We love crystal experiments and one of our favorites has been making salt crystals. These crystals are low-cost and turn out perfect nearly every time! This Valentine’s Day, make your valentine these adorable salt crystal hearts! How are they made? Find out in this simple science experiment where you learn how to make salt crystal hearts.
We had so much fun making these Valentine’s day-themed salt crystals. One of our favorite things to do is to make seasonal versions of everyday science experiments.
It’s tons of fun and the kids ask to repeat the experiments every year!
Table of Contents
How to Do the Crystal Heart Science Experiment
Try this fun Valentine’s Day themed science experiment and combine learning with the holiday of love.
Add this activity to your Valentines STEM activities!
Valentine Classroom Decorations
Add some Valentine’s Day festivities and flair to your classroom with these classroom decorations for Valentine’s Day!
Valentine’s Day Door Decorating Kit
Tissue Paper Classroom Valentine’s Door Decorations
Valentine’s Day Classroom Window Clings
Valentine Letters Classroom Door Decorations
Valentine’s Day Classroom Decorating Kit
Our Class is Sweet Cupcake Valentine’s Day Classroom Decorating Kit
Our Love for Learning Grows and Grows Classroom Decorations
A Class Full of Sweethearts Classroom Decorations for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day Salt Crystal Science Experiment Explanation
When salt water evaporates, the water can no longer hold all of the salt molecules. When this happens, the salt crystals cling to anything nearby, including the rim of the jar and the chenille stems inside of the jar.
Over time, as the water evaporates, the salt crystals get bigger and bigger, making pretty, square crystals that are amazing to look at! Use a microscope to investigate these salt crystals up close for even more science fun!
What you’ll need to make salt crystal hearts:
- Salt
- Glass mason jars (1 for each heart)
- chenille stems (1 for each heart)
- Clothespins (1 for each heart)
- String
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
More Valentine Activities for Kids
Super Fun and Easy Crystal Science Fair Projects
Creative Valentine Engineering Challenges
Printable STEM Valentines for Kids
Valentine STEM Activities for Middle School
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
How to Do the Crystal Heart Experiment
For this Valentine STEM project, make salt crystal hearts for your Valentine’s Day STEM activities.
Fill your jars about 3/4 of the way full with water. Dump this water into a pot on the stove. Heat the water until it boils.
Slowly add salt into no more salt can dissolve in the water and crystals start to form on the surface of the water. Remove from heat.
Fill the mason jars 3/4 of the way full of the salt water.
Bend a chenille stems into the shape of a heart. Make sure the heart can fit through the mouth of the jar. Once the crystals form it will be hard to get it out of the jar if it is too big.
Tie a string (or you can use another chenille stem) to the point of each heart. Use a clothespin to suspend the heart in the center of each jar.
Set the jars in a sunny place and let the crystals start to form. The longer you leave them, the more they will grow!
We recommend leaving your salt crystals to grow for at least three days.
Take this further by comparing the size of crystal formation after 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, and a week. How much bigger are the crystals after a week?
Carefully remove the crystals from the water and let them dry on a paper towel.
Inspect the crystals with a magnifying glass or microscope. Each crystal has a rectangle shape!
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.