While Valentine’s Day is an obvious time to learn about love, these activities are perfect for anytime of year. With free printables, discussion topics, games, and more, these ideas will help our children learn about life’s most important topic…LOVE.
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Love Matters
The Littles like to be busy. Doing, playing, learning. The more we involve our kids in uplifting activities and thoughts, the better off they and we will be. So whether you’re looking for activities for Valentine’s Day, preschool, or just to fill your child’s time well, you can’t find a better subject than love.
Related: Raising Compassionate Children in a Conceited World
This post is packed with activities to learn about love. It’s organized around the important pre-reading skills of talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. I hope these activities bring more love into your home.
Related: Free Preschool Lesson Plans
I created a pack of the printables I mention in this post. You can request them as one download.
Talk about Love
Talking is a powerful learning tool. You can do it anytime, anywhere. Take advantage of minutes in the car or sitting around the dinner table to discuss real issues and applications of ideas you want your children to learn. Older children can be responsible for studying or learning about a subject and then reporting back or sharing during a family meeting. Here are some questions to get your discussion started.
Discussion Questions about Love
- What does love mean to you?
- When was a time you felt very loved? What helps you feel loved?
- What are some characteristics of a good friend?
- How can you show specific members of your family that you love them? How can you show your friends that you love them?
- Why is sometimes difficult to love other people?
- Who is someone that could be helped by your love? How can you reach out to that person?
- What are different attributes of love? How have you seen those exemplified?
Scenarios to Learn about Love
Talk through real life examples to help your kids apply abstract concepts to their daily lives. You can discuss these scenarios, act them out, or use puppets to role play. Brainstorm recent real experiences from your child’s life, or draw from the suggestions below to learn more about how to love.
- You are playing with a favorite toy when a sibling comes and grabs it from you. What would you do?
- You have a friend over to play. The two of you want to do different things though. What would you do?
- Mom asks you to help clean up a mess you didn’t make. What would you do?
- You get upset and say something unkind. What would you do?
- A stranger is very kind to you. What would you do?
Sing about Love
Music is a miraculous way to reach the human heart. Lyrics stay with us long after we learn them, and melodies have a way of evoking powerful emotions. There are of course endless songs about love, so here are just a few to enjoy with your kiddos.
Songs about Valentine’s Day or Love
- L-O-V-E (Nat King Cole)
- Can you Feel the Love Tonight (Elton John)
- A Happy Family (Moiselle Renstrom) *I love this one because I can easily put in the name of each family member.
- All You Need is Love (The Beatles)
- Boom Chicka Boom Valentine’s Day Songs for Kids (The Learning Station) *This is a fun repeat-after-me song with various styles.
- Skidamarink (Felix F. Feist) *These are the hand motions I learned as a child. 🙂
- What a Wonderful World (IZ)
- Love One Another (Luacine Clark Fox)
- I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston)
- Heart Song for Kids (The Kiboomers) *Valentine’s song that replaces HEART in the Bingo melody.
Movement to Go With Your Music
Combining music with movement helps children connect with the music in meaningful ways. Here are some ideas.
- Make up motions that go along with the lyrics.
- Twirl a ribbon or scarf to the rhythm.
- Use two markers, PVC pipes, or popsicle sticks to tap the beat. Here’s a great example of exciting ways to use the rhythm sticks.
- Play a game with the music like musical chairs or hot potato.
- Create homemade musical instruments, and play along to the music. Be creative or stick with the simple pot and wooden spoon. An empty paper towel tube is a great, simple drumstick that makes a cool sound and doesn’t damage whatever it happens to hit.
- DANCE!
Read about Love
Storytime is the best! Entertain a crowd of Littles, or snuggle up with your child and a good book. Additionally, a new book is a fun idea for a small Valentine’s Day gift.
Here are some of our favorite books about love! These are ideal books for Valentine’s Day or anytime!
Click the image of the book to learn more and find out about purchasing information.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff
I Love You All Day Long by Francesca Rusackas
Love from The Very Hungry Caterpillar (The World of Eric Carle)
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Grandma Loves You! by Alison Edgson
Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Valentine’s Day from National Geographic
Listening with My Heart by Gabi Garcia
Write about Love
Writing skills begin with marks on paper and develop toward letters and words with meaning. Use these activities for kids at various stages of writing development. Click each picture for instant access of the Free Printable.
- Write a true story about how a child felt loved or learned to show love.
- Draw a comic strip about one way to show love.
- Practice tracing with the free worksheet included in the printable pack.
- Color this Hidden Hearts Coloring Page. See if you’re Little can find all 20 hearts.
- Print this Love Word Search.
Play Activities about Love
For both kids and adults, play is an important part of life. Play allows our brains to function in different ways, encourages creativity, and teaches social skills. Enjoy playing with these love themed activities.
- Play pretend family. Use dress-up, pretend kitchen supplies, or be a pioneer family in the old west. Pretending is an incredible way to build empathy and “practice” being nice to each other.
- Play in the kitchen. Make heart-shaped cookies, sandwiches, or waffles.
- Get out some love-themed craft supplies like stickers, red and pink tissue paper, craft paper, old magazines, glitter, and more. Play with process art. No expectations, just create.
- Play service Bingo. Make your own Bingo boards, and brainstorm service ideas to fill the spaces. Make a set of cards with the service ideas to draw from.
- Use sidewalk chalk to draw a love-themed picture or leave a kind note for people walking by.
- Make Valentines or cards for no reason. Send them to loved ones or keep them in your car and hand them out to homeless people with a snack.
- Sort Conversation Hearts or make patterns with them.
Printable Activities or Games about Love
- Print and cut this Love Puzzle included in the printable pack for some jigsaw fun. You could also make your own puzzle.
- Play the matching game with pairs of people or things that love each other. The printable includes eight Disney couples matches (like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse), eight miscellaneous matches (like peanut butter and jelly), and a template for you to make your own matches.
- You can print and cut the pieces and then simply find the matches or play like memory. In a group, you can also give each person one puzzle piece and have them find their match.
- Print and cut these colorful Sorting and Game Hearts for a variety of activities. Use cardstock for more durability.
Ideas for How to Use the Sorting and Game Hearts
- Sort hearts by color
- Play tic-tac-toe
- Practice making or copying patterns
- Play Hide and Seek
- One person hide the hearts around the room, others find them. You can have different people find different colors.
- Play Hot and Cold
- One person leaves the room and the others hide one heart. As the finder gets closer to the hidden heart, the hiders say, “Hot, hotter, hottest!” If the finder gets further away from the heart, the hiders say, “Cold, colder, coldest.”
- Sing Hot and Cold
- One person leaves the room and the others hide one heart. The hiders sing a song while the finder searches. As the finder gets closer to the hidden heart, the singers sing louder. If the finder gets further away from the heart, the singers sing softer.
All We Need is Love
I hope all of these activities bring some good learning, laughing, and loving to your home and family. Life can get so busy. However, the more we focus on what matters most…our kids, love, meaningful relationships…the more peace and joy we will have in life. Help your kids learn that love matters. Use these creative ideas and have fun with how you teach them. At the end of the day though, make sure you’ve taken the time to snuggle your Littles and tell them, “I love you.”
Whichoftheseideasdo you think your kidswill likethemost?Shareinthecomments.Sharepicturesusing#lovinlifewithlittles.
Want more Valentine’s Day fun?
- 5+ Simple Valentine’s Day Ideas for Families in Friday’s Fast Five 25th Edition
- 5 Unique Valentine’s Day Gifts for Kids
Related: Raising Compassionate Children in a Conceited World
