Celebrate the scientific side of Valentine’s Day with this 3D DIY heart model that kids can build from modeling clay! You’ll never look at hearts the same way again. This year, we’re building a complete them around Valentine’s Day STEM activities. We loving bringing the holidays into our STEM activities because the kids get a big kick out of it. Our first Valentine STEM activity was making a DIY heart model from modeling clay.
I’d always wanted to try making a 3D heart model, but it turns out, hearts are complicated!
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How to Make a DIY 3D Heart Model
The heart is made up of four chambers and valves that work together to pump oxygen throughout the body. Kids will be fascinated to see how their heart actually looks and will have fun molding their own realistic heart model from clay.
What you’ll need for the 3D heart model project:
This simple DIY 3D heart model is a fun way to learn about the different parts of the heart. With a good diagram or heart model and some clay, you can make your very own life sized DIY heart model!
We used modeling clay to make our heart so we could re-use it again, but if you wanted to make this from oven-bake clay on a smaller scale, they would make adorable non-candy Valentines for friends and classmates!
ALEX Toys Artist Studio 24 Modeling ClayseBoot 11 Pcs Wooden Handle Clay Pottery Sculpting Tools
Anatomy of the Heart Anatomical Chart
Walter Products B10405AN Human Heart Model, Life Size, 2 Parts
Teaching Resources for Valentine’s Day
Here are some fun STEM teaching resources for Valentine’s Day that you can use in the classroom.
Browse the entire category of Valentine’s Day classroom supplies here or grab some of my Valentine’s Day favorites from the list below.
Exploding Candy Lab Science Kit
Chemistreats Classroom Candy Science Kits
Lollipop Lab Candy Science Kit
Valentine Building Block Bears
LEGO Friends Flower and Chocolate Kit
LEGO Pop up Valentine Card with Swans
3D Heart Model STEM Integration
Science: Study the parts of the heart and learn their names.
Technology: Talk about the different technologies used to keep hearts safe and healthy.
Engineering: Experiment with building a 3D heart model that can actually pump liquid.
Math: Calculate the heart rate of each student and figure out the average class heart rate.
Classroom Valentines from Teachers to Kids
Your students will love any of these creative classroom valentines for kids from their teacher!
Printable Tea Pun Valentines that Kids Will Love
Zoo You Want to Be My Valentine Zoo Printable Valentines
Army Men Printable Valentines for Kids
Printable STEM Valentines for Kids
Ingenious School Valentines Ideas For Classmates
Magic Erupting Color Reveal Science Valentines for Kids
Printable Punny Chemistry Valentines for Kids
Printable LEGO Valentines for Aspiring Engineers!
Invisible Ink Classroom Valentines
Classroom Valentine Food Building Valentines
Parachute Classroom Valentines
Classroom Valentines Erupting Volcano Science
Classroom STEM Robot Building Kit
Classroom Fuse Bead Valentines
Paper Plane Classroom Valentines
Flower Building Classroom Valentines
Valentines Day Appliance Building Block Valentines
Animal Building Classroom Valentines
More Valentine Activities for Kids
- Creative Valentine Engineering Challenges
- Printable STEM Valentines for Kids
- Valentine Candy Science Experiments
- Conversation Heart Science Experiment
Valentine Science Books and More!
These fun Valentine’s Day Books for kids will teach kids about the science around Valentine’s Day, the history of the holiday, and a whole lot more!
The Calendar Kids Meet February Book
In My Heart a Book of Feelings
I Love You Around the World Valentine Coloring Book
Candy Bites the Science of Sweets
Celebrate Valentine’s Day Holidays Around the World
Build Valentine’s Day Fun with LEGO
How to Make an Easy Human Heart Model with Clay
Monkey started to make the heart model based off of our diagram. I found this diagram in an article about IVC filters.
I picked this diagram because it showed all the parts of the heart color-coded for arteries and veins.
Monkey used her hands and the clay shaping tools to create each part of the heart model, then I helped her stick them all together. Hearts have a lot of parts!
We talked about each part and what it did while we constructed our heart model.
Our modeling clay is covered in glitter because Bo thought it would be a good idea to dump an entire bottle of glitter onto our modeling clay.
So from now on, all our STEM and science projects will be super jazzy and sparkly.
Classroom-Friendly Valentine Shirts
I love wearing fun Valentine-themed shirts in the classroom during February. Here are a few of my favorite Valentine Shirts for Teachers.
Be Kind Valentine Teacher Shirt
I Love You Sign Language Teacher Shirt
Kindness Teacher Valentines Day Shirt
Wood Heart Earrings for Valentine’s Day
Teaching Sweethearts Valentine’s Day Teacher Shirt
My Class is Full of Sweethearts Teacher Valentine’s Day Shirt
Tie Dye Heart Shirt for Teachers
Love All Day Every Day Teacher Valentine’s Day Shirt
Painted Heart Valentine’s Day Shirt for Teachers
Heart Fractions Math Teacher Valentine’s Day Shirt
Penguin Heart Teacher Earrings
Valentine Alphabet Teacher Shirt
Heart Envelope Valentine Earrings
ASL Sign Language Love Valentine ASL Teacher Shirt
All We Need is Love Globe Shirt
Valentine Elements Chemistry Teacher Shirt
Valentine SPED Teacher Inclusion Valentine’s Day Teaching Shirt
Teaching Valentine Conversation Hearts Shirt for Valentine’s Day
This Teacher Loves Her Students Valentine’s Day Shirt
Valentine Dinosaur Love Valentine’s Day Shirt for Teachers
Wearing a fun shirt, decorating the classroom with red and pink decorations, and doing other fun Valentine’s Day activities will make Valentine’s Day about more than just cardboard Valentines and candy.