Children valentines games

Come up with your own Valentine's Day-themed challenges, or cop some of these fun ideas from the Together as a Family blog. Either way, all you need are some simple household supplies for a hilarious game to ensue.

A great way to teach colors to early learners while having some fun, a heart hunt is one of our favorite Valentine's Day games for preschoolers. Cut out a bunch of paper hearts in different colors, then hide them all around the house or the yard for kids to find. Assign point values by color for added fun, or let the kids trade the hearts in for a sweet treat! Who doesn't love that bridal shower game that has teams wrapping each other in toilet paper to create a beautiful "wedding dress"?

Recreate this hilarious game for kids on Valentine's Day by using red streamers. Who can make the most creative Cupid? The Teach Mama blog brings us this fun Valentine's Day game for kids that gets their hearts pumping despite the cold weather outside. Place a bunch of hearts in a circle and have siblings or friends walk on them as music plays. When the music stops, each child will turn over their heart and perform the action written on the bottom. This one is sure to be a crowd favorite!

Buy or make! Yep, this game functions exactly the same as Simon Says, it just gets a festive name. Bonus point if you bring a pretend bow and arrow for whoever is playing Cupid to hold as they call out instructions. Valentine's Day. See All Trying Birth After. Raising Kids. Split players into teams.

One at a time, a player from each team runs to the bowl and picks a heart. They then return to their team, following the instructions on the heart. Continue until everyone from one team has taken a turn, or until all players have had a chance to run. This February fundraiser gets kids skipping and hopping to benefit the American Heart Association. Even if your child's school isn't participating, you can still join a fundraising team.

Then get out jump ropes and teach the kids classic jump rope rhymes. Not only will they be doing their hearts some good, but they will also be helping others. This one is a Valentine's Day version of Simon Says. A leader faces the players and calls out commands.

Any other command means stay still or you are out. Play several short rounds so that several kids get a chance to be the leader and no one sits out for long. First, make a list of kid-friendly fitness activities—jumping jacks, frog hops, side kicks, arm circles, and so on.

If you have access to gear like basketballs, jump ropes, or a mini-trampoline, include those, too. Next, create a poster displaying your activities. They could be in list form, tic-tac-toe style, or even in concentric rings like a target. Place the poster on the floor. Then have kids toss a beanbag make a heart-shaped one if you like onto the poster, and do the matching activity.

You can have a set number of times to do each exercise, either overall or marked with the actions on the poster. Or you can have players roll a die or pick a playing card to give them a target number of jumps, kicks, and so on. Outdoors, use sidewalk chalk to draw a hopscotch course using heart shapes instead of squares. Inside, you can achieve the same effect with painter's tape or sturdy foam cut-outs. Amp up the game by adding extra instructions: "Blow three kisses," or "Pretend to shoot an arrow like Cupid," if you land on a certain space or if your marker lands outside the course boundaries.

This spin on musical chairs gets party-goers moving, without excluding anyone as musical chairs can. Start with enough chairs for all players, minus one. Then everyone who is wearing stripes must stand up and switch to a new seat at least two seats away from their old seat.

The person playing It grabs a seat too, and whoever is left standing is the next It. You can also play Musical Valentines. Use large heart shapes taped to the floor instead of chairs. To make the game inclusive, take away one heart each round, but don't make players sit out. Instead, everyone squeezes together onto fewer and fewer hearts until they're all crammed together on the last one. Scatter paper hearts or other Valentine trinkets like erasers or pencils in a designated area and challenge kids to find them.

This also works well as an outdoor game. In that case, you can even make Valentine ice cubes dyed with a little food coloring, and hide these as the treasure instead.