Wow! Straight after Christmas and New Year, it seems like Valentine’s Day is the next big celebration for a lot of people. Because we’re all trying to save money in the current climate and don’t want to spend much after Christmas, I have created this free resource for you.
The only things you need are some white card, a printer with colour ink and some scissors and you have a fun toddler and preschooler activity.
These cards come on three sheets:
- A sheet of blank hearts
- A sheet of hearts with colours written on in British English e.g. Grey
- A sheet of hearts with colours written on in American English e.g. Gray
Top Tip – only print the pages you want. I only printed out the first page for my 3-year-old. I printed it out 4 times so we had 32 cards which was plenty for us.
What are the benefits of playing with these heart cards?
These simple colourful hearts teach:
- turn taking
- colour names
- matching
- social skills
- fine motor skills
- gross motor skills
- and just how to have fun!
Want to know some ideas I came up with for these colourful, yet simple cards? Keep on reading.
If you haven’t already seen my post about why we should celebrate Valentine’s with toddlers then hop on over there first and come back for card game ideas here.
When you print and cut these cards, if you know your toddler is a little heavy handed, consider laminating the cards so they can be used over and over. Encourage taking care of the cards too so they don’t get bent.
Scroll to the bottom for the download but first there are some ideas of what to play with them.
Games Using the Heart Cards
1. Matching Game
Lay all the hearts out on the floor face up. Invite your little one to put all the hearts of each colour together, saying the colours as they go.
2. Scavenger Hunt
Print out as many hearts as you like. I printed four sheets and cut them all out. Then, I hid them round the lounge, not too high up for our three-year-old to find. She loved it and was racing around.
Top Tip: Say the colour names as they find them, or for older toddlers or preschooler, ask them to tell you the colour of the heart they found.
This was loads of fun!
As I type this up, my little one is hiding the hearts for me to find! She loves this game!
3. Memory Game
Lay all the cards out on the table or carpet face down.
Take turns to turn two hearts over, say the colours and see if it’s a pair.
If it is a pair, that player gets to keep the pair and have another go.
If you pick two which don’t match, the cards get turned back over and play goes to the next player.
Once all the cards are found, count how many pairs you each got and the player with the most wins.
Top Tip: With younger toddlers start off with fewer pairs: maybe 4 pairs. It’s also easier if they’re laid out in rows and put back where they came from. This helps to remember where they were over several turns.
To challenge older toddlers and preschoolers go with the full eight pairs and we even played with four hearts of each colour so had 32 cards in total. You know your child best and what length of game and what difficulty level they can cope with.
4. Go Fish
Print off 4 sheets of the hearts. Deal 5 cards to each player. The rest can be the pick up pile. When it’s your turn, if you have four hearts of the same colour, you get to put them down. You, then, can also any player for a heart of a certain colour, e.g. Player B, do you have green, please? If they do have green, they give you all their green cards. If they don’t have green, they say, “Go Fish!” and it’s the next player’s turn.
5. Counting
Ask how many hearts of each colour there are. Count as you go in the other hearts games. Ask questions to check such as, “Are there three hearts here?” when you know there are only two.
Check out these other Valentine’s posts here for more activity ideas with your little one:
How To Spend Valentine’s Day With A Toddler? – Fun Family Home
Valentine’s Day Themed Activities For Preschoolers – Fun Family Home
Have fun seeing what ideas your kids come up with using these fun cards!
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