Celebrate Valentine's Day With Friendship Bracelets!

A perfect activity for Valentine's Day: Children trade and share beads, representing each individual in the classroom, to construct friendship bracelets.

Grade, Age Range, or Specialized Learner: Multi-age, Preschool/Pre-K, 3-5 year old

Target Learning Skills:

Fine Motor Skills
Social-Emotional Skills

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If you trade with me,
I’ll trade with you

Trading allows children to build friendships with their peers by giving them an opportunity to share without having to leave the transaction empty handed. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to practice this skill. Traditionally, children exchange cards or treats to celebrate the holiday. Some schools do not allow these exchanges due to concerns with allergies, or concern that not all children are able to participate. The following activity will ensure that everyone will be able to participate in the giving and receiving equally.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Divide a large assortment of beads into small sandwich bags, one per child/teacher. Place only one type of bead in each baggie and include enough of each to trade with each participant. For example, if you have a class of 15 children and 2 teachers, you will need 17 types of beads with 17 of each type. Prepare a sandwich bag containing a set of beads and a pipe cleaner with the ends taped for safety for each child/teacher.

Preschool Activities:

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Bring everyone together in your large group meeting space. Explain that you are going to make special bracelets to celebrate friendship. Remind the children what it means to trade, and demonstrate how to trade with another adult or child in the room.

Preschool Activities:

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Proceed to pass out sandwich bags to each person and let the trading fun begin! Once everyone is finished trading and stringing their beads, help the children twist the ends of their pipe cleaners together to complete their bracelets.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

To add another element of learning, the adults in the room can be given sets of letter beads in their sandwich bags. One adult can be given all the letters for the children’s first initials and another can be given all the letters for the children's second initials. If you teach alone, you can do just first initials or hold the letters for both initials. Explain that children need to name their first and/or last initials before they trade for letter beads.