Twenty kids, a classroom, forty minutes and a bag of conversation hearts: that is the problem these Valentine games solve. I have volunteered plenty of times to bring a group project to an event, and I can tell you the ones that work are never the complicated ones. They are the games built from poster board, straws, bubble wrap, a dollar store tumble tower and whatever candy is already on the table. So here are DIY Valentine’s Day games for every room in the house: minute to win it rounds that run on a kitchen timer, printable bingo and I spy for the quiet stretch, a heart pinata for when the energy needs somewhere to go, and a few for grown-ups after the kids are in bed. Perfect for a class party, a family night, a church group, a couples party or one long rainy Saturday in February!
1. Valentines Minute To Win It
The whole station in one place: kids split into small teams and rotate through quick one-minute rounds, including a heart stack where they build the tallest tower of conversation hearts they can before the timer goes. The maker tested both candy sizes and reports that the large conversation hearts stack far better than the small ones, which is the sort of detail that saves a party.
Get the full tutorial at Makoodle.
2. Valentine's Bean Bag Toss
Four sheets of poster board, some packing tape and a marker, and you have a heart-shaped toss board the whole family can play. It cost the maker three dollars. Bean bags are the only thing you might need to buy, and a teacher supply store sells them for well under a dollar each. Fold the white board in half to cut a symmetrical heart, which is the one step people rush.
Get the full tutorial at Real Coake.
3. Valentine Classroom Game
Built for five-year-olds, which means it is built for chaos. A painted board with a heart-shaped hole, four arrows per turn and a dollar store prize for anyone who gets one through. The rules are simple enough that a kindergartner can hear them once and play, and simple rules are the entire difference between a game and twenty kids wandering off.
Get the full tutorial at A Girl And A Glue Gun.
4. DIY Balloon Pop
Cut a heart out of foamcore, slit small X’s across it and push the knotted ends of about 30 pink balloons through until the board disappears. The arrows are wooden dowels with a straightened staple hot glued to the tip and cardstock flights on the end. Two warnings worth repeating: make it the same day you play, because balloons shrink overnight, and those tips are genuinely sharp.
Get the full tutorial at Handmade Charlotte.
5. Cupid's Shot At Love
A dart board, made safe for indoors and made out of cardboard and two colors of felt. It came out of the maker’s mom loving bar games, which is a good reason to make anything. Keep a large piece of flat cardboard around for projects like this one and you will find a use for it every month. Suits older kids and adults, and it packs flat afterward.
Get the full tutorial at Women And Their Pretties.
6. Valentine's Day Candy Heart Game
Fill a bowl with conversation hearts, hand everybody a pair of chopsticks and set a timer. Whoever transfers the most hearts before time runs out wins, and the beauty of it is that you can set the clock to match the ages in the room. Nobody needs to explain the rules twice. This is the game to have in your back pocket when an activity finishes early and you have ten minutes to fill.
Get the full tutorial at The Tiny Tiara.
7. Hearts To Hearts Printable Card Game
Not the trick-taking card game you are thinking of. This printable plays like Apples to Apples instead: two decks, one of questions and one of answers, and everyone throws in the answer they think fits best. Print it, cut the cards, done. Better for a mixed-age group than almost anything else here, because it is funny at seven and funny at forty.
Get the full tutorial at Skip To My Lou.
8. Bottle Drop
Stand over a narrow-necked bottle and drop conversation hearts into it, one at a time, for one minute. Most hearts in wins. You control the difficulty entirely with your hand height, so the same setup works for a six-year-old and for the uncle who insists he is good at everything. An empty soda bottle and leftover candy is the full supply list.
Get the full tutorial at I Gotta Create.
9. Getting To Know Me Matching Game
Two printable decks, one for each of you, and the game is matching what you know about each other against what you only think you know. There are two ways to play depending on how much time you have, which is thoughtful of the maker. Best for couples, though it is oddly good for a parent and a teenager as well.
Get the full tutorial at The Dating Divas.
10. I'll Tumble For You Valentine Game
A mini tumble tower from the dollar store, with an instruction written on every block, so pulling a block means doing whatever it says. Game, markers and pen all come from the same store, which makes this one of the cheapest gifts on the list. It is also candy free, and after a week of parties and a visit to a grandparent, that matters more than it sounds.
Get the full tutorial at Tried And True.
11. Cupid's Arrow Toss
Toss the arrows, hit the heart, and the setup packs away into a cupboard afterward. This is a good one for preschoolers because throwing is a skill they already have and are proud of, and because a near miss still feels like a good turn. Set the throwing line closer than you think for the little ones. Great for a birthday party in February too.
Get the full tutorial at Playground Parkbench.
12. Ring Around The Roses
Ring toss with a Valentine’s coat of paint, and it belongs to a set of fourteen party games from the same maker, so you can run a whole afternoon off one page. Ring toss suits the widest age range of any game here: toddlers can drop the rings on from directly above and older kids can step back. Cheap to build and endlessly replayable.
Get the full tutorial at Play Party Plan.
13. Heart shaped Pinata for Valentines
Two cardboard hearts and a sheet of duct tape made by overlapping strips, which is a technique worth knowing on its own because you can make a sheet of tape into almost anything. Fill it, hang it, hand over a stick. Pinatas earn their keep at a party because the anticipation runs longer than the game does. Make it in whatever size your ceiling allows.
Get the full tutorial at A Girl And A Glue Gun.
14. Valentines Bingo
Three designs, fourteen cards in each set, and every set includes a blank card so you can write in your own and cover a bigger class. Free to download and print. Bingo is the one game that reliably makes a loud room go quiet for ten minutes, which is worth more than it sounds when you are the one running the party. Use candy hearts as markers.
Get the full tutorial at Makoodle.
15. Musical Hearts
Musical chairs, except the hearts are taped to the floor and each one tells the player what to do next: hop, spin, read the word, then keep moving. It burns off an unreasonable amount of energy indoors, which is the entire point in February. The maker built it for three kids stuck inside in the cold, so it is tested under real conditions.
Get the full tutorial at Teach Mama.
16. Valentine Hop And Pop
Tape paper hearts to the back of a sheet of bubble wrap, lay it down, and let them jump from heart to heart popping as they go. That is the whole setup and it takes about four minutes. Painter’s tape holds the corners without wrecking the floor. Built as a gross motor activity for preschoolers, and honestly hard for an adult to walk past.
Get the full tutorial at Coffee Cups And Crayons.
17. You've Got Mail
One of a set of Valentine games built around romantic movies, and it can be played three ways depending on your group: one player against the clock, head to head or a whole room at once. That flexibility is what lets the same game work for six people or sixteen. Best for adults and older kids who know the films.
Get the full tutorial at Play Party Plan.
18. I Spy Game
Hearts, cupcakes and rainbows scattered across one busy page, and the job is to count how many of each you can find. It comes with an answer sheet and an answer key, which is the thing most printables leave out and the thing you need most. Quiet, portable and genuinely fun for every age in the room. Print a stack for the car.
Get the full tutorial at Live Laugh Rowe.
19. Suck it Up Valentine Minute to Win It Game
Pick up a conversation heart by sucking through a straw, carry it across to a plate, drop it, go back for the next one. Most hearts on the plate in a minute takes the round. It is harder than it looks and funnier to watch than to play, which is the mark of a good minute to win it game. Straws and candy, nothing else.
Get the full tutorial at I Gotta Create.
20. Sexy Jenga
Strictly for the grown-ups, after the kids are asleep. Buy a plain tumble tower for about five dollars, write a prompt on each of the 54 blocks, and you have the version that gets sold in shops for a great deal more than five dollars. Write them yourselves and it suits your relationship rather than a stranger’s idea of it.
Get the full tutorial at Elizabethany.
21. Valentines Day Matching Game
Print the free dots, punch them out with a three-quarter inch punch and glue one to the bottom of each Hershey’s Kiss. Turn them over two at a time, and every match you find you get to eat. Gluing all those dots on is a perfect job for small hands, so the setup becomes part of the activity. Works for a classroom party or a kitchen table.
Get the full tutorial at Creations By Kara.
22. Cupid's Arrow Game
Q-tips shot through straws at a bowl on the floor, and the practical notes are what make it work. Regular drinking straws are too narrow for a Q-tip, so the maker bought milkshake straws from a fast food place for a quarter. She also took 800 Q-tips for one class and recommends twice that. Lay a blanket down first and bring a trash bag.
Get the full tutorial at Hopeful Homemaker.
23. Glow In The Dark Dodgeball
Turn the lights off and everything changes. Glow in the dark duct tape goes around plastic dollar store balls, roughly two small rolls for twenty balls, glow sticks mark out the center line and everyone wears a few. The maker runs it for about 40 teenagers at a time. Perfect for a youth group, a family reunion or a February birthday party that needs something bigger.
Get the full tutorial at A Mom's Take.
