26 Candy-Free Valentine Favors for School
Help your child share the love with these fun and unique Valentine favors for school, recommended by parents!
Choose your favorite festive treat to add on to store-bought cards for the class, to provide inspiration to create your own easy DIY Valentines, or to hand out as school Valentine party favors. The kids won't miss the candy at all with these sweet V-Day gift ideas!
What are your favorite small Valentine's Day favors for school? Vote for the best ones below, or suggest a new idea for the list.
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Heart Mold Crayons
Kristy Pepping: Do you have a lot of broken crayons laying around? Are the kids complaining they are bored during these winter weekends? If so, buy this mini muffin pan, grab your broken crayons and create melted heart-shaped crayons for a fun and easy craft. Kids will enjoy a fun art project and then passing these unique creations out as Valentine favors for school.
Heart Shaped Paper Clips
Kristy Pepping: These inexpensive heart paper clips are useful Valentine favors for school. Kids can use them as bookmarks in notebooks, planners, chapter books, and more!
Cootie Catchers
Dawn Denning: A traditional Valentine's Day card that doubles as a class favor! My kiddos love making cootie catchers at home, so they would love to get a V-Day inspired one at school! (Cootie catchers pretend to predict the future and say silly things.)
Bloomin Mini Seed Cards
Erynn: Not only are these Valentine's cards completely adorable, they also help the environment and won't be left to the landfill after the holiday season ends. Each card contains seeds inside its paper, so the recipient only has to follow the enclosed directions to plant and grow their very own wildflowers.
Other options let you take a DIY approach, like these Bloomin seed paper hearts! Just be sure to add a note telling your Valentine how to use them (and not to taste-test).
Valentine Crazy Loop Straws
Kristy Pepping: I was put in charge of my preschooler's class celebration and was tasked with bringing in Valentine party favors. These straws are what I selected. I liked the fact that they could be used more than once and would make a fun addition to a child's favorite drink.
Sweet Treat Squishies
Alexandra F.: These slow-rising squishy keychains are perfect Valentine favors for most any school-aged kid. Something to hang on their backpack? Check. Satisfyingly squishy toy? Check. "Sweet" theme that lends itself easily to a cute Valentine's poem? Check! Really, you can't lose with this one.
Emoji Pencil Sharpeners
Amanda Banta: If your kid has been through at least one year of elementary school then you likely have pencils from every holiday. While these are great to have around because my kids go through pencils quickly, the one thing I never can find is the pencil sharpener. To combat that, I'm sending sharpeners along with my boys' Valentines this year. I'm sure at least one kid will be sending in themed pencils and everyone can go home with something that can sharpen it as well.
Play-Doh
Katie G.: Let the kids pass out these adorable mini play-doh cans as Valentine favors for school. With festive colors and a cute, mini size, these are perfect for kids of all ages.
Heart Bubble Wands
Katie G.: Kids love bubbles! These cute bubbles with heart-shaped wands are the perfect size for little hands. Ideal Valentine favors for preschool. Add a cute message to a card and make them a Valentine or hand out separately.
Silly Putty
Alexandra F.: Who can resist that stretchy, gooey putty from our own childhood? Answer: no one, not even your older elementary school kids! Silly putty is also a great manipulative Valentine favor for little hands that might have trouble keeping still for very long!
Metallic Silver Sharpie
Alexandra F.: For older kids, metallic or glittery markers are Valentine favors that are both fun and useful, helping to up their decorating game!
Elmer's School Glue Sticks
Kelly R.: Valentine's Day happens to hit around the time when the classroom supplies start running low, and a DIY Valentine with an "I'm Stuck on You!" sentiment accompanied by a glue stick is a cute way to replenish!
Melissa & Doug Scratch Art Bookmarks
Kelly R.: Each of the scratch art bookmarks in this party pack comes complete with its own stylus, so you can include a complete DIY craft with each Valentine.
Origami Conversation Heart Bookmarks
Kelly R.: This easy origami for kids uses simple technique to create a cute heart-shaped bookmark that slides onto the corner of a page. Kids can add their own sweet sentiments for a conversation heart style and hand them out to classmates as special and useful Valentine favors for school. From Pink Stripey Socks
Primary photo: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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