🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🎨 Creativity & Imagination — Open-ended activities that let children direct their own play grow creative thinking, original problem solving, and the confidence to express personal ideas.
- 🎯 Focus & Attention — Sustaining engagement with an activity long enough to complete it builds the voluntary attention control that children need for listening in class, reading, and all forms of academic learning.
- 😌 Emotional Self-Regulation — Managing the feelings that arise during activities — frustration when something doesn't work, excitement, disappointment at the end — builds the self-regulation foundation that distinguishes emotionally ready kindergarteners.
- 🧠 Executive Function — Planning an activity, following multi-step directions, and seeing a project through to completion builds the executive function skills — working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control — that are the strongest predictors of school success.
Valentine's Day can be a fun and loving holiday, so why not teach your child (or grandchild or student) different ways to celebrate. These are great preschool activities to do together.
1. Make a photo book out of construction paper. Put family photos on each page and laminate if possible. Punch holes in the pages and tie them together with ribbon or string. Your preschooler can go back and look at all the people s/he loves and who love him/her.
2. Make a tasty treat. Make some
Hidden Treat Cupcakes and fill them with Conversation Hearts.
3. Bake some Valentine's Day cookies. Your preschooler can share them with an elderly neighbor who may live alone. Tie the cookies up with a special ribbon and card. This will be sure to make him/her smile.
4. Make a family handprint collage sweatshirt for a special grandparent. Have everyone in the family put their handprint (imprinted with fabric paint) onto a sweatshirt. Each person's name can be written below. This will definitely become something to cherish.
5. Picture this. Create a
Candy Hearts Valentine's Day Photo Frame together to give to someone special.
6. Stay home and have a family game night. Pop some popcorn and pull out the board games. Nothing says togetherness more than sharing some laughs over a game of Candyland.
7. Do a good deed for someone who needs it. Help your preschooler shovel some snow or take in the garbage cans of an unsuspecting neighbor. 8. Valentine's Day can be a family affair. Make a ''Valentine's Day Preschool Breakfast' and eat together as a family.9. Gifts from the heart. Make homemade valentines to share with your preschooler's classmates. 10. It's all about the love. Tell your preschooler many times throughout the day how much you love them. I'm sure the will reciprocate.
More Valentine's Day Preschool Activities
Valentine's Day Hearts Hide-and-Seek Preschool ActivityIf you are planning to host a Valentine's Day party for your child, here is a preschool activity that is sure to be a lot of fun. It's a great game of hide-and-seek but instead of the children hiding, paper hearts are hidden ahead of time. The one who finds the most hidden hearts is the winner.
Valentine's Day Preschool Keepsake Place MatThis easy-to-make Valentine's Day place mat will allow you and your preschooler to cherish the memories of such a special day.
Happy Valentine's Day Preschool BreakfastLet's celebrate Valentine's Day all day long starting with a great breakfast. Not only is this breakfast fun to eat, but your preschooler will have a fun time helping you make it for your entire family. A great way to show your family you love them.
I'm
Mary Beth P. Adomaitis, the Preschool Activities writer for Preschoolrock.com. As a mom of a preschooler, I love hearing from other parents and teachers of preschoolers. If you have any preschool activity ideas, suggestions or questions, feel free to
contact me.
Helpful Tips for Parents - Connect activities to real life: cooking math, laundry color sorting, grocery store counting. Embedded learning is the most transferable kind. - Join the activity briefly, then step back. Your presence signals importance; your withdrawal enables independence. 5 minutes of participation often unlocks 30 minutes of independent play. - Set out activity materials before you invite your child to play — a prepared space is more inviting and leads to longer, deeper engagement. - Follow your child's lead. If they transform the planned activity into something else entirely, that redirect shows creative thinking — go with it. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do I keep a preschooler engaged when they keep abandoning activities? Short attention span for activities is developmentally normal in preschoolers and shortens further when activities are too easy or too difficult. The sweet spot is a challenge that requires real effort but is achievable. Also consider time of day — activities attempted during tired or hungry periods have dramatically shorter engagement windows. After-nap or mid-morning are typically the richest activity windows. ### How do I get my preschooler to try new activities? New activities need low-pressure introduction. Set the activity up invitingly and let the child approach at their own pace — forcing participation in new activities creates resistance. Joining the activity yourself (playing with the materials in their presence) is the most reliable way to ignite curiosity. A child who watches a parent enjoy something usually wants to try it. Related reading: See also our obstacle course ideas and our painting ideas for more ideas on this topic.
