Melting Hearts

This Valentine’s sensory activity is really easy to set up and is a great activity to teach many skills. This activity will develop language, persistence, increase sensory awareness, strengthen fingers, teach about reactions and the difference between cold and warm, as well as celebrating Valentine’s Day.

WARNING - This is a messy activity and you will both need to wear old clothes that you don’t mind getting stained with either paint or food colouring.

Set Up

I did the prep for this Valentine’s sensory activity the day before so that the hearts had time to freeze. Together with my son we placed pink and red pom poms and red rose petals and water into a heart shape silicone mould. This went in the freezer overnight.

When we were ready to play, I simply turned the hearts into the tray and dissolved red food colouring into some warm water and showed my son how to use the pipettes. If you don’t have pipettes, spoons would also work well.

Using pipettes in this Valentine’s sensory activity is great because the action needed to draw the water up and then out strengthens the fingers. It took my son a little time to get to grips with using them but once he had mastered the skill there was no stopping him squirting warm red water over the frozen hearts.

My two year was so persistent and determined to get the pom poms and rose petals out, he spent all afternoon squirting water and teasing out the sensory objects.