Three heart name crafts the kids will love to make this Valentine’s Day. Be sure to grab the free printable heart letters at the bottom of the post and add this to your list of valentine activities for preschoolers.
I’m often asked about how to teach young children letters, especially since I disagree with using “letter of the week”.
To answer that question, I always reference using hands-on, engaging activities and real experiences. And I always, always, always suggest starting with children’s names.
Why use the kids’ names to teach? Because kids’ names are important to them. Which makes total and complete sense when you take a moment to think about it.
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3 Heart Name Crafts for Preschoolers
With Valentine’s Day approaching, why not try some heart name crafts with the children?
We came up with a few different ways to use hearts to make kids’ names. Pick your favorite and try it with the children!
Sticker Names
For this heart name activity, you’ll want to grab some fun stickers. We used glitter foam hearts, but a simple Valentine’s Day sticker book would work just as well.
Write each child’s name on a large piece of construction paper in pencil. Depending on your students, they could write their names on the paper instead. Just make sure the names are large enough for the stickers.
The children give their fine motor skills a workout peeling the stickers and placing the stickers on the letters in their name.
While the kids are making their sticker names, talk about the letters. Encourage the children to apply the stickers to the letters based on correct letter formation. Talk about the sounds each letter makes, and come up with other words that start with those letters.
Hole Punch Names
Of the three name activities, I think this one is my favorite. We used a heart hole punch from a local craft store, along with small squares of scrapbook paper.
Again, start with the kids’ names written on a large piece of construction paper.
Have the children hole punch hearts out of their favorite colors of scrapbook paper. This will help them with fine motor skills and hand strengthening, depending on the hole punch you use.
Once the hearts are punched out, it’s time to make the names. Have the children add glue to each letter individually. Then they can add the heart cut outs.
As mentioned above, this is a great time to chat about letter names, letter sounds, and letter formation.
Printable Heart Names
While the other two heart names were focused on letter formation, this one is focused on name formation. Since the letters are already printed, the kids use them to explore putting the letters in the correct order to make their names. A bit like a Valentine’s Day version of an early childhood name kit.
Print out the heart letters needed for the child’s name (remember to grab the printable at the bottom of the post). If the hearts are too large for you, just reduce the size before printing. I’d suggest laminating the letters if you want the children to use them over and over again.
Grab an envelope and write the kid’s name on the front. Then add the heart letters to the envelope. Call the child over and explore putting the letters together to form the kiddo’s name. Talk about the letter names and letter sounds along the way.
To extend the activity, add some magnetic letters for the child to to manipulate and match to the heart letters. You can also have the child write his name on a white board or in a sensory writing tray.
Alternatively, you could use the heart letters to make a slightly different heart name craft. Perhaps turn the hearts into flowers and let the children draw the stems and an environment. So many different ways to use them!
Do you have any fun name crafts you love doing with the children?
Preschool Lesson Plans for Valentine’s Day
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes book suggestions, printable plans, over 30 learning activities (both whole group and centers) related to the theme, and corresponding printables.
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- Heart Theme Lesson Plans
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- Valentine’s Day Lesson Plans
Grab the Hearts Preschool Lesson Plans and the Valentine’s Day Preschool Lesson Plans
You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers
Even More Heart Activities for the Kids
Be sure to check out these other fun heart ideas to try with the kids! You’ll find the links below the photo.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Heart Letter Puzzles // Pocket of Preschool
Valentine Hearts Ten Frame Clip Cards // Mrs. Jones Creation Station
Heart Digraph Puzzles // The Kindergarten Connection
Printable Valentine’s Math Activities // Stay at Home Educator
Alphabet Hearts // Playdough to Plato
Valentine’s Day Emergent Reader // Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten
Heart Syllable Sort // Recipe for Teaching
Candy Hearts Count and Clip Cards // Modern Preschool
Heartbreakers Sensory Activity // Sugar Spice and Glitter
CVC Hearts // The Primary Post
Valentine’s Day Number Recognition Bingo Game // Schooling a Monkey
Valentine’s Day Activities (Heart Craft & Cutting Practice) // Fairy Poppins
Heart Counting Cards // Powerful Mothering
Sorting Hearts Fine Motor Tray // Teach Me Mommy
Candy Heart Estimation Station // The STEM Laboratory
Contraction Conversation Hearts // The Simplified Classroom
Chocolate Heart Play Dough Mats // Fantastic Fun and Learning
Jar of Hearts: Editable Sight Words to Read and Write // Liz’s Early Learning Spot
Hearts Make Ten Game // Sara J Creations
Heart Roll, Cover and Write Mats // Fun Learning for Kids
Heart Ice and Oil Density Experiment // Science Kiddo
Candy Heart Sentences // Pages of Grace
Heart Sight Word Match // The Letters of Literacy
Heart Name Crafts // Fun-A-Day
Free Printable Heart Alphabet
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PLEASE NOTE that many school district computers have firewalls and pop-up blockers that will inhibit your access to this free printable. You might see the pop-up stall out and say “submitting” for an extended period of time, or you might not see the box that’s supposed to pop up. If you’re on a school computer and run into these issues, this might be the case for your district. Using a non-school computer should solve that problem.
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