Valentine’s Day Activities for Toddlers
Valentine’s Day isn’t just about candy and cards! It’s a perfect opportunity for fun activities for toddlers that strengthen their motor skills, sensory development, and emotional connection with you. Here are some simple, fun, and developmentally supportive ways to celebrate love while helping your toddler grow.
Sensory Heart Bin
Why it’s great: Encourages tactile exploration, fine motor skills, and language development.
How to do it: Fill a bin with materials like dyed rice, heart-shaped pasta, pom-poms, or soft fabric hearts. Add scoops, cups, or tongs for your toddler to grasp, pour, and explore. Talk about textures, colors, and shapes as you play together.
Love-Themed Movement Hunt
Why it’s great: Builds gross motor skills, balance, and coordination.
How to do it: Cut out paper hearts and place them around the room with movement prompts like “Jump like a bunny,” “Spin in a circle,” or “Give a big hug.” Your toddler can run, hop, or crawl to each heart and follow the instructions, making movement fun and engaging.
Valentine’s Day Playdough Fun
Why it’s great: Strengthens hand muscles, encourages creativity, and supports sensory regulation.
How to do it: Use red, pink, or white playdough along with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Add beads, buttons, or textured rollers for extra fun. Rolling, squishing, and cutting the dough builds hand strength and coordination.
Sticky Heart Wall
Why it’s great: Supports shoulder and arm strength, fine motor skills, and sensory play.
How to do it: Tape a large piece of contact paper (sticky side out) to the wall and provide your toddler with paper hearts, pom-poms, or tissue paper to stick and peel off. This activity encourages reaching, grasping, and hand-eye coordination while exploring textures.
Heart-Themed Threading
Why it’s great: Builds fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and focus.
How to do it: Cut out heart shapes from sturdy cardboard and punch holes around the edges. Give your toddler a shoelace or thick yarn to thread through the holes. This strengthens finger dexterity and prepares little hands for future skills like holding a pencil.
Valentine’s Day Love Collage
Why it’s great: Encourages creativity, sensory exploration, and emotional expression.
How to do it: Provide paper, glue, and materials like fabric scraps, tissue paper, and stickers. Help your toddler create a “love collage” by gluing on different textures while talking about what they love.
Heart Stamping with Sponges or Potatoes
Why it’s great: Promotes creativity, grasp development, and sensory play.
How to do it: Cut a heart shape into a sponge or potato and let your toddler dip it into washable paint. Encourage them to stamp hearts onto paper, creating a fun Valentine’s masterpiece. (Check our instagram post here for more info!)
“I Love You” Hand Massage
Why it’s great: Supports sensory regulation, relaxation, and bonding.
How to do it: Use a little lotion to give your toddler’s hands a gentle massage. This calming activity provides sensory input, builds body awareness, and strengthens emotional connection. As you massage, say “I love you” or talk about things you love about them to create a warm, positive bonding moment.
Hug and Seek
Why it’s great: Supports social-emotional development, body awareness, and bonding.
How to do it: Play a simple game of hide and seek, but when your toddler finds you (or you find them), celebrate with a big hug! This adds an element of surprise and fun while reinforcing connection and security.
Final Thoughts
These Valentine’s Day activities for toddlers help support development while strengthening your bond. Whether through sensory play, movement, or creative crafts, these simple activities help build motor skills, coordination, and emotional connection—all while celebrating love. For more ways to “Play with Purpose” using every day activities – check out this blog!
Try a few of these ideas and enjoy a Valentine’s Day filled with laughter, learning, and lots of hugs! ❤️
