Valentine’s Animal Letters Match for Preschoolers
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Suppose you looking for an alphabet activity for your preschoolers to do on Valentine’s week. In that case, this fun and pretty hands-on Valentine’s Animal Letter Match activity will allow your preschoolers to work on letter recognition and matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
This activity is excellent for helping preschoolers develop their concentration, visual discrimination, letter knowledge, one-to-one correspondence, creating sets, eye-hand coordination, and fine motor skills.
Getting Your Activity Ready
This FREE printable can be used in different areas and ways, such as:
- Small group activity.
- Writing center option.
- Reading area option.
- Take home game and Quiet area option.
It comes with 4.25 pages with six different Valentine’s animals: a raccoon, a sheep, a hippopotamus, a pig, a turtle, and a Panda. Each animal has a heart in one of the uppercase letters of the alphabet. There are two more pages with hearts for the lowercase letters.
Materials Needed
- The free Valentine’s Animal Letter Match printable can be found at the end of this post.
- Printer.
- White cardstock.
- Scissors.
- Laminator or Dry-erase pockets.
- Small basket.
To prepare for the activity, fill out the form below to download and print out the free printable. Print each page using white cardstock, then cut out and laminate the animals and hearts to make them last longer. Place them in a small basket or a Ziploc bag to protect them.
How To Use Activity
This activity can be played individually or with a partner. To begin, preschoolers will get the basket or Ziploc bag with the pieces. They have to identify the letter on each animal, find the heart that matches that letter, and place it on top of the heart of the corresponding animal.
If your kids are starting to learn the names of the letters, allow them to begin with just a few animals and hearts. Then you can add two or three more every time they play.
When your kiddos know all the letter names, have them say each letter’s sound as they match animals and hearts.
Other Ideas
- You can use this activity as a folder game. You must cut out the ornaments and paste them into a manila folder. Then, cut out the letter circles and place them in a manila envelope or a Ziploc bag to keep them safe.
- You can have the children match the letter with magnetic letters to have another option for them to do.
- They can write the letters on paper using pencils, markers, or crayons.
- They can find words that start with all or some of the letters and match them with the appropriate animal or heart.
- Prepare centers using this one and my other Valentine’s activities. You can find them below.
Enhance Their Learning by Reading Books
For me, there is no such thing as too much reading. The more you read to your children, the better. Keeping them interested in books is vital, and you should change your library periodically according to the theme and season.
These are some good suggestions you can use for Valentine’s. You can find all these books at your local library, a used books store, and Amazon. You can use the links in each picture to get them through my Amazon links so you can grow your library for years to come.
- How to Catch a Loveosaurus by Alice Walstead Blending exciting traps and STEAM concepts with hilarity and chaos to encourage reading, learning, and imagination, tell the story about how the kids are on the chase again, this time to trap a dinosaur that escaped from the museum and wants to spread love and kindness.
- Dr. Seuss Lovey Things uses the signature Dr. Seuss rhyme, featuring how Thing One and Thing Two are about sharing, caring, smiling, hugging, and blowing kisses.
- The Littlest Valentine by Brandi Dougherty tells the story of Emma, the littlest in the Valentine family but knows that she has what it takes to help the family business prepare for the holiday.
- Little Blue’s Truck Valentines by Alice Schertle tells how Little Blue Truck delivers Valentine’s Day cards to all his farm animal friends.
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose by Lucille Colandro uses rhyming text and hilarious illustrations to tell how The Old Lady is swallowing a rose, some lace, some glitter, and more…to make a special gift for her Valentine!
- Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day is Cool by James Dean is about when Pete the Cat realizes how much fun Valentine’s Day can be, and he decides to make Valentine cards for his family and friends.
- Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff uses his signature character, Mouse, as he makes valentines for all of his friends, representing what he loves most about each of his friends.
Pin It For Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to your literacy or Valentine’s board on Pinterest.
This Valentine’s Animal Letter Match will help entertain your kiddos and make your lesson planning a little easier during Valentine’s month. Don’t forget to get your FREE printable! You must click on the bottom below to download and start using it.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, please let me know, and I will try my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can, and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find helpful.
