There are words and phrases that are commonly said and heard on Valentine’s Day.
Love, family, friend, friendship, be mine, I love you, heart, love letter, card, red, pink, purple, kiss, hugs etc. And we can choose the simple ones among those many and create an opportunity to talk about letters.
For toddlers and preschoolers, I think the word “love” is the perfect simple word to do this.
Look, here is a word. Do you know what it says?
It’s L, O, V and E. LOVE says “love”.
“Let’s see how we can make each letter with these tapes.”
Form Different Letters
Materials
- Background paper / LOVE template
- Washi tapes
- Scissors
How To
- Your little learner can try making letters just by looking at them.
Like this.
- But if your learner is not really familiar with the letter-forming activity and this is too hard, try using my template.
- Fill each letter with washi tapes
(If you are doing this with a toddler, you can pre-cut the washi tapes and your toddler can connect little pieces of washi tape to fill the letters. But washi tape is a material that can be easily torn and tape, so letting your learner try first and practice fine motor skills is a good idea. If they want a clean look, they have to cut it with scissors.)
I used two different colours in the template so it’s easy to distinguish different pieces of tape.
Just print this template and let your child make the letters on top of this.
Learning how each letter can be formed with straight and curved lines helps children remember the letters better and makes writing easier in the future.
Play with Valentine’s Day Colours
The washi tape “LOVE” is beautiful already but let’s see if we can add more fun here.
Materials
- The paper with the word “LOVE” made with washi tapes
- Paints in Valentine’s Day colours (tempera/watercolours/acrylic)
- Paint brush
- Masking tape
How To
- Tape the paper with the word “LOVE” on a work surface, around the edges. (This is optional step and you can skip it. I just recommend doing this for little learners like toddlers so it’s easier for them to work on it.)
- Paint the LOVE paper with Valentine’s Day colours.
- Leave it to completely dry.
- When the LOVE paper is completely dry, gently peel off the washi tapes. (I was too excited to see the end result and peeled the tape off when the paper was still wet and the background paper came off with the tape. 😨 Yikes. Be patient and wait. Haha.)
Observe and talk about how the washi tapes prevented the paints to go on the paper.
Washi tapes will leave marks on the paper. But remember, the focus of our art activity is always on the process, not the final product. 😊
If you want to make a fine art piece, you can do this activity on a canvas with masking tape and acrylic paints.
Learn the word “love” and have fun with all the Valentine’s Day colours 💜
Happy learning and quality time!
Missangela👩🏻🦰🎀