Valentine’s Preschool Craft – Heart Caterpillars
Today, I welcome Tot School Resources to share an adorable little Valentine’s Preschool Craft – Heart Caterpillars! This is such a lovely activity for little ones, as they can simply make their cute Valentine’s Caterpillar, or they can make one as long as their name or practice counting and sequencing skills. Personally, we love making name Heart Caterpillars the best!

Over to Tot School Resources
Hi, I’m Shari from Tot School Resources.
I make kids crafts, activities, and learning ideas for toddlers through early elementary.
I’m a homeschool mom of two young girls so many of my items are geared towards homeschooling or smaller groups but many things can be used in a classroom too, like this cute Valentine’s Day Caterpillar made from hearts!
Make Adorable Valentine’s Day Caterpillars with Your Class!
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and if you’re looking for a fun, creative, and heartwarming classroom project, this Valentine’s Day Caterpillar craft is perfect!
Not only is it simple and engaging, but it also encourages kids to explore their creativity and even practice a bit of handwriting.
Let’s get started on how to make this adorable heart-shaped caterpillar!
Supplies needed to make cute Heart Caterpillars with your Toddler
- Colored construction paper (different shades of red and pink)
- Or precut hearts in the same colors
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Markers or crayons
- Googly eyes (optional but fun!)
- Full size piece of paper or cardstock (for mounting the caterpillar)

(NOTE from RedTedArt: I created a handy printable in black and white or a variety of colors for you to print out, should you find it useful! Of course cutting your own shapes is brilliant too.. just work with what you have. This printable is FREE to Red Ted Art Readers – simply add HappyFeet at check out to get the 100% Discount!).

How to make your Valentine’s caterpillars with preschoolers:

1 – Prepare the hearts. You may be able to find precut circles. Otherwise you’ll need to cut out a bunch. You can find heart templates online if you don’t have something to use as a pattern. (I have one linked in my original post)
(NOTE: or make use of the FREE Heart Caterpillar Printables – be sure to grab the discount code in the supplies section).
2 – Glue one heart towards the left side of the paper. This will become the head of your caterpillar.
3 – Move down your page a little and then glue hearts in a line, slightly overlapping. You want them attached to the head but slightly lower.
We used 5 for the body. If you plan to add names (more on that later), then some kids may need longer bodies.
4 – Use a marker to draw legs, they can have a lot of legs or just a few.
5 – Add a face. You can just use a marker or embellish your caterpillar but using gems for the tops of the antennae and googly eyes on the face.
Making Heart Caterpillars with a class:

Want to use this project to help kids work on writing and spelling their names?
Have them add each letter of their name to one heart on the body. Longer names may need longer bodies, shorter names may have some blank hearts.
You can even use these to create a cute caterpillar bulletin board. Combine everyone’s caterpillars into a giant Valentine’s Day mural with grass, flowers, and hearts.
More ways to learn:
Counting
Incorporate math into this activity by having the kids count how many hearts they used.
Measuring
Measure the length of their caterpillar with a ruler. If you’re doing it with a class they can measure their own, then get in groups and see how long they all are when attached end to end. Whose is the longest? Whose is the shortest?
Sequencing
You can practice sequencing the colors your use – alternating colors or using colors in every three.
Discussing Colors
You can also have fun with discussing colors – what are pimary and secondary colors. How do we make “pink”?
Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Visit my site for tons of free printable Valentines and craft and activity ideas for all year long.
We have more wonderful Heart Animal Crafts on Red Ted Art here, with a Heart Lion Craft and Heart Pig Craft:


More wonderful Valentine’s Crafts for Preschoolers here:

