Inside: This painted valentines art is super easy for toddlers and preschoolers, and creates beautiful vibrant hearts!
Spin art is a favorite in our toddler and preschool classes, so of course we wanted to do it for Valentine’s Day! After all, we had fun making Christmas ornaments from spin art.
I love spin art because, while the finished product is nice, it’s the process that is most important.
Our children are so intrigued as soon as they see the salad spinner.
And then, when we hand them the squirt bottle filled with paint? Wide eyes and huge smiles.
I have yet to find a toddler or preschooler who does not love this activity.
And it makes beautiful valentines art that can be displayed on the walls or windows!
Super Easy Valentines Art Using a Spinner
What you will need:
- Salad spinner
- Tempera paint
- Cardstock paper, cut into heart shapes
- Plastic squeeze bottles
- Glitter, your choice of colors
Prepping this activity:
Cut the card stock into heart shapes. Pour the paint into the squeeze bottles.
The process:
Show the children how to place the paper inside the salad spinner. Then, squirt paint onto it. (Note: since this activity, we’ve poured the paint into plastic squirt bottles, making it easier for the children to use.)
Now for the glitter:
Take some sort of box lid, or any tray with sides, and place the painted heart in it. Let your children shake the glitter onto it!
Check out our favorite collection of Valentine activities:
Valentine’s Day Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Learn about love and kindness with your preschoolers in this engaging Valentine’s Day theme lesson plan set with ideas for reading, math, science & more.
This lesson plan set also includes:
1) Chocolate Taste Test (in color and b/w)
2) Heart Counting Mats 1-20
3) “I Love” Emergent Reader (2 versions)
4) Valentine Upper and Lowercase ABC Match (in color and b/w)
5) Valentine’s Day Dice Game (in color and b/w)
6) Valentine’s Day Letter Puzzles (in color and b/w)
7) 0-35 Valentine’s Day Number Cards (in color and b/w)
8) Valentine Roll and Graph Math Game (in color and b/w)
9) Printable Valentine Writing Papers
CLICK HERE for more information!
I’d love to do this — as long as my salad spinner isn’t coated in paint for life. Did your clean up well?
Yes! As soon as they were finished, we soaked them in soapy water.
I work part time for a MMO program and I can’t wait to do this with all of the littles in my class! I found salad spinner at Goodwill for $2 to use just for classroom spin art! 🙂
That’s a great deal on a salad spinner, Jacqui! You will find it useful year-round. We use ours all the time!
I love this idea! It would make a great Valentine to send to grandparents 😉 Think that’s what we might do tomorrow during Tot School! Thank you for sharing!
Oh yes, grandparents would love this. Thank you, Leslie, and let me know if you try it!
Now I really want a salad spinner. For the salad of course. (wink)
I love the addition of the glitter!
Definitely get that spinner, Christina!