Valentine’s Day Crafts to Make for the Classroom

I love an easy craft that you can have all the kids make and use to decorate the classroom or even make into gifts for the holiday to give their parents. These crafts are mostly process art activities that could be done any time of year with one kiddo or a whole classroom full, but here they have a heart-filled twist.

For example, painting on newspaper and using it as the basis for a project could be done any time of year, but here Art Bar Blog uses painted paper to make heart postcards.

Or kids can decorate cardboard hearts to make this pretty project from Arty Crafty Kids.

Those cardboard hearts can also be the base for fun collages made with random bits from all over the classroom/house, like these from No Time for Flash Cards.

Or use torn paper to make your collage as in the “I Love You to Pieces” project from Taming Little Monsters. This is a great one to have the kids make for their parents.

Weaving with paper is fun any time of year, but doing it in a heart shape for Valentine’s Day adds a fun twist. Get the tutorial from Red Ted Art.

Scrape painting is a fun and easy way to get a different look from paint, and of course you can use it to make heart shapes a little more fun, like in this activity from Taming Little Monsters.

Crayon and watercolor resist art is a classic any time of year, but I love these hearts that were shared on Instagram by Lori Wenger. Have kids draw their own hearts and secret designs, then paint them and display together. So cute!

If you want a project that’s a little more involved, try this three-dimensional heart wreath from Krokotak. Download and print the template, which kids can color, cut and fold to make into a wreath. This one is so impressive looking but not that difficult to make.

Each kid can decorate a heart and put them together to make a classroom caterpillar full of love. Get the instructions and a free template from Craft Corner DIY.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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