers, it’s an important step in learning measurement, sequencing, and categorizing.
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When the math portion is complete, instruct the kids how to layer the hearts with the biggest heart on the bottom and the smallest heart on top with the other hearts layered by size in between.
The idea was to challenge the children to layer as many hearts as possible.
Once the kids are satisfied that they have layered as many hearts as they could, and in the correct order, let the kids glue their hearts down.
Display the Preschool Valentine’s Craft
You can tape the hearts around the classroom and use them as festive decorations during February. Wouldn’t they make a lovely garland all taped to a string of yarn and hung along a door frame or window?!
I adore how different each layered heart turns out. They are kinda’ like snowflakes in that each one ends up different but they all look so pretty together.
This is such a simple Valentine’s craft for preschoolers, but they love it!
More Activities that Teach Kids to Measure
Make this valentines craft for preschoolers and turn them into Valentine cards or little love bug cards. But are you looking for activities for measuring length? Try these:
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
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