Holidays. They are the worst, am I right? I have a love, hate relationship with holidays in the classroom. I love to see the students having fun but I also love having a plan and knowing what is to come. When the classroom plan is unstructured, it can go downhill and FAST. I am going to share with you some of the activities that I do on Valentine’s Day to keep it fun, keep it meaningful, and keeping it a wee bit structured.
First, I start the day with my February Project Morning Menu. This is a menu where the students can choose their morning work options. Most of the options are related to February or they are seasonal! I include some holiday related games, a field trip section where the students learn about real hearts, holiday drawing options, some holiday writing prompts, and some STEM options too!
Menu Morning work is a great way to start your day! You can make your own menu to fit your classes needs or grab mine HERE.
Next, we do a morning meeting. (P.S. I make my morning meeting a whole class period on this day – so it is a little longer than usual)
- Greeting – Wave (social distance style) and we go around the circle and say hello to the person next to you.
- Sharing – Because it is Valentine’s day, we like to share our favorite candy!
- Activity #1 – Would You Rather – I like to come up with fun questions that are holiday related! These questions make a good persuasive writing prompt too!
- Activity #2 – “Compliment Heart” activity – I will give you the condensed version here. To prepare, I cut out a giant heart out of construction paper for each student. Then, I write a student’s name at the top of each heart. During the meeting, we go around the room and write something we love about each and every person in our class! At the end, each student has all the positive things that other students wrote about them! And… I just made it DIGITAL! Now students can use PowerPoint or Google Slides to leave their classmates a compliment! Check it out HERE!
- Message – Always remember that you are loved and you have something to offer the world! Keep this as a reminder. ❤
- BONUS ACTIVITY: I am going to share my latest addition to my Valentine’s List! The “My Heart” activity where students answer questions about things that they love. Once they decide their favorites, they follow the coloring instructions for each section of the heart! Check out mine HERE.
Next up, MATH! How do you make math exciting? Well, who doesn’t love an escape on a holiday?! I use Cupid’s Candy Escape as a fun and interactive activity during math class. It has 4 challenges and 4 codes that they have to decipher! I let them work in partners or small groups and it is always a hit! This escape reviews multiplying and dividing fractions. If you haven’t gotten to multiplying and dividing, try this Valentine Gift Hunt Escape that reviews adding and subtracting fractions.
If you some tips on using escapes in your classroom, CLICK HERE to see my blog post about them!
In writing, we do an acrostic poem with similes and metaphors using the first letters of SHARE THE LOVE. I have the students make them for a family member. For example:
- Stunning, you stunning are when you walk into a room!
- Happiness is what I feel when I nibble on the warm homemade chocolate chip cookies you make.
- A walk in the park is my favorite moments spent with you.
- Reaching for the stars, you are so motivated and courageous!
- Even when I am sad, you are always there with a listening ear.
- Etc.
We also usually have a fun party at the end of the day. I am so lucky to be in a school where the class parent is in charge 🙂 Overall, it is a really fun day. I love that I have a lot of ideas in my back pocket just in case!
Looking for more Valentine’s ideas? CLICK HERE to see my Valentine Bundle of activities that can be use all of February!