Ooo! I’ve seen so many cute ideas for Valentine’s Day! I’ve loved all of the cute sayings and things that are attached to a treat. One thing I noticed though is that not too many were the kinds of treats that I would want my kids to come home with. I have a hard time giving out things that I wouldn’t want in return. Now don’t get me wrong. I love sugar, but they just get SO much in one day. Why not be the one to provide a little non-sugary treat? Healthy Valentine treats anyone?
So here are some great healthy(ish) snacks to hand out on Valentine’s Day. One thing I kept in mind was price; these are healthy and inexpensive treats! I have a friend with 3 kids in elementary school and 1 in preschool. Between the 4 of them, she needs to have almost 100 Valentines ready to hand out! That is serious commitment to the Valentine if you ask me.
The Dollar Store really did me good this year! The little baggies (which are the zip close kind) were 40 for $1. The little foam heart stickers were also there in a pack of 240 stickers!
Lots of the ideas are prepackaged so they can be taken to school and fall into the categories of gluten-free, egg free, dairy free…all good options for kids with special diets! Most of the sayings aren’t super mushy either, just fun!
1. I’m Wild About You, Valentine
2. Knock, Knock
Who’s There?
Orange!
Orange Who?
Orange you glad it’s Valentine’s Day?
Treat: Fresh Orange
How to: Cut a 4 inch long heart out of green paper, write the first 4 lines of the joke on the front. I added little lines to make it look like 2 leaves. Cut a smaller light green heart, write the last line of the joke on it, and glue it to the back. Wrap 2 orange pipe cleaners around an orange, poke end through green hearts and twist to secure. Add a foam heart “cutie mark” (My Little Pony reference, for all you mothers of little girls).
3. Fruity Valentine
Have a “berry” great Valentine’s Day! (strawberry or raspberry fruit leather)
You are the apple of my eye! (apple fruit leather)
You are “grape”! Happy Valentine’s Day! (grape fruit leather)
Treat: Stretch Island Fruit Co. all-natural fruit strips (from Costco)
How to: Cut a 3.5 inch by 7 inch piece of paper. Fold the paper around the fruit leather and secure with a glue stick on the back. Cut another piece of paper and write your saying on it. Attach with glue. Embellish with stickers.
4. Let’s stick together, Valentine!
Treat: Cheese stick
How to: Cut a piece of paper 3 inches wide and 6 inches long. Cut two holes about the size of a penny in the paper about one inch from each end. Add saying and embellish with stickers. Insert the cheese stick into the holes as shown. This is a great gluten-free, prepackaged idea!
5. You are a natural! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Treat: Nature Valley Granola Thin, or any other granola bar (These came in a box of 36, individually wrapped at The Dollar Store! That makes them about 3 cents per treat. Don’t worry. I bought 5 boxes!)
How to: Cut paper slightly bigger than your granola bar. Write your saying on the paper and use a glue stick to attach the granola bar right to the paper!
6. It’s Valentine’s Day! What’s “knot” to love?!
Our class would “knot” be the same without YOU!
Treat: Pretzels or if you are a real thrill seeker, chocolate-covered pretzels.
How to: Fill your treat bag. Cut a large heart and staple it to the top of the bag. Cut a smaller heart, write your message on it, and gluestick it to the bigger heart (covering the staple). You can make a rectangle top by cutting a paper as wide as you’d like and twice as long. Fold the paper in half and staple to the top of the filled treat bag. Glue another paper with your saying on top to cover the staple.
Now Snapple isn’t something I would give away to every kid in the class, but it would make a cute teacher gift or something nice to stick in the hubby’s lunch box!
7. You’re the snApple of my eye!
Treat: Snapple Juice
How to: Cut a large heart and write your saying on it (outline it with another paper if you like). Put a piece of tape in the middle of a pipe cleaner and attach it to the back of the heart. Twist the pipe cleaner around the neck of the bottle.
These were a blast to make. I hope you can use the ideas!
Do you have any other ideas that I didn’t think of? What are you sending your kids to school with this year?
If you are looking for a homemade treat these red velvet brownie cheesecake bars are my favorite!
All very cute!!!
So so cute! I feel the same way about treats. For our little preschool we are going to put cream into little baby food jars with marbles and shake em till they turn to butter (I still need to try this and make sure it works) and write “I love you ‘butter’ than anything!” it’ll be for the mamas. But I might steal one of your ideas to give to the kids, thanks for sharing!
Butter is love if you ask me. Mmmm. Butter.
Such a cute idea! Now I may do it for out preschool group too!
I love these! They are super adorable 🙂 I really like this list of heart shaped foods but your healthy valentines spin is awesome too! All great ideas!
I love your ORANGE VALENTINE idea! What a clever idea! (super cool that it’s with healthy food and is so neat and easy!) I think I am going to do this with both my children and with my 2nd grader English class! Well done and thanks for sharing! I’ll return to your site and would be complimented if you came and visited my brand, new site, too: gina at http://www.willowday.com
PS: I think I’m going to suggest a few Valentine ideas next week on my site, do you think I could write a blurb about you and project and link it to you?/g at willowday
These are wonderful! My kiddos made the orange valentines for their teachers and my oldest chose to make the fruit leather valentines for his classmates…thanks for a fun twist on Valentine’s Day treats!
These are great, healthy alternatives…thanks for sharing your ideas! We were just told no candy in the classroom for Valentine’s Day so I almost panicked having prepared my son’s cards and treats last week.
Thank you sooo much! I have a 1yr. old boy who has a dental condition & I was feeling downhearted that I couldn’t give him a good valentine, until I found your blog. Him & his older brother will now be getting an animal cracker, snApple, & valentine stuffed animal combo, today! Now I get to feel excited for them both. 🙂
This totally made my day! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and Happy V-day 🙂
Got any cute quotes for giving pink grapefruit? My first grader’s teacher loves pink grapefruit so that’s what she’s getting 🙂
Hhhmm. “I think you’re GRAPE” and just forget the fruit? That a tough one…
Yeah true I could do that. Thank you!
Thank you for the inspiration! We featured your yogurt bites as a Valentine’s Day snack recipe on our recent round up post -> http://www.brashearkids.com/2015/02/round-up-10-healthy-valentines-day.html
We would love for you to check it out!
I mean we featured your Animal Cracker Valentine snack on our recent blog post.