Activities for Valentine’s Day

If you’re looking for classroom ideas and activities for Valentine’s Day, you’re in the right place.

While I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day fan outside of the classroom (read: my husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day), I really do love celebrating with my students.

Valentine’s Day is perfect for reviewing friendship, kindness, and respect.

Activities for Valentine's Day including a writing craftivity, printable valentine bingo, read alouds, and tips for an easy and managable card exchange.

Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission if you purchase something through that link, at no extra cost to you, that helps keep my blog running and helps fund giveaways!

Valentine’s Exchange Rules & Expectations

A big highlight of our day is exchanging cards.

My rule for cards and candy is it’s all or nothing. Either you bring a card and/or piece of candy for every student in the class, or you bring nothing.

A week or two before the big day, I have my students copy down the names of each student in our class.

It takes a few minutes but, by second grade I want my students taking responsibility and seeing the importance of spelling names correctly.

Valentine Card Mailbox

So it’s not exactly a mailbox, but it’s serves the same purpose and is way more functional.

In my experience, the really cute mailboxes and student-made ones end up not working very well because 25+ students are trying to get their hands in and out of the teeny tiny opening.

Learning from experience, I give students a white gift bag – you know, just the plain butcher paper type. I used to buy them from Dollar Tree. But, they’re actually cheaper to buy “in bulk” on Amazon.

I write the name of each student in black at the top, and on both sides. Then, students decorate their bags. I usually set a timer and give them 10-15 minutes.

The Exchange

I’ve tried doing this a few different ways.

The best experience I’ve had, and what I’ve done for the past few years is as follows:

Each student puts their “mailbox” on their desk, name facing out.
I call 2 teams (8-10) students at a time to pass out their goodies.
The rest of the class is doing independent reading around the room

It takes anywhere between 30-45 minutes for the whole class to finish. it’s literally the last part of our day.

Valentine’s Day Writing

Whenever we have the opportunity to do themed/creative writing, I’m definitely all in.

Taking a break from genre writing, and doing some just for fun, and more creative helps keep my students excited about writing.

“I Love You a Bot” was born from my students’ love of robots, plus they’re starting to get puns. This writing did not disappoint.

Through the following writing steps, I’m modeling and guiding the writing. Each step is either completed together, or in an I Do/You Do format.

Step 1: Brainstorm
- Brainstorm as a class people that students love and care a lot about (parents/siblings/teachers, etc)
Step 2: Plan
- Students complete a 4-square (quite possibly my favorite graphic organizer of all time) with 4 reasons why they love whoever they chose to write to.
Step 3: Rough Draft
Step 4: Edit and Revise
Step 5: Publish
- For “I Love You a Bot” students publish on the “body” of the robot. Then, they assemble the robot.

Valentine’s Day Bingo

Bingo is one of my favorite special activities to do for a holiday or celebration, and Valentine’s Day is no exception.

Perhaps they’re channeling their inner grandparent…but my students LOVE bingo. Truth be told, maybe it’s because their teacher really talks up bingo? I guess we’ll never know. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Last year (thank you 2019, Theresa), I printed the bingo boards on card stock and laminated them so I could use them again.

For the “markers” I found red and pink heart pieces from Dollar Tree. I think they’re actually more for table decorations, but they’re the perfect size for the bingo boards.

I found these similar ones (pictured) from Amazon. I keep them in ziploc bags, and use them each year.

You can download Valentine’s Day Bingo FREE by completing the form below.

Activities for Valentine’s Day: Books

Valentine’s Day books have got to be some of the cutest picture books out there. (If you’re new around here, please note that I’ll say that about all the books).

Valentine’s Day Books Post