Gross Motor
Math & 123s
Valentine's DayToddlers15 Comments
Here’s a Valentine’s Day activity or two. We didn’t just do crafts to get ready for Valentine’s Day…
Scavenger hunts are always a blast, this is an easy version of one. Plus a chance to practice patterns!
Patterning as a Valentine’s Day Activity:
I’ve noticed other blogs with toddler’s doing patterns. I’ve never once tried to explain what a pattern is to Henry. Things like that don’t cross my mind unless someone points it out to me.
I ran across this super cute printables at Pre-Kinders and thought I’d give it a try. There’s simple ABAB patterns and more difficult ones like ABBABB or AABBAABB.
We only did an ABAB pattern and had difficulty with that.
I did most of the patterning you see in the pictures.
I don’t see it as a loss for the activity – just something I now know that Henry doesn’t yet know.
I can think of lots of everyday things to point out patterns:
- shirts
- rugs / blankets
- The Cat in the Hat (his hat)
- … and so on…
Heart Hunt Valentine’s Day Activity:
Remember the Valentine Countdown Tree? Henry’s been taking a heart off the tree each day.
Today I decided to do a heart hunt with those.
During Henry’s nap quiet alonetime, I hid the hearts around the toy room and living room.
I didn’t so much as hide them, but tape them up in obvious places that he can plainly see.
But he had to still look for them.
Henry had a blast searching for these.
I numbered an egg carton to 9 (we’re only to day 9 today…)
When he found one, he put it in the correct spot in the egg carton.
I’m going to continue to hide the hearts each day until Valentine’s Day, adding the latest heart we took off the tree.
Check out all the Valentine’s Day Activities that include decorations, crafts and art projects we did this year!
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Kelly says
I guess the game doesn’t really teach Math concepts, though. When kids find a heart with a number 2 on it, it won’t help them understand what two means.
Jennifer says
It’s probably too much caution, but paper egg cartons might be a health hazard, MAYBE.
Sometimes eggs have Salmonella on the shell. That would then get on the egg carton. Perhaps the Salmonella can’t survive long on paper.
Maybe it’s not an issue anymore. I just wanted to alert you to check.
Rachel says
Thanks for the heads up! I never would have thought of that.
Yudeisy says
I like the ideas
Tony says
My two yr old Granddaughter loves playing Hide and Seek with me or a favourite doll or toy – they soon understand not to give themselves away by helping you find them.
Kate says
I just started doing daily projects with my 3-year-old and was delighted to find your site! Today we did a heart hunt. For our first run, I just gave him a tiny red gift bag that had a heart with his name on it for collecting the hearts. I planned the activity for a playdate, so his 2 friends each had hearts to find as well (they each had their own color of heart to find). His friends weren’t as in to it, but that has something to do with the chaos of the playdate :) My own son loved it and went around finding his friends’ hearts after they left! We’re going to try the patterning activity next…. Thanks for all the great ideas!!
Debra says
We love a little treasure hunt, I’m always cutting bits of paper up into different shapes for my son to find. It’s such an easy idea and yet they love it!! I use it to go along side a story or to help him with colours but I’ve never thought of putting numbers on them. I think I will be trying this one. Thanks for the idea.
Shonda says
Hmm, this is great! I can see many ideas!! Thanks for such a great site! I’m going to glean a lot from you.