Grow Heart Pops {Valentines Activity}

Rosie and Jewel loved magically growing their own candy canes back in December. They loved it so much that they still ask often to grow candy canes again. When Rosie asked me the other day I knew just what we would do. Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and conversation hearts make the perfect seeds for growing heart candy.

Grow your own Heart Pops

Magically grow heart pops and WOW the kids - such a cute activity for Valentine's Day!

A Magical Activity for Kids

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This simple activity is so fun for kids. You can talk about and explore how things grow while also keeping a very magical component present in children's learning.

Materials (affiliate links are provided for your convenience)

Small flower pots
Potting soil (you could also use sugar as soil if you prefer)
Conversation hearts
Heart lollipops (we found ours at Walmart for $1)
Water

When we grew our candy canes a few readers had commented saying they liked the idea of growing the candy in sugar instead of soil. I think that is a really cute idea. I used soil again here just so we could realistically talk about how plants and vegetables grow while growing "magical" lollipops. We also already had potting soil on hand.

Instructions

Have kids fill their flower pots one third of the way with soil

Then have them add 3-5 conversation hearts to the top of the soil. These are the magical seeds that sprout and turn into candy heart pops

The girls loved picking their seeds

Once the seeds are planted have kids fill their flower posts the rest of the way with top soil

Then water the planters and place them in a sunny window if possible

Have kids water their planters a couple of times daily. You can make the heart pops grow overnight if you want. I liked the idea of building anticipation, so I made it take 3 days for the girls lollipops to fully grow. After the first day the hearts had sprouted a little. After day two they were really popping out of the soil

To make the lollipops "sprout" I just cut the stick off of one of the lollipops and stuck it in the soil. I pulled it up a bit from the soil a bit more on day two. You can choose to grow one lollipop or several in each planter. I had one lollipop grow for each seed Rosie and Jewel planted, and I made sure the lollipop colors matched the seeds planted. This was to avoid any smarty pants four year old questions ;)

The girls were so excited when they woke up on day three to fully grown lollipops!!! They have gotten to choose one each day to pick and enjoy.

This simple bit of magic is sure to delight your little ones. You could also add more of a love element to this and give kids red water to water their planters. Tell them the water is filled with love and that love is an essential ingredient needed for all things to grow.