Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids and Printable Pack

Looking for some fast, fun, free Valentine’s Day activities for kids? You’ll love these ideas and the free printable pack, too.

Valentine’s Day, a celebration of love and devotion, isn’t just a holiday for grownups. It’s an exciting occasion that captivates the hearts of children too. As February approaches, parents, caregivers and educators seek out engaging and fun Valentine’s day activities for kids.

Fun Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids

From making cards to hiding hearts, you’ll find many options to make this love-themed holiday memorable for children in your life. No matter which Valentine’s day activities you choose to do, this article includes many ideas to help make this Valentine’s Day memorable and entertaining for your family.

Family activities

Valentine’s Day activities for kids are a great way to get the whole family involved in the excitement of the day. Try some of these activities with your children to get them into the fun.

Valentine breakfast

Start the day off with a Valentine-themed breakfast. Serve heart-shaped pancakes dyed pink, strawberry milk and fruit cut into heart shapes.

Use heart-shaped cookie cutters to create the Valentine shapes and red dye to get the festive pink coloring. If you’re planning a Valentine’s Day lunch or brunch, make these pretty Strawberry White Chocolate Hot Cocoa Bombs.

Add a few strawberries, or plan ahead to make these pretty strawberry rhubarb muffins. 

Heart hunt

Hide hearts around the house after the kids go to bed the night before. Tape them in random places around the house for the kids to find. You can write clues like a scavenger hunt or let them explore and search. Write loving messages on some for a festive and heartfelt touch.

“Every year, I bake a heart-shaped cake. It’s easy to cut the cake into a heart shape. I buy a ton of different candies and let the kids decorate to their heart’s content. It’s the junkiest-looking cake and fills them with such happiness. It’s a tradition my mom started with me and I’m happy to do it now with my own kids.”

— Jennifer Hughes, Mommy Evolution

Candy heart math

Use candy hearts to do some math together. Sort candy hearts by color, count the hearts or use them for addition and subtraction equations. They can also be used to make shapes. Challenge your kids to make a square, a circle or a triangle out of candy hearts.

Candy heart science

Candy hearts can also be used for science experiments. Test whether or not candy hearts will sink or float in water, soda water and vinegar. Kids can also predict whether or not the hearts will dissolve in each liquid. 

Make heart-shaped crayons

Melt old broken crayons into heart-shaped silicone candy molds. Bake in the oven at 250 F for 15 to 20 minutes. Get creative by mixing different colors for unique and colorful crayons.

Valentine’s Day storytime

Snuggle up together and read books about love and friendship. Ask your local librarian for a list of Valentine-themed stories or read books from your collection that focus on family, love, and kindness.

Heart attack craft

Have your children make several paper hearts out of red and pink paper. Each child can choose a friend to surprise with a heart attack. Walk or drive to a friend’s house and cover their door with paper hearts without them knowing. Ring the doorbell and run and hide. 

Sticky note heart on their door

Write things you love about your child on each sticky note and place the notes on your child’s door in the shape of a heart. When they wake up in the morning, they will find your love messages.

“We do the 14 days of love tradition! Each morning we wake the kids up with a new paper heart on their bedroom door that says something we love about them. They love it, and look forward to it year after year!”

— Siobhan Alvarez-Borland, Mimosas and Motherhood

Dress up and go out to dinner

Make it a family holiday by dressing up and visiting your favorite restaurant together. If you would rather stay in, have food delivered or pick it up and bring it home. Make it special by lighting candles or placing flowers in a vase on the table.

Make a heart-shaped pizza

Try making a heart-shaped pizza if you would rather make your own dinner. Buy pre-made dough and make it into a heart shape. Make more than one so the kids can pick their toppings or divide the pizza into sections so each child can have their own toppings on a section of the pizza.

Party activities

Host a Valentine’s Day party for your children and their friends. Let your kids help make and hang decorations for the party. Keep them busy with these Valentine’s Day activities for kids.

Cardmaking

Set up a cardmaking station with paper, stickers, glitter, glue and markers. Encourage your kids to get creative and make cards for each other or other friends and family members.

Cookie decorating

Make or buy heart-shaped sugar cookies ahead of time and provide children with red, pink and white frosting. To make them more colorful, kids can also add sprinkles and candies to make them even more colorful.

Love bug craft

Have children make their own love bug — a heart-shaped bug. Provide googly eyes, pipe cleaners and colorful pom-poms to design their colorful love-bug. They can keep it or give it to a friend or family member.

Friendship bracelets

Provide beads and pipe cleaners to create friendship bracelets. Pony beads work well as they are large and simple to string onto pipe cleaners. Provide a variety of colors as well as letters or numbers so children can include words or names in their designs. Encourage them to make a bracelet to give to a special friend.

Dance party

Create a playlist of upbeat and love-themed songs for a dance party. Kids can show off their dance moves and enjoy the fun. The music can also play in the background while they enjoy other Valentine’s day activities for kids.

Candy heart towers

Give partygoers one minute to stack candy hearts in a freestanding tower without it falling over. Then, see who can make the tallest tower. 

Estimation jar

Count candy hearts as you put them into a jar. Have kids write their guesses of how many hearts are in the jar on small slips of paper. Whoever is closest to the correct number without going over, wins the jar of candy.

Printable placemats

Sometimes, you just don’t get time to plan ahead and collect all the ingredients for a Valentine’s meal or even a special snack. Or maybe you forget to grab the craft supplies for that cardmaking activity.

If you’ve been busy with homeschooling and running your at-home business, I’ve got something just for you.

Print out this fun, fast, five-page Valentine printable pack. It includes a placemat activity sheet, a cut-out Valentine’s Day cards sheet, a Valentine-themed I-Spy page, and more. Enjoy!

Have a sweet day

Valentine’s Day provides a wonderful opportunity for children to engage in creative and heartwarming activities that foster a sense of love, friendship and joy. From creating heartfelt cards to making a festive breakfast together, these Valentine’s activities for kids celebrate love and friendship. And they also help create lasting memories for you and your children.

This article originally appeared on Food Drink Life.

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