10 Montessori Valentine's Day Activities

Below you will find 5 Montessori-inspired Valentine's Day Activities for Infants and 5 Montessori-inspired Valentine's Day Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers.  

Let us know if your child really enjoys any of them! You can share with us at @TheMontessoriRoom on IG or send us an email at contact@themontessoriroom.com.

Remember, there's no need to create a Pinterest-worthy setup. You can keep it as simple and use whatever you have 

Infant Activities

1. Valentine’s Shaker (4 months+)

Materials:

• Empty bottle - travel-sized cream containers are great for small hands 
• Small hearts - cinnamon heart candies or red, pink and white beads

Instructions: 

1. Fill a small container with any kind of bead or candy.
2. Tape the lid shut so there's no way it will open.
3. Shake for your child and then give them a chance to shake.
4. You can also roll it on the ground to encourage movement. 

This is a great activity to:

• Develop and strengthen fine motor skills
• Develops the auditory sense 
• Explore cause and effect 

2. Valentine's Day Sensory Bottle (Sitting with support)

Materials: 

• Empty bottle with a secure lid - travel-sized containers or water bottle (you can use any type of bottle, it just needs to be clear)
• Water
• Oil (baby oil, coconut oil, cooking oil, etc)
• Small loose parts that are red, pink and white - beads, pom poms, etc. 
• Glitter
• Red food colouring (optional)

Instructions:

1. Fill the bottle approx. 2/3 full with water.
2. Add in your loose parts, glitter and food colouring.  
3. Fill the rest of the bottle with oil and seal the lid tight.  
4. Give the bottle a shake and watch the contents dance around inside the bottle. 

This is a great activity to:

• Develop the visual sense
• Develop focus and concentration
• Sensory bottles may help with self-regulation due to their calming effects

3. Valentine's Day Exploration Basket (Sitting with support)

Materials:

• Basket - these Cotton Rope Baskets are great exploration baskets for infants 
• Objects that are Valentine's Day related, for example:
• Heart-shaped objects
• Red, pink and white objects
• Note:  Ensure the objects are safe to be explored with all of the senses.    

Instructions:

1. Place 2-3 objects in the basket.  Start with less and add more as needed.
2. Sit back and invite the child to explore the objects.  This is a great activity for introducing independent play because it's exploratory in nature.  

This is a great activity to:

• Engage in sensorial exploration.
• Develop language skills - adult can name the objects as the child explores.

4. Exploring a Heart-Shaped Container (8 months +)

Materials:

• Heart-shaped box, container or cookie tin (an empty box of chocolates would work!)
• Familiar object that fits inside box

1. Put the object inside the heart-shaped box and close the lid.
2. Give your child the box to explore. If the lid is quite secure, open it a little bit so that your child will be able to remove it with some movement.  
3. You can also play with your child! Sit with them and open and close the box. 

This is a great activity to:

• Develop hand-eye coordination
• Explore object permanence 
• Develop independence 

5. Mess-Free Heart Painting (Sitting independently)

Materials:

• Large Ziploc Freezer Bag
• Cardstock Paper (cardboard would work too!)
• Scissors
• Tempera Paint - red and white 
• Tape - painters, masking or washi tape would work well 

Instructions:

1. Cut the cardstock into a large heart that will fit into the freezer bag. 
2. Put the heart in the bag and squeeze a few large dollops of paint on the heart. 
3. Remove the air, seal the bag and tape it shut.  Tape the bag down on all four sides, i.e. on the floor, high chair tray, table, etc. 
4. Invite the child to use their hands to move the paint around.  
5. When they're finished, take the heart out of the bag and let it dry. 

This is a great activity to: 

• Strengthen fine motor skills
• Explore colour mixing - when the red and white paints mix together, they'll make pink!

Toddler Activities

1. Valentine’s Day Playdough

                     Simplified                                          With Loose Parts                

Materials:

• Homemade Playdough. Go here for our recipe - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fG7JDqxYrZtySNDsmhRwS0_PoSjA0oOXuGuV_koPdyM/edit?usp=sharing
• Rolling Pin and Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter 
• Add any lose parts, i.e. beads, sparkles, cupcake liners, etc.  

Instructions:

1. Make the playdough following the instructions linked above.
2. Set out a heart-shaped cookie cutter and child-sized rolling pin.  If the child is interested, add small bowls of loose parts and cupcake liners so your child can "make" Valentine's cupcakes or cookies. 

This is a great activity to:

• Strengthen fine motor skills while engaging in sensorial exploration.

2. Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

Materials:

• Dye rice or oats red, pink, or purple. Go here for our recipe - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YBGDkQsr31zG5JFMX2u9uP2VzJiJ8_OluQAr-7gcAis/edit?usp=sharing
• Small scoops, spoons, or bowls (You can find our sensory bin toolkit with wooden scoops, bowls, and cups here: https://themontessoriroom.com/products/wooden-sensory-bin-tool-kit)
• Add any lose parts, i.e. heart shaped  

Instructions:

1. Make Valentine's coloured rice following the instructions linked above.
2. Put the rice in a large tupperware or casserole dish. 
3. Put scoops, bowls, and loose parts on top of rice. 
4. Some parents find it helpful to put the setup AND their child into a big "under the bed" storage container to contain the mess.
5. You can also use the "search and find" hearts from the activity above or make new hearts, each with a letter in your child's name. Encourage them to find all the letters in their name and arrange them in order. 

This is a great activity to:

• Strengthen fine motor skills while engaging in sensorial exploration.

3. Heart Stamping

Materials:

• Empty toilet paper or paper towel roll
• Elastic
• Tempera Paint

Instructions: 

1. Bend the paper roll into a heart shape and wrap the elastic around the heart so that it will stay in place. The advantage to using the tubes is they are easy for small hands to hold on to and can be held further away from the paint. For an older child, you could also use heart-shaped cookie cutters for this activity. 
2. Prepare some washable paints and demonstrate how to stamp the paint and then make a print on the paper.  

This is a great activity to:

• Develop creative expression while strengthening fine motor skills.

4. Heart Collage 

    

Materials:

• Glue 
• Small paper hearts 
• Heart template 

Instructions:

1. Cut out some hearts using construction or tissue paper and put them in a small dish. 
2. Draw a heart on a blank piece of paper. 
3. Demonstrate how to glue the hearts inside the heart template. Follow the child’s lead. There's no need to intervene or have them do it a certain way!  
4. This activity could also be done without glue by using contact paper. Do it on a larger scale and strengthen the core by putting the contact paper on the wall and do the activity standing up.

• Develop and strengthen fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and creative expression.

5. Find the Hearts

Materials:

• Construction Paper 
• Scissors 
• If you have heart-shaped objects, you can use those and disregard the materials above. 

Instructions:

1. Prepare for this activity when your child is not in the room. Cut hearts out of construction paper and hide them around the room/house. 
2. Invite the child to find the hearts around the room.
3. Add a basket to put the hearts in once they are found or simply encourage your child to point to the hearts once they’ve found them. 
4. Once your child has found all the hearts, count them! You can write numbers on them if your child is practicing number recognition or just leave them blank.  You could also add letters, shapes, use different colours, etc. 
5. If your child is interested, invite them to now hide all the hearts for you to find. 
   

This is a great activity to:

• Develop gross motor skills
• Develop language skills

Happy Valentine's Day!