Valentine’s Day Art Activities for Elementary School

Here are a few Valentine’s Day Art Activities that you can easily do in your classroom to brighten up the space and send home to parents.  These painting activities can also be a fun study of warm and cool colors.

Art is an integral part of a child’s development and I love being able to integrate art into the classroom.  Although we don’t have much time for it, I can see my students relax, let their guards down, and have fun exploring during our art time.  I try to do art at least once a month, if not more often. The holidays make a perfect excuse to do art.

Valentine’s Day Art Painting Activities

My own boys and I created some Valentine’s Day art for our living room based off a few Pinterest pins: LOVE Pin & Heart Pin.  They’re simple enough designs to implement with a little bit of teaching and set up, but they make stunning art when finished.  They’re perfect for classroom art time

L-O-V-E Outline

My youngest son chose to finger paint this and blended the colors instead of doing the dots in the original pin.  He also really wanted the letters outlined.  I loved the letters not outlined, but since it was his piece of art, I complied and outlined the letters for him.

Do you ever war with yourself about how much creative freedom to give your students?  I mean it is their art, right?

A few suggestions if you choose to do this project with your students: remove the letters before the paint dries.  Our letters stuck to the canvas and I had to do quite a bit of touch-up work.

Consider using white letters so that if they do stick, it’s not as noticeable.  Also, if you truly want students to make dots, provide the tool to make dots, like Q-tips or pencil erasers, etc.  You can even provide a variety of tools to make different shapes.

Warm and Cool Colors

My older son chose to work with warm and cool colors while creating this heart.  I drew the heart and the lines in pencil and he painted the sections different colors.  I then outlined the pencil marks.  I couldn’t follow all of the original lines, so a few may have shifted.

This would make a great crayon resist project (with watercolors) or project with oil pastels.  I would let students draw their own lines on their papers if I were to do this in the classroom.  I’d make it a sort of directed drawing activity with a whole lesson on warm and cool colors.  With older students I would even do some color mixing to create various shades of warm and cool colors.

Valentine’s Day Flap Book

I do this Valentine’s Day Flap Book with my students each year.  I love helping students reflect on what makes them special and what they appreciate about those around them.  You can find out more information about the flap book in this blog post.

Do you have any Valentine’s Day Art Projects that you love doing with students?  I love to find out a few more to add to my repertoire.