Easy Valentine's Day Heart Salt Painting for Kids

Love is in the air! And, oh boy, do I love arts and crafts projects!! As a preschool teacher, I always love watching firsthand how art projects can build fine motor skills, help with important skills like color recognition, and provide a wonderful avenue for preschoolers to express their creativity! My preschoolers always love exploring new textures, especially during arts and crafts projects, and this salt painting activity is amazing for that! Whether you’re looking for a sweet activity to do at home or a classroom-friendly art project, you’re going to love this Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids.

two photos of a heart salt painting activity for valentine's day.

overhead image of supplies for a valentine's day art project.

someone is using a pencil & heart-shaped cookie cutters to trace hearts onto white paper.

overhead shot of three traced hearts on a piece of white paper.

someone is using liquid glue to outline the shape of a traced heart.

image showing two out of three traced hearts outlined with liquid glue.

overhead image of salt on top of traced hearts.

overhead image showing a white piece of paper with three heart shapes outlined in glue & salt.

a watercolor paint pallette, paint brush, & cup of water are on a table next to a heart salt painting.

someone is using a paintbrush to paint pink watercolor onto a salt painted heart.

up close image of a finished heart salt painting.

Recommended Grade Level:

Preschool

Kindergarten

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids Supplies:

white cardstock paper
heart cookie cutters
pencil
glue
paintbrush
watercolor paints
water (small bowl)
salt

Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids

Since Valentine’s Day is all about love and showing others how much we care for them, Valentine’s arts and crafts projects like this salt painting activity can also be wonderful for teaching children about emotions! It is so important that children learn at a young age how to identify the emotions they are feeling, understand the emotions of others, and express their emotions in a healthy way. For more of our favorite activities for social-emotional learning, we have an amazing collection of activities! You can find some of our favorite 10+ Fun Social Emotional Activities for Preschoolers here!

And while I’m on the subject of sharing activities we love- we love pairing art projects with a fun book to match the theme! If you have little learners who love to read or be read to like mine do, check out our list of 25 Valentine’s Day Books that your readers will love!

Need More Hands-On Valentine’s Day Activities? Check Out Some Of Our Favorites:

Why Are Art Projects like this Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts Important For Kids?

Salt paintings like this Valentine’s Day Hearts project are super beneficial for kids of all ages! Here are a few of the amazing benefits:

Encourages Creativity: Salt painting encourages creativity in preschoolers by letting them explore color and texture in a fun way. Salt paintings like this Valentine’s Day one are great for getting away from traditional painting with a paintbrush and allow kids to think outside the box while creating amazing artwork! When your child adds salt to the wet paint, it will create cool, colorful patterns. They will love experimenting and thinking creatively while working on this fun project!

Improves Fine Motor Skills: Salt painting helps preschoolers improve fine motor skills by requiring children to use their little hand and finger muscles as they go through the different steps of this project. As they carefully add salt to the wet glue, they will have to use their finger and thumb to carefully pick up and sprinkle the salt onto the glue. This simple action strengthens hand-eye coordination and finger muscles. When they are painting they will also be strengthening their fine motor skills as they work on making patterns and experimenting with textures.

Want more opportunities to build fine motor skills through art? Check out our full collection of salt painting activities for kids!

Sensory Stimulation: Salt painting provides sensory stimulation for preschoolers by engaging their sense of touch, sight, and even sound. As they sprinkle salt onto the glue, they will feel the texture of the salt and observe how the colors change as they add the paint. This hands-on activity helps them explore different sensations and supports their sensory development!

Science And Art In One! Wow!

Over the years as a preschool teacher, I have come to love art projects that also have a science component to them! There is just something so magical about watching science experiments that create incredible designs and artwork. If you love mixing science and art too, be sure to check out some of our favorite projects!

Be sure to check out this lesson plan from Early Science Matters that shows how a science and art project in one like this Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids can be used to teach the science concept absorption!

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Materials You Will Need for Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids:

white card stock paper
heart cookie cutters
pencil
glue
paintbrush
watercolor paints
water (small bowl)
salt

Step-by-Step Instructions for How To Make Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids:

Step One:

Gather all of your materials together and get ready to create some beautiful Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts!

Use the cookie cutters to make outlines of the hearts on the card stock! You can do this by putting them onto the paper and tracing around the outside of them.

Step Two:

Carefully pour glue along the outlines of the hearts. Make sure that you cover the outlines and don’t have any gaps in your glue.

Step Three:

Pour a generous amount of salt onto the hearts to cover the glue, making sure that you cover all of the glue with salt. Once all of the glue is covered in salt you can set your paper aside to dry. (I love to do the first part of this activity at the end of a school day or in the evening at home so it has plenty of time to dry overnight and is ready to paint first thing in the morning!)

Teacher Tip: Your child can sprinkle salt with their fingers, but if they do not want to touch the salt they could use a small spoon to sprinkle it on. Another option is to use a salt shaker to sprinkle on the salt!

Step Four:

Once the glue has completely dried, you can gently shake the remainder of the salt off of the page. You’ll want to be careful during this process so that the salt isn’t knocked off of the hearts! If you want to reuse the extra salt you can shake it off onto a plate or into a bowl and then put it into a zip lock bag to use for another time.

Step Five:

Choose the watercolor paint colors that you want to use for the hearts and get them ready to go! Dip your paintbrush into the water and make sure the paintbrush has enough water and watercolor paint on it. Gently paint the salt with the watercolors. Your child will love watching the paint magically spread through the salt as you paint around the hearts! Continue to paint until all of the hearts are completely painted.

Teacher Tip: Painting the hearts can be a little bit of a balancing act and will take just a little trial and error. You want enough water and paint on your brush that it will soak into the salt, but not so much that your paper gets soaked and you end up with a huge puddle of water on it! I love to make an extra paper with salt hearts when I am preparing the activity (Steps 1-3) and use it as my test paper for this step.

Step Six:

Once all of your hearts are completely painted you can set them aside to dry and display! Great job! Your heart masterpiece is complete!

Awesome Work! You Finished Your Valentine’s Day Salt Art Paintings! Wondering What To Do Next?

Your beautiful salt art hearts are now complete! Here are a few fun ways that we love to display our Valentine’s Day Salt Art Paintings:

Create a fun gallery wall with your paintings in your classroom, or display them in the hallway!
Turn your artwork into a card for a family member or friend.
Use the paper you did the salt artwork on to wrap a Valentine’s Day present.
Cut out some of your salt art hearts and turn it into an amazing heart garland to decorate your home or classroom.
Add a fun frame to the heart picture you created and hang it on your wall.
Add a magnet to the back to display it on a refrigerator!
Use the salt art hearts as a decoration for a Valentine’s Day themed banner.

How Can I Modify Or Change This Valentine’s Salt Art Painting Activity?

We just know you are going to love this Valentine’s Salt Art Painting Activity, but if you are looking to change it a little or modify it for your child, here are some more fun ideas!

Add some glitter or food coloring to the glue to add another fun color or some added sparkle to your project!
Use an eye dropper to drip paint onto your salt painting! This is still great for fine motor skills since little fingers have to squeeze the dropper!
Use colored paper for the background instead of white.
Let your child put a fun pattern, polka dots, or lines through the heart to add some fun details!
Make salt hearts of all sizes and then order them from smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest.
Decorate the inside of the hearts with Valentine’s Day stamps, stickers, or glitter. Or just use crayons or markers to color them in!

Look! Here Are More Ways To Incorporate Salt Painting Into Other Learning Activities!

Want to keep salt painting for learning other concepts? Here are some creative ideas for using salt painting in other learning activities:

Work on sight words with salt painting! Write the words in glue, sprinkle salt on them, and then paint them! Your child will love watching as the words come to life! This Free Printable Sight Word Outline would be perfect for an activity like this!

Make small hearts, cut them out, and use them as the manipulative for a counting activity like these Free Valentine’s Day Number Mats for Numbers 11-20.
Make textured counting cards! Giving your child something to touch while they count is great for one to one correspondence. These Valentine’s Day Conversation Heart Counting Cards would be great to make into a textured counting card!
Try creating different salt art designs like this Flower Salt Art Project that we love or create your own unique design!

Frequently Asked Questions

These are frequently asked questions about Valentine’s Day Salt Painting Hearts for Kids:

What paper is best to use for salt painting?

I have tried all types of paper for salt painting activities and have found that the best paper for salt art projects is heavy, thick paper or card stock. This type of paper is able to better handle the glue and salt without bending or tearing. As an alternative, watercolor paper also works well for this activity since it is thicker! Construction paper also tends to be thicker than regular white drawing or copy paper, so that is another option if you do not have card stock or another kind of thick paper.

Which glue is best to use for salt painting?

In my opinion, the best glue for salt painting is white or clear school glue (like Elmer’s). This is because over the years I have found it is the easiest to use, dries clear, and works well for sticking the salt to the paper. The bottles are also perfect for little hands to squeeze and help with tracing the outlines of the hearts in glue.

How long does it take salt paintings to dry?

Depending on how much glue you use to outline your hearts, this salt painting can take about 1-2 hours to dry. I like to let my paintings dry overnight just to be sure that they have completely dried to avoid the hearts from getting smudged and losing their beautiful heart shapes!

How do I make salt painting less messy?

Salt painting can get a little messy, but there are some quick, easy, and inexpensive ways you can avoid the mess! For starters, use a tray, disposable table cloth, or newspaper underneath the paper to catch any spilled salt. Also I have found that using small containers to contain the materials like water, paint, salt, and paint brushes makes the activity more organized and less messy! Keep a roll of paper towels and a trash bag close by to quickly clean up any spills or messes.

We hope you’re in love with this activity like we are!

We hope you love this Valentine’s Day Salt Painting for Kids! Leave us a comment and let us know how much you enjoyed it and then head over to Life Over C’s to check out more amazing arts and crafts projects like this one!

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