Last Updated on March 10, 2024 by Sheryl Cooper
Inside: This Valentine’s Day heart collage art is super simple and fun for toddlers and preschoolers. Squeezing glue and pressing on the pieces strengthens fine motor skills, too!
There are so many fun Valentine’s Day crafts that my students have enjoyed over the years. However, crafts can be time-consuming with the extra preparation involved. Plus, this year my students are younger, with shorter attention spans.
I decided to put together a collage activity using heart doilies and other pieces I found in our scrap bin.
Unlike a craft, this was more of a process art idea where the children could add their own touches.
Each heart had it’s own look – no two alike – and they looked so sweet hanging on our classroom wall.
If you are looking for simple and fun, add this to your Valentine’s Day theme ideas!
It’s so easy to overthink art activities.
In my 25 years of teaching, I’ve been guilty of putting together elaborate ideas that ended up taking more time to put together than actually creating.
I would take everything home and prep on my own time, then having to lug it all back to my classroom.
Eventually I discovered that the more time I put into planning and prepping, the less the children seemed to enjoy the activity.
Or maybe that was because I was expecting more out of the project since I have devoted so much time to it.
I started taking a good look at what my students loved, and that was simple ideas where they could add their own touches, not mine.
This activity was the result of digging through our Valentine’s Day theme bin and pulling out pieces that I decided could be used at the art table.
I didn’t have to go out and buy anything.
I didn’t have to take materials home to prep first. (Hooray!)
I simply put everything on the art table, tinted the glue with tempera paint, and invited the children to create.
Yes, it was that easy! Let me show you what we did.
Valentine’s Day Heart Collage Art
Materials Used
- White heavy (card stock) paper
- Heart doilies
- Red foil gift bag filler
- Foam hearts
- Scraps of paper
- White glue (that I added some tempera paint to)
The beauty of this activity is that you can alter this to use what you already have on hand. Collage activities are a wonderful way to use leftovers!
Preparation
I gathered all of my materials and placed them in individual containers, one for each child. I simply placed a little of everything in each one so that the children could then decide what they wanted to add to their paper.
I placed an art tray at each spot and then added the sheet of paper, glue, and container of materials.
A note about the glue:
While you could pour glue into individual containers and add paintbrushes, I decided to use individual squeeze bottles of glue.
I love offering bottles of glue to the children because it adds hand strengthening to the activity.
I tend to have an assortment of tinted glue in our cabinet, leftover from previous art activities. In this case, I had bottles of yellow, purple, and pink glue.
To tint glue, add a dollop of tempera paint. It’s that easy!
Creating the Heart Collage
I invited my toddlers and young preschoolers to the art table and reminded them how to turn the bottle upside down while squeezing.
I then remind them to make their glue “dance”. This means don’t keep the glue in one spot. Make it move around the paper!
When I first introduce collage making, I need to remind them a few times that there must first be glue before adding the pieces.
I pick up the paper to show them how the pieces will fall off if there is no glue.
Also, if this is your toddlers’ first time making a collage, don’t be surprised if they press the pieces on and then pull them off.
While it might feel frustrating, remember that this is all about the process and they are still figuring it out.
You could remind them to press the pieces back on, but most likely they won’t want to and I just leave it alone.
After doing collage work awhile, they will get the hang of it!
Some will want to put just a few pieces on their paper and others will want to add quite a bit.
I love how different they all are!
When finished, let dry completely and hang!
More Collage Activities We’ve Enjoyed
FREE CIRCLE TIME PLANNER!
Get your FREE circle time planner as a gift when you subscribe to my free weekly newsletters.
Here is my Privacy Policy