Easy Valentine’s Art for Toddlers

Last Updated on April 10, 2020 by Sheryl Cooper

It can be a challenge to find easy Valentine’s art for toddlers. When you go on Pinterest, you see all kinds of cute Valentine’s crafts, but can toddlers really do those all by themselves? Without help? I’m going to say no.

One of our very favorite process art activities involves a salad spinner.

Say what????

Yep. Now, if you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know I get that kitchen gadget out year round. You might recall our spin art apples, our spin art apples, and our spin art spiders. There’s a reason we love this activity. It involves several simple steps that, once you show them how, toddlers can say, “I did it myself!” And that is huge and super important to them.

 

Easy Valentine’s Art for Toddlers

 What you will need:

• Plastic squirt bottles
• Red tempera paint
• Purple tempera paint
• Pink tempera paint
• Red and or white large doily hearts
• Salad spinner

 

Setting it up:

Fill the plastic squeeze bottles with paint, thinned with a bit of water. Place bottles and salad spinner on flat surface.

The process:

Have the children place one doily heart into the basket of the salad spinner. Then, let them squirt the paint onto the heart. You will want to supervise this part, unless you want them to use the entire bottle. Encourage them to use all 3 colors, if available.

Fine motor fun:

Squeezing paint is an excellent way to strengthen the hands and fingers, getting them ready for writing.

Spinning the paint:

When finished squirting the paint, place the lid on the spinner and show the children how to make it move. There are so many different types of salad spinners, and sometimes we have two going at the same time that work completely different.

Observing:

Make sure they look through the side of the spinner, if yours is clear, so they can see the paint mixing and splattering along the walls.

The result:

Watch your children’s faces when you open the lid. They will love seeing how the paint splashed and mixed across the paper! Let hearts dry completely and display on wall, if desired.