Feb 2, 2025Activities

Fun & Easy Non-Candy Valentine’s Ideas for Classrooms

Written by Robin Imholte

If you're looking for fun, non-candy Valentine's Day gifts to hand out for your kiddo's classmates and friends this year, I've got you covered! I'll share what my toddler son and I made this year for his friends, and a few other ideas as well!

Also, we’re not judging about candy or no candy…. We eat plenty of cookies and sweets over here- we've been making lots of treats over here for the Valentine's Day season! We just have a lot of friends with food allergies so we avoid handing out food items when we can! We love the Teal Pumpkin Project for Halloween too!

If you need ideas for Valentine's Day activities, check out this blog post for toddler ideas and this post for preschoolers!

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First up: Custom crayons!

This is what H (age 2.5) and I made for his classmates this year. I wanted to find a fun non-candy Valentine’s Day gift to hand out to friends. Not too expensive, not something that’s just going to get tossed or added to the constantly-growing pile-of-junk, and also something he could help with.

And voila! We found this idea all over the internet and dove in. Grabbed a few silicone molds and crayons (most people use their old and broken ones, but we didn’t have any!), remove the labels and create away! Bake them at 300 degrees for as long as it takes for them to melt (a few minutes for me), and add more crayon chunks if needed (a good lesson in conservation of volume or state changes!). Once cool, pop out of the molds.

Once the crayons are made, you can turn them into Valentine's Day party favors by hot glueing the crayons onto your cards!

Grab my adorable bug and dinosaur-themed Valentine's Day cards printables below:

Dinosaur-themed Valentine's Day printable cards

Insect-themed Valentine's Day printable cards

Check out the supplies we used here!

Other ideas for non-candy Valentine's Day party favors:

Squishy Dough jars

Kids LOVE playdough, so this is a really simple go-to favor. We always buy Squishy Dough because it's the SOFTEST dough- it's amazing how soft and incredible it feels! It's the dough we use in all our Messy Play Kits and what we've used for birthday party favors as well.

They come packaged in tiny little jars, perfect for little classroom favors!

Valentine’s Day Sensory Bottle

Take a look at my Valentine’s Day Sensory Bottle Kit! It includes a plastic bottle and all the mix-ins for some heart-shaped sensory fun without the mess! Fill the bottle with water and clear glue, then combine all of your favorite Valentine’s Day decorations: red and pink, hearts and glitter galore! You can even dye the fluid red or pink for some extra holiday hype. Seal the lid with glue to be extra safe and let your baby roll around with this great sensory activity.

Contact me for bulk pricing! This makes a great classroom activity!

Salt Dough Conversation Hearts

Mix up some salt dough (or grab a Handprint Keepsake Kit from us to make it even easier!) and a set of conversation heart stamps! Roll out the dough and use the stamp set to cut out hearts and emboss the conversation phrases right into the dough! Bake on a low temperature until hard.

If you want to make them more like ornaments, poke a hole through the top of the heart before baking, and tie the with a ribbon!

Make your own cards with sensory bag painting!

Valentine's Day paper hearts painted in a sensory bag.

Drop some card stock into a plastic resealable bag, then squeeze some red, pink, and white paint on top. Seal the bag shut and let your little loves squish and press the paint onto the card stock for a great sensory play experience, while they simultaneously design a sweet Valentine’s Day card from your baby! Pull the card out, hang it to dry, add a nice note, and send the card to a family member or friend!

Let me know- which of these activities will you try? What other non-candy ideas do you have for Valentine's Day favors for friends and classmates?