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Gone are the days where I’d post about romantic outfits to wear for valentines day, or cute cookies to make for your loved on. Nope, this year it’s all about mister Jasper and so I thought it would be fun to do some Valentine’s Day themed play ideas.

Please don’t get me wrong, I struggle with these kind of play ideas, and it takes me a lot of effort to actually commit to creating them. So when I say, these are so easy, that even I could do it, then you can definitely do it too, if you’re like me, that is. Also, thank goodness for the likes of Pinterest these days!

[1] The Pom Pom Game

 

This is SO easy to set up, simply use some Valentine’s coloured pom poms (think your reds, pinks, purples and whites) pop them into a tray (I LOVE this one from Kmart).

Use some toilet rolls, you could even add colour to them to turn this into a colour sorting game.

And then finally, some tongs, for your little one to pick up the pom poms and pop them into the tubes.

I also added a few coloured ping pong balls as they fit nicely into the toilet roll tubes.

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES TO TALK TO:

  • Different colours of the pom poms
  • Different sizes, big, small, medium
  • Different textures, these ones are soft (pom poms) and these ones are hard (ping pong balls)
  • Counting of pom poms
  • Putting it IN the tube, and taking it OUT of the tube
  • My turn, your turn

Can you think of any other learning that could be taking place?

[2] Water Play

This one is also fun, slightly more messy, but what toddlers don’t love water!

All you need is a tub, some water, a few drops of red food colouring to make the water nice and pink.

Then you can add anything you like to it, I added some pink sponges that I had cut into different shapes, some artificial flowers, and some coloured ping pong balls.

I kept the colours pinky to keep go with the Valentines’ Day theme.

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES TO TALK TO:

  • Different textures, soft, hard, fluffy etc
  • This one sinks, this one floats
  • What are the shapes of the sponges (heart, square, rectangle etc)
  • Counting, how may balls are there? How many flowers etc
  • Can you squeeze the water out of the sponge?

Can you think of any other learning that could be taking place?

[3] Kinetic Sand Sensory Station

This one was also super easy, and I pretty much got everything from Kmart (not a sponsored post, I swear!)

All you need is some kinetic sand, you could also use play dough.

Then just some fun things that they can use as tools to interact with the sand. I used some popsical sticks, felt love heart cutouts, red and pink pipe cleaners and some coloured ping pong balls.

Pop it all in the tray and let your kiddo have at it!

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES TO TALK TO:

  • “What happens if we” and then explore a potential scenario such as sticking a popsical stick in the sand, or burying a ball in the sand etc
  • Counting, how many sticks can you stick in the sand? etc etc
  • Colours – lets put all the red things in the sand etc etc
  • Textures – this feels soft, this feels hard, can you squish this, can you pull this etc etc
  • What shapes can you see? Can you make that shape with the sand?

Can you think of any other learning that could be taking place?

And there you have it folks – told you these play ideas were easy! If you go ahead an try any of these, be sure to tag me on instagram so I can see what you’ve done – @megscronje

Happy Valentines Day!