Simple Valentine’s Day Craft for Fine Motor Skills for Kids
Looking for a fun Valentine’s Day craft idea for preschoolers and kindergarteners that uses heart shapes in a creative way? Check out this simple craft that uses process art to create a Valentine’s Day masterpiece! We love crafts that are all about the process instead of the final product, so this one is my go to for a Valentine’s Day art project.
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Why We Love This Craft
First, we love a festive craft! Younger kids and older kids all love celebrating holidays and doing themed activities to go along with it. So I’m always looking for fun yet creative ways to do themed art activities for each holiday.
If you’ve tried any of our other craft and keepsakes, you know that I emphasize the art process rather than the finished product. The process of making art this way is where all the benefits come for a child. Let them be creative, imaginative, curious, and silly while they make art rather than making them follow rigid steps.
Another reason I love this craft is because using cookie cutters is a fun way to build fine motor skills. For younger children, their hearts may not come out perfectly. But the more they practice using cookie cutters, the better they’ll get at fine motor control.
Materials Needed
Everything we used for this craft we found at the local dollar store (around Valentine’s Day), but you can also order everything online. This is everything we used:
- Washable Red and White Paint
- Canvas (or construction paper or cardstock)
- Heart Cookie Cutters (like these!)
Some things I always keep on hand for painting with kids is a paint t-shirt or smock, plastic table clothes from the dollar store, and paper plates to put the paint on.
Step by Step Instructions
The set up for this craft is just getting the paint out and ready to paint with! If you’re looking for tips on how to get children used to paint or minimize the mess, read our post on messy play. But this simple craft really only has two main steps.
1. Mix Your Different Colors
You and your child can decide what colors you want to use for this craft. We used red, and then mixed red and white to make light pink. But you can use different shades of pink, purple, yellow, white, or really any paint colors!
2. Stamp on the Hearts
Then, you let your child get to painting. For younger kids, show them the first few times how to stamp the heart down and lift it up. We also found it helpful to show your child to rub the cookie cutter in the paint a few times to make sure there’s enough paint on it.
There’s a very wide range to how your paintings will turn out. My grandson liked his hearts to overlap and fill the whole canvas, but my granddaughter didn’t want any of hearts to touch. Either way works, and your child’s may even come out with all smudged hearts (like many preschoolers do!).
Homemade Valentines
We used canvases for this project so we could hang them in the house, but you can also use a piece of paper. Let your child stamp hearts onto a bunch of papers to make into valentines or handmade cards. Or just let them do it on a bunch of construction paper for the fun of it!
More Valentine’s Day Crafts
If you already have the paint out, try this fun Valentine’s Day project that’s even easier for young kids. It uses most of the same materials, all you need is some heart stickers. We actually do these two at the same time most years.
Valentine’s Day Lesson Plans
This craft is one I do in my classroom as part of my Valentine’s Day week lesson plans. If you need more ideas, these are my favorite books to read with preschoolers, and the Valentine’s Day sensory bin I have out for them.
