Can you believe Valentine’s Day is only a few days away? We only just took down our Christmas lights! As I’m writing that, I realize we may have waited a little too long to check that task off the list… Anywho… If you want to sneak in one more craft before Valentine’s Day, this Valentine Craft for Toddlers was a huge success in our home!
Little Norah loves all things crafts (not sure where she gets that from…) So crafting has been the name of the game for the past few weeks.
We definitely love our toddler crafts and activities around here. In fact, that is exactly why I created my Playful Days Toddler Program. It has one beautiful and simple craft or activity to enjoy with your toddler each and every day. Perhaps it is just right for you too! You can take a peek right here. I hope you absolutely love it!
And just before we dive into this sweet Valentine’s Day craft with my Norah, be sure to grab my Free Rainbow Puzzles Activity Pack to enjoy with your toddler:
Now, this little two year old of mine is an avid crafter and is determined to learn to use scissors and adores that glue stick.
Unfortunately, she also adores lip chap. With a fiery passion. So the glue stick is a bit of a tricky crafting tool for this girl of mine to manage as it so closely resembles the first love of her life. That glue stick often winds up spread across those little lips faster than I can reach my hand out to stop it!
That’s why I was so excited to think about this fun Valentine craft for toddlers—all the sticky fun, but no glue stick required!
Here is a little video of this simple craft in action:
I started by taking a piece of contact paper, or shelf liner, and cutting a nice big piece. I taped it to her little craft table with the sticky side up. I only secured the three corners, which made me smile a little as I remember doing activities similar to this with my boys, and I could not secure that contact paper enough! I remember once duct-taping it down to the table so their crafting could be completed without being ripped off the table.
So secure the contact paper as needed.
After this, I cut out some paper hearts for Norah to press down on the contact paper.
Then I cut some thin strips of pink paper. Since Norah is just learning to use scissors, I like to give her very thin strips so she can snip through the paper in just one snip. This is great practice for her while also letting her feel successful and building her ‘crafting confidence’ (is this a thing?).
Norah snipped and snipped, stopping after each little bit to press that tiny piece of pink paper onto the contact paper. She would work on those fine motor skills by picking up the tiny bits of paper she cut and sticking them on the contact paper.
She made it through about four snips before requesting the glue stick. I explained it wasn’t needed because the contact paper was already full of “glue.” She accepted this answer for a few more snips before requesting glue again.
There were a lot of glue requests, but overall, this activity was the perfect level for Norah and engaged her for over 20 minutes. Definitely a highly recommended Valentine craft for toddlers, my friend.
We hung this Valentine’s Day craft in the window and the pride that little girl has over her masterpiece! My goodness!
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you and your little ones love this craft as much as my little one and I did. And I hope your glue requests are slightly fewer and farther between.
xo
Sarah
If you like this activity, you’re going to love my Playful Days Toddler Program!
A beautiful weekly rhythm, with one craft or activity to enjoy with your little one each day. See all that awaits you right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/playful-days
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How did you introduce scissors to your 2 year old? My son is 2.5 and I would like to do this soon.
Thank you for all of your ideas!
Hi Briawna – great question! We are a big crafting house, so my little toddler has been watching her brothers use scissors for a long time. I find when little ones watch older siblings model things they tend to come quicker. To introduce scissors, I always remind my little ones to have “thumbs up”. This simple trick is really all there is to it I find! When just beginning to use scissors it is easiest to give little ones small strips of paper so they can snip through the paper in one scissor snip. Playdough is also great for practicing scissor skills with – roll it out long and thin and let your little one cut and snip. Please let me know if this helps or if you have any other questions! xo
Brilliant! Both thumbs up and cutting playdough!
Hi Sarah! I did this with my two 2 year old daycare girls. I taped the contact paper to a window to make it feel a bit adventurous to them since we currently have freezing temps and are not able to enjoy outdoor time. I used a heart paper punch to get hearts of different colors and I couldn’t keep up with them! They thoroughly enjoyed this activity! Any suggestion for the girl who really enjoys the sticky part of the contact paper and tries to pull on the edges or remove the tape that holds down the four corners? It doesn’t seem to make a difference if we put the contact paper on the table or on a window. She loves tape and things that stick!
Hi Kim! I am so happy that this activity worked well for you and your little ones. The heart punch is a great idea! I am going to give that one a try. And popping it on the window is perfect! It also adds some awesome vertical surface work – ideal for strengthening little arms and shoulders. Brilliant! For your little tape puller 🙂 I would suggest simply letting her pull away. I would put a bunch of little pieces of tape on the window or table top and let her go to it as the others did the activity. Recently I taped some puzzle pieces to a table for my toddler to peel off and put away – maybe that activity would be a hit?
Hi! We love, love using contact paper! We did a craft similar….used tissue paper and folded the contact paper so the tissue was sandwiched in the middle then we cut them into hearts and used as sun catchers on the window!
Oh this is a great idea Nina! Thank you for sharing!