Party Ideas: Valentine's Party for Kids
This year, we will be throwing our very first (and hopefully last) Valentine’s Day party for my daughter’s preschool class. The last time we were tasked with doing any type of holiday event was for Halloween (link coming soon!), and since the majority of the same people will be at this one, I tried switching things up a bit to keep it interesting to all involved. But as someone who never really made a big deal out of the holiday in the first place, it’s been hard for me to figure out how to turn this one into something less “lovey-dovey” and more “fun-ny.”
Thankfully, I think we were able to pull together some fun ideas, but the thing I’m most proud of is that you can actually replicate almost ALL of these games for… wait for it… LESS THAN $10… and some are even free! Not even kidding. And they don’t take long to create, either, which means that this mama is most definitely reusing their concepts for future events too because, hey, why not?
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STEP ONE: VALENTINE’S DAY GAMES
For our last party, we focused on single-person games – tossing balls by yourself, spinning a wheel, pinning a carrot on a rabbit, etc. – so this time, we decided to go with a more team-focused approach. We assigned each child onto one of two teams, trying to keep the ages and skill sets as balanced as possible. I saw this pretty cool idea online where you could pick two different animals and have each child say the sound they make out loud repeatedly while walking around until they find their corresponding team – kind of like a Marco/Polo concept – but I had already picked the colors red and white and couldn’t really come up with animals that made sense for that. Cardinals? Polar bears? Do they even MAKE a sound? No idea… so I game up.
Valentine’s Party Game #1: Heart & Seek
Last year, I bought a 36pk of colored pinwheels from Oriental Trading for around 4 bucks on clearance. At the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with them, so they’ve been sitting in my basement collecting dust ever since. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that they’d work really well for a scavenger hunt + counting game. Assemble 20 pinwheels (you can use anything, really – heart-shaped cut-outs, Easter eggs, yard sticks, whatever you’ve got a lot of and can hide) and divide them in half (so 10 each). Pick two colors that you’ll be using (I went with red and white), and color the masking tape red for half of the pieces and white for the other half (so 10 of each color). Tape those colors to the trunks of each pinwheel.
Separately, tape 20 other pieces of masking tape and write a number between 1-10 on each, being careful to ensure that ultimately you’re left with the numbers 1-10 assigned to one color and 1-10 assigned to your other color. Attach those below the color tapes on each pinwheel and hide them wherever you want.
Have the kids – now divided into two teams – find the pinwheels and bring them back (making sure that they grab only THEIR color). You can either stop the game here and declare a winner, or you can create an Amazon box with a few pieces of Styrofoam inside it, on top of which I wrote the numbers from 1-10 twice. When the kids come back, the plan is for them to stab the pinwheel of the right number into their color-coded section. The winning team finishes this the fastest.
Valentine’s Party Game #2: Heart Thrower
This is seriously the easiest and cheapest game I can think of. Find a large Amazon box and cut a heart-shaped hole out of its center (I was lazy and bought pre-made white posterboard at Dollar Tree, which hurt me to my core but saved me so much time). Then grab a few unsharpened pencils and wrap/tape each of them separately in red construction paper. Cut out a few hearts and arrows from more construction paper and attach them with glue (I used Krazy Glue because we break things a lot) to form an “arrow.” Have the kids throw their arrows through the hole. This is again a team activity, so everyone on your team must get two inside in order to win. First team to do so gets bragging rights.
Valentine’s Party Game #3: Heart Puzzler
Another super easy and super cheap game, which I got from a good friend who did this for Halloween. Go online and find a heart picture that you like (here’s a nice one that has no licensing issues attached). Print it out (or draw it yourself!), making sure to make two identical copies for the two teams. Cut it into random puzzle-looking shapes and make the kids piece it together a team. Fastest team wins.
Valentine’s Party Game #4: Heart Shaker
This is another super easy game to create with very low funds. Buy two bags of those conversation hearts (you can find them on Amazon here, but I bought them at the dollar store). Empty out four water bottles and let them dry. Put 3/4 of the bag into one and 3/4 of the other bag into another. Take duct tape (must be duct tape or it won’t hold) and tape the one candy bottle to an EMPTY bottle to create an hourglass. Do the same to the other two. You’re leaving the other 1/4 in both remaining bags for the next game, so if you don’t plan on doing that one, you can empty both bags into these bottles before sealing them up.
Have both teams line up. Each person needs to completely empty their hearts from one side of their bottle into the other before passing it on to the next person in line. I’m planning to get the parents involved in this one because it’s not as easy as it looks and I don’t want the little kids to get frustrated, but I definitely think it will make for entertaining pictures…
Valentine’s Party Game #5: Heart Relay
Store the remaining conversation hearts from the previous game inside two Ziploc bags. Grab a few plastic spoons and have each team relay one heart inside each spoon from one side of your room to another. If you drop it, you need to start back at the beginning. First team where all players successfully complete this wins.
Valentine’s Party Game #6: Heart Breaker
This entire party took shape because of this game – I saw it online and thought it was just the coolest thing ever. Not only does it take the place of prize tickets (which I’ve been doing a little too much lately), but it also lets kids get out their innate desire to hit things without actually hurting anyone. Cut an Amazon box into a large rectangle. Grab some Solo cups, some Krazy Glue, some red tissue paper, a few rubber bands, and some prizes from the dollar store.
Most of these games that I saw online didn’t have any writing on them (part of the surprise), but I had a few items that I envisioned as potentially being disappointing to some kids (for example, if my princess-loving daughter got a dinosaur dig kit, she’d be less than thrilled), so I wrote some clues with a Sharpie so they had some idea as to what they were choosing.
Stick your prizes inside each cup and cover it with the tissue paper (if you planned on writing on it, do so beforehand), then rubber-band it closed, ensuring a tight fit. Krazy Glue each cup in the shape of a heart onto the cardboard (you’d be surprised at how long it took me to figure out how to create a heart on cardboard – it SHOULDN’T BE THAT HARD, but I just could. not. grasp. the concept , and I’m pretty sure I’m missing a cup at the very bottom still hahahaha). The kids then pick one and “punch” their fists through to reveal their prize.
STEP TWO: HAVE FOOD/OTHER ENTERTAINMENT
While the games are most definitely intended to be the highlight of the party, it’s probably smart to have both food and some activities on-hand to help pass the time before the games start. Our plan is to just serve pizza and have some of those gigantic tumbling blocks, four-in-a-row boards and cornhole games to keep people occupied.
I toyed with the idea of creating a heart-shaped pinata because it would truly be SO easy – just take a shirt box, cut it in the shape of a heart and tape the sides together – but I did a pinata for our last party and don’t really think we need it this time.
Fingers crossed no one gets hurt and that the kids have fun!