Valentine Craft Ideas for Preschoolers

Valentine Chain
You'll Need:
Construction paper in red, white, and pink
Glue or paste

Cut strips of red, white, and pink construction paper, three to four inches long and one-half to one-inch wide. Give the strips to your child and have him for a circle with one strip, gluing the ends together. Take the next strip and loop it through the first circle, again gluing the ends together. Tell your child to make a chain as long as he wants. Use it to decorate doorways, walls, and so on.

Valentine Mobile
You'll Need:
Valentines your child has received
Hole punch
Thread or yarn
Coat hanger

Have your child punch holes in his valentines, thread them onto a piece of thread or yarn, and hang them from a coat hanger to create a mobile. Hang the finished mobile from a curtain rod.

Valentine Place Mat
You'll Need:
Valentines your child has received
Construction paper or light cardboard
Glue or paste
Clear contact paper
Have your child glue his favorite valentines onto a large piece of construction paper or light cardboard. Cover this collage with clear contact paper to make a place mat.

Heart People
You'll Need:
Construction paper in red, white and pink
Glue or paste
Using red, white and pink construction paper, trace and cut hearts, ranging in size from two to six inches. Glue the hearts together in different combinations to form heart people, using large hearts for heads and bodies, smaller ones for arms, legs, and so on. You can also try making heart animals.

Heart Window Decorating
You'll Need:
Plain or construction paper
Scissors
Can of spray-on artificial snow
Fold several pieces of paper in half and cut out heart shapes in varying sizes. The pieces of paper out of which the hearts have been cut will serve as stencils. Tape them to the window in an interesting arrangement and spray with artificial snow. Remove the stencils to see the heart shapes on the window.

About the Author: This selection was exerpted from The Preschooler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner