What could be better than having students leave their school day feeling loved and appreciated by their teacher and classmates, and feeling the love for their own great people and things in their life? Not much can top that! This is why Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the classroom. I love to use it as a day to build community in my classroom while giving students an opportunity to let their crafty, creative sides show.
Full disclosure: Below are a bunch of activities that I include in my Valentine’s Day pack (which is a total steal at only $5), and a freebie! Because of the huge number of activities included, it can work great for centers. Centers are always fun and motivating for students since they get to choose what activity they complete!
1. VALENTINE’S DAY GLYPHS
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs! They are also great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on the fridge. Below is an adorable Love Bug glyph, and the Valentine’s Day pack also includes a Box of Chocolates glyph!
They also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.
2. “WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT____” CLASS CRAFT
I love this simple craft for building community. Rather than the typical Valentine’s Day cards, these mini hearts are little notes telling their classmates “What We Love About_____”! They are a great, super low prep way to make your students feel loved and special.
3. VALENTINE’S DAY BINGO
This (free!) activity is a great way to get your kids up and moving around. In “Find Someone who…” Bingo, students find classmates that fit the criteria for each square on their Bingo boards. You could use some fun Valentine’s Day themed mini erasers as Bingo markers too!
4. LIFT-THE-FLAP ORGANIZER
This lift the flap organizer has students think and write about what they love about different areas in their life (school, home, family, friends). I like to use colored paper for the back page to make it a little bit more colorful and fun!
5. PIECES OF MY HEART
“What Makes up the Pieces of My Heart” has students really think about ALL of the things that they love and are grateful for in their life. Some students get SO into this activity. It is a great way for students to express themselves, while teaching their classmates and teacher about everything they love. You can also have students cut out the heart when they are finished to make a classroom bulletin board or to glue onto a separate colored piece of paper.
All of these activities can be found in the Valentine’s Day Pack below, which is also included at a discount in the Spring Bundle and the Seasonal Resources Bundle below:
Below are a link to a fun Valentine’s Day freebie and a Spring freebie!
