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Home / Early Learning / Preschool Arts and Crafts / Valentine’s Day Craft with Paper and Oil Pastels

Valentine’s Day Craft with Paper and Oil Pastels

Shared by Mary Catherine Leave a comment

The simple Valentine’s Day craft is the perfect way to give the kids a creative outlet around the holiday, while still keeping it simple! It’s the perfect addition to your collection of process-based valentine art for preschool.

Are you following Fun-A-Day’s Valentine’s Day Pinterest board?

Open-ended Valentine's Day craft for kids

When I recently talked with my friend Ann of My Nearest and Dearest, I said I wanted to write a little more about the super simple activities we do in preschool. She encouraged me to do just that and pointed out that it’s a nice peek into all aspects of my classroom. Based on her encouragement, I’m sharing an incredibly simple Valentine’s Day craft for kids to make.

Table of Contents

  • open-ended Valentine’s Day craft for kids
  • Preschool Lesson Plans for Valentine’s Day

open-ended Valentine’s Day craft for kids

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Materials
Black construction paper
Oil pastels – we used pink, white, red, and purple
Tissue paper scraps – I cut out heart shapes on the die-cut machine (for another project) and these were leftover
*If you don’t have a die-cut machine, plain scraps would work, as would hand cutting the heart outlines.*

A simple Valentine's Day craft invitation for kids

My goal for this craft
On our art center table, I set out the construction paper, oil pastels, and tissue paper. I hoped the items would draw the children and get their creative thoughts flowing. I love process art with the kids, and I think open-ended craft invitations like this fit right in.

In addition to letting the kiddos use their imagination, I also wanted them to explore different art material combinations. Oil pastels are so fun to work with, but young children don’t often create with them. I happen to have a ton on-hand, so I like pulling them out when possible.

A beautiful piece of preschool artwork resulted from a simple Valentine's Day craft invitation

What the kids did
I had absolutely no expectations for this little Valentine’s Day craft, and I loved seeing the kids’ creations. A few of the children used all of the materials – they glued the tissue paper to the construction paper, then created all kinds of designs with the pastels.

Valentine's Day craft using tissue paper, oil pastels, and black construction paper

Others used the heart-shape as a stencil, coloring the shape in but not keeping the tissue paper on the final product.

Still others just weren’t into it at all and never approached the art table. I had this little invitation out for a couple of days, so interest varied. And that’s okay! Every child isn’t going to be excited about every single activity in the preschool classroom. 🙂

Valentine's Day craft that encourages children to explore mixed media

What do you think? Do you have an easy Valentine’s Day craft invitation to share? Or any other ideas you think I should try out? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

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.

  • cover image for hearts lesson plans for preschool
  • preschool lesson plans for Valentine's Day cover image

Grab the Hearts Preschool Lesson Plans and the Valentine’s Day Preschool Lesson Plans

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers

Valentine's Day Craft with Paper and Oil Pastels - a simple set up that leads to a fun, creative time for children

Filed Under: Preschool Arts and Crafts Tagged With: Valentine's Day

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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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