Valentine’s Heart Craft for Preschoolers

This preschool friendship craft is a process art activity that makes a special gift to share with friends and loved ones. It includes lots of colorful paint, interesting textures, and the opportunity for toddlers and preschoolers to make a unique creation that’s like no other.

It’s also a great Valentine! Valentine’s Day activities for preschoolers offer tons of fun, themed ways to talk about important concepts, like friendship, family, and love.

Preschool Friendship Activities

three views of the making of a valentine's process art craft in a pinnable collage
These process art crafts can be used as a homemade Valentine!

Kids often seem to be naturals at finding playmates and making friends. But sometimes, making friends in preschool can be really challenging. Either way, learning how to be a good friend and keep a friend takes practice. That’s why I include tons of friendship activities for preschoolers in my Valentine’s Day lesson plans and Valentine’s Day theme.

These preschool friendship activities are the building blocks of friendships that will strengthen the social skills that children need throughout their lifetime. This craft about friendship for preschoolers is a great time to model how to treat and care for one another. Encourage your preschoolers to work together as much as possible and help them develop friendly communication.

They will have a blast making the heart craft for kids and sharing all the things they love about their friends!

FAQ About Teaching Valentine’s Day to Preschoolers

How do you teach preschoolers about friendship?

Learning how to be a friend is so essential in a preschool classroom. It’s important that we teach our preschoolers the fundamentals of social activity. This can be done in several ways: by reading picture books, doing preschool friendship crafts and art projects, playing cooperative games, and even trying their hand at some shared art.  

How do you teach a preschooler how to be a friend?

Around the age of 3, children are starting to play more with each other and are forming new friendships. Talk to them about what makes a good friend. You can even do an entire friendship theme for preschool with lots of themed activities!

When conflict arises, work with children involved and talk about how everyone is feeling, and model ways that friends can solve their problems so that everyone feels happy. Remind children that everyone feels upset and sad sometimes, but they are still friends, even if they feel mad.

What are some February activities for preschoolers?

Valentine’s Day and friendship definitely top the list of great February themes. We have tons of literacy, math, and sensory activities for you to explore that fit those themes!

Additionally, consider including Groundhog Day and learning more about what happens if the groundhog sees his shadow. February is also Dental Health month so it’s a great time to incorporate teeth and dental activities with your preschoolers. Many schools also celebrate the 100th day of school during this month, so if that applies to you, it is a super fun way to celebrate all that learning!

Great Activities for Valentine’s Day

a finished friendship heart craft for preschoolers
The finished products are colorful and unique.

Friendship Heart Craft for Preschoolers

This friendship craft for toddlers and preschoolers uses unique textures and materials to make interesting and beautiful process artwork. A perfect gift for your preschoolers to share with loved ones!

Materials

  • white cardstock paper
  • tempura paint (red, purple, pink, white)
  • tissue paper (I used tissue paper squares)
  • colored construction paper
  • scissors
  • liquid glue
  • plastic combs

The Set Up

The prep work is super easy – you’ll just need to grab the materials and keep them handy. I also pre-cut the heart shapes out of colored construction paper for each child due to time constraints. Feel free to allow them to cut out the heart if you like!

We always use these art smocks because they really keep the mess to a minimum, and as long as you don’t wash them too frequently, they hold up really well. (They are art smocks, so it really is ok for them to be covered in paint!)

A finished friendship craft with a colorful heart on a textured background
Everyday materials come together into a beautiful friendship craft.

Making the Valentine’s Heart Friendship Craft with Preschoolers

Life is about trial and error and this heart art certainly began that way! Initially, I drew a heart on each child’s white cardstock paper and invited them to use their tempura paint to paint around the heart. Preschoolers aren’t always developmentally ready to stay in the lines carefully so the heart was soon unrecognizable. Soooo… we made a new plan!

two preschool children using tempera paint on a piece of white cardstock
Mixing paint and coloring over the heart outline…time for a new plan!

I invited them to paint their whole paper using a mix of reds, purples, and pink paints and fill in all the white space.

We used trays to keep the paint off the table AND I used drawing paper on a roll underneath so that I could just toss the messy paper under the paint trays. I am all about keeping the mess to a manageable amount because let’s face it… no one has time to clean a messy table with preschoolers around!

children using a comb to make unique textures in their paint as they finish a preschool friendship craft
Combing the painted background to create a unique texture.

Now comes that super fun and engaging part of the preschool friendship craft that my preschoolers absolutely loved… painting with combs! After they applied all the colorful paint, they grabbed a cheap plastic comb (from the dollar store) and began twisting and gliding it over the paint. They made such interesting and unique textures!

The $1 plastic combs were a huge hit and they asked if we could use them again in another art project. I readily agreed!

a child scraping a comb down their friendship heart art project
Look at that fun texture! Combs make long lines or squiggly lines on wet paint.

After the children were satisfied with the texture of their painted background, we added some liquid glue near the middle. The preschoolers placed the large construction paper heart on top of the background.

Before I give my preschoolers the glue bottles, I have them take a look at the size of the heart and tell me if they think they will need a lot or a little bit of glue. Since this was a large heart, they all said a lot! I allow them to squeeze the glue bottles but remind them that a lot doesn’t mean the whole paper…just enough for the heart in the center.

Squeezing glue bottles is great fine motor work and it boosts confidence when children don’t feel too managed as they work. (Kinda like our heart suncatchers or these painted hearts). If they squeeze a little too much glue, it’s a lesson learned for the next time they work with liquid glue.

a small preschool hand pressing a heart onto their valentine's day craft
A preschooler glues a purple heart to her painted background.

Now that the heart is in place, it’s time to fill it in with tissue paper! Now you are welcome to use the colored tissue paper that comes in long sheets, but I had pre-cut squares on hand…mainly because I am too lazy to cut the squares. You can certainly invite the children to rip and tear pieces from large tissue paper sheets and what great fine motor work you are providing them!

Invite the children to ball, scrunch, and crumple the tissue paper. Add a few dots of liquid glue to the heart part of the preschool friendship craft and stick on the tissue paper! Keep adding it until the children are satisfied with their completed art.

two children crumpling tissue paper to add it to their friendship art projects
Two children add crumpled tissue paper to their hearts in this final step.

The preschool friendship craft has been completed! You can also consider a modification to this art project IF you feel like your preschoolers are ready for it. After children have painted and added their paper hearts to the background, invite two children to work together adding tissue paper to one child’s artwork. Then invite them to switch and work together on the other child’s art.

This slight change makes this friendship art project a true example of friends working together to make beautiful and memorable art! You can make a miniature version of these to make heart cards to give away.

three finished preschool friendship crafts
Final examples of three lovely art heart projects! Pretty easy crafting, right? This can be used as a Valentine’s Day craft for special needs students, too.

Books about Friendship for Preschoolers

High-quality picture books are an incredible place to start when helping preschoolers learn the characteristics of friends and how they act and support each other. We’ve picked some of the best friendship books to read along with your preschoolers after you finish the preschool friendship craft.

Pete the Cat and the New Guy by Kimberly and James Dean

Pete meets a new guy named Gus and it doesn’t take long to realize that these two dudes are very different… but that’s what makes him so cool! The message of acceptance and friendship is strong in this book, plus it features the beloved Pete the Cat!

How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends by Jane Yolen

This funny and clever book notes the importance of not only making new friends but staying friends even when you have to share your toys or apologize. Kids love this dinosaur series! Check out How Do Dinosaurs Make Friends for a great discussion about good friendship traits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaXjZFKFHw&t=34s

Bear’s New Friend by Karma Wilson

Sometimes making new friends can feel overwhelming and scary. Bear makes a new friend but he and his friends spend lots of time reassuring the new friend that it’s okay to come out and play. They love new friends!

Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller

This sweet story explores kindness and what it means to ‘be kind’. Children often hear those words but how do we apply that in real life? Children will learn that any kind act, large or small, makes a big difference in the lives of others.

The Magic of Friendship Snow by Andi Cann

For children who struggle to make friends, this book is a wonderful read. A lonely girl meets a magical snowman who becomes her first friend. She knows that when the warm weather arrives, she will have to say goodbye to her snowman friend but she learns how to share her new friendship skills with her brand new neighbor next door.

Valentine's Heart Craft for Preschoolers

Valentine's Heart Craft for Preschoolers

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: easy

This Valentine's friendship craft uses unique textures and materials to make beautiful artwork.

Materials

  • white cardstock paper
  • tempura paint (red, purple, pink, white)
  • tissue paper (I used tissue paper squares)
  • colored construction paper
  • scissors
  • liquid glue
  • plastic combs

Tools

  • scissors
  • paper cutter
  • cheap combs

Instructions

  1. Just need to grab the materials and keep them handy! I also pre-cut the heart out of colored construction paper.
  2. Invite the kids to paint their whole paper using a mix of reds, purples, and pink paints and fill in all the white space.
  3. Give them a cheap plastic comb (from the dollar store) to twist and glide over the paint.
  4. Add some liquid glue and place the large construction paper heart on top of the background.
  5. Invite the children to ball, scrunch, and crumple the tissue paper. Add a few dots of liquid glue to the heart and stick it on! Keep adding the tissue paper until the children are satisfied with their completed art.

Notes

You can also consider a modification to this art project IF you feel like your preschoolers are ready for it.

After children have painted and added their paper hearts to the background, invite two children to work together adding tissue paper to one child's artwork. Then invite them to switch and work together on the other child's art. This slight change makes this friendship art project a true example of friends working together to make beautiful and memorable art!

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