Valentine’s S.T.E.A.M Activities: Sensory Bins

I love sensory bins and Valentine’s Day is a great time to make a few bins for the little hands here in my house. The teacher in me wanted to make sure that my bins were Valentine’s S.T.E.A.M activities to make them not only fun but educational!

Valentine’s S.T.E.A.M activities

S.T.E.A.M stands for, science, technology, engineering, art, and math. This post contains pictures and ideas on a few easy to make sensory bins for your little ones. Also, be sure to download the free worksheets at the bottom to help you teach about Valentine’s Day!

Science: Frozen Strawberries and Water

Materials:

• Frozen Strawberries
• Water
• Plastic Container
• Scoopers
• Cupcake Holders

My three year old always has a ton of fun playing with water. If I want to cook dinner, read a book, or just sit in silence, all I have to do is give her a few toys and some water.

For this activity, I wanted my L.O. to explore the properties of water, shaving cream, and frozen strawberries. I wanted her to see if the strawberries would dye the water red or pink. We talked about the color red and why the shaving cream makes it look pink. Next, we watched how the cupcake holders floated on top of the water, and we estimated how many strawberries the cupcake holders could hold until they sank. (we were way off, Ha!)

Technology: Valentine’s S.T.E.A.M activities QR codes

The next Valentine’s Day sensory bin I made, focused on books and technology. This was the first time Parker got to use QR codes. I made some Valentine QR Codes using some picture books on YouTube. She loved them. She thought it was like going to the grocery store and scanning food. I downloaded a QR scanner app on our Ipad and showed her how to use them. She picked it up pretty quickly, but I was there to help along the way.

If you don’t have access to a QR code scanner here are the videos we used:

• Pete the Cat Valentine’s Day is Cool
• Love, Splat
• The Night Before Valentine’s Day
• Froggy’s First Kiss
• Valensteins
• Love

You can make your own technology sensory bin with my FREE Valentine’s QR codes by simply printing and laminating the cards at home. These are perfect for older kids and classrooms too!

Engineering: Build A House for Ducks

After all of the fun Valentine’s books we listened to, we decided to use some engineering skills and build our little valentine rubber ducks a house with our Lincoln Logs. Parker had a blast building the ducks a little home. This activity was nothing fancy and took no time to set up. We used leftover craft materials to add some decorations to our house.

Materials:

• Red, white, and pink tissue paper
• Heart stickers
• Jewels and beads
• Fake rose petals

Art: Valentines Love Letters

Following the theme of Valentine’s S.T.E.A.M activities, Parker wanted to make love letters for her family. I used my craft tray and set out different art supplies for her to explore. She had a blast creating love notes for everyone.

We even decided to fold them up and mail them to her Grandparents. I showed her how to put the little stamp on the envelope, and then we took a nice little walk outside to the mailbox to send them off. Now I have to stock up on stamps because she is fascinated with the mail!

Math: 10 Little Hearts

For this activity, I wanted to review counting to ten and shapes with Parker. We read this sweet book 10 Little Kisses by Taylor Garland that I picked up at Barnes and Noble last year. I love this book because it counts the different ways animals kiss or hug one another. It was so cute, and I love mini pigs, so it was a must!

After we read the book, we made ten play-doh shaped hearts using our cookie cutters. We practiced counting and talking about the heart shapes we made. Next, we made patterns using the different colored play-doh and talked about different ways to build big and small hearts.

More Valentines Fun

I hope you were able to find some fun Valentine’s activities to do with your kids and students. These were all very easy to do and took little time to set up. For more Valentine’s activities, grab this free worksheet pack in my resources library.

Also, make sure to grab your free copy of my Valentine QR codes to use.

Happy teaching!

Sarah