Stuck for a Valentine’s Day topic? Here are some top ideas from our friends at Mrs Mactivity to help you make the most of this special and lovely event.
Valentine’s Day is a brilliant topic to cover in EYFS as there are just so many fun and interesting ways to approach it! Rather than focusing on the concept of romantic love, it’s probably better to focus on the love between friends and family members, and how loving and respecting other people is an important part of a good mental health – as well as being loved ourselves of course. We’ve come up with some great ways of covering the seven areas of learning in EYFS, just so you can tick off each one and know that everything is being covered.
Expressive arts and design
Decorate Valentine’s Day colouring pages. Use biodegradable glitter, felt tips, colours, craft materials – whatever you have to hand!
Make a Valentine’s Day bouquet – you can encourage children to mark make inside too to link to literacy.
Make a Valentine’s Day paperchain – a great way to get those fine motor skills going, as well as practising using scissors safely.
Using a heart template, ask children to scrunch up bits of crepe paper, gem stones and whatever crafts you have around, and decorate the heart. A nice little take home craft.
Understanding the World
Use lego and our STEM Lego challenge cards to challenge children to make specific shapes and models from Lego – all relating to Valentine’s Day of course.
Bake and decorate heart shaped biscuits to take home. This also incorporates weighing and measuring – nicely linking to maths.
Posting and sending Valentine’s Day cards using our post office role-play resources – or actually visit a real life post box if you have one nearby.
Mathematics
Make playdough hearts using cookie cutters, then ask children to add the right number of objects to each heart. Can they accurately count out 1-10? Can they add one more and one less?
Cut out a heart template, or buy foam hearts from your local pound shop, then have out some cards showing how many pom poms (or any other small object) children should add to each heart. If you have some, put out some small tongs or tweezers so that children use their fine motor skills to pick up and drop the pom poms. Use the vocabulary “squeeze” and “squash”.
Literacy
Make and write a Valentine’s Day card for a loved one. Remember to ask children to focus on the love between friends and family.
Ask children to write a short letter to someone they love, focusing on what is special about that person. Write the key words on a whiteboard to help scaffold children’s learning.
Read a book about love, for example “Guess How Much I Love You”.
Physical Development
Create a Valentine’s Day treasure basket for the birth to twos age range. See how children explore what’s inside, feeling the different textures and shapes. Use words such as “rough”, “smooth”, “fluffy” and “smooth” to help develop children’s language.
Make a heart shape out of pipe cleaners. This is a great way to help develop children’s gross and fine motor skills and children really enjoy making different shapes. Once they’ve made the hearts, see what other shapes they can make.
Make heart shapes out of playdough – encourage children to pinch and squeeze the playdough with their fingers. Use playdough cutters and tools as well to make patterns.
Make a Valentine’s Day sensory bottle. You can do this in advance, or together with the children. Ask children to shake the bottles to see the shapes and liquids move around.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Talk to children about the people they love in their lives after reading a book about love.
Discuss with children how they feel when someone says “I love you”? How does it make other people feel? Why is it important to have people in our lives that we love, and to love us?
Communication and Language
Set up a Post office role-play area. Children can “work” in the post office and help customers send Valentine’s Day cards. Model phrases such as “how can I help you?” and “what would you like to send today?”
If you’d like to explore our entire range of Valentine’s Day resources, we have lots of of delightful and meaningful activities for all ages.
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