Can you believe February is here already? And with it, comes Valentine’s Day. February 14 will be upon us before we know it. It’s the holiday of pink, purple, parties, and friendship. Here is an array of six activities that I hope will be helpful in your classroom for Valentine’s Day.

1. Valentine’s Day Connections Game

The Valentine's Day Connections graphic with 16 related Valentine's Day words. — V-Day Connections Game created by the author | **Edit the Template** in Canva | **View the Game** in Canva

My latest game addiction is the New York Times Connections game. If you haven’t come across it yet, you have 16 words that must be divided into four categories of four words each. Each group shares a common thread. Here is one I created in Canva that you can use with students. Our Digital Marketing Specialist, Sara Qualls, shared this bonus: Swellgarfo.com has created a handy dandy web tool where you can create custom puzzles based on the New York Times daily Connections game. Pretty cool!

2. 3D Printed Conversation Hearts

4 failures to produce a 3-D printed heart. — Peggy’s four failures to produce a 3-D printed heart.

Conversation candy hearts are a colorful and cherished part of Valentine’s Day celebrations. They originated in the 19th century with the New England Confectionary Company (NECCO) and have evolved into an iconic treat featuring short expressions of love and friendship. After NECCO’s closure in 2018, Spangler Candy Company took over production, continuing the tradition with new flavors and messages. If you happen to have a 3D printer, why not try printing your own heart with a special message? Below you will find the Tinkercad steps and a video explanation.

How to 3D Print a Conversation Heart

Below you will find the detailed steps to get you and your students started with their own hearts. I also recorded a short video (3:40) on the process.

Step 1: Under Basic Shapes, choose the heart.
- Width and length: 49 mm x 41 mm
- Depth: 3 mm
Step 2: Under Text, choose your letters.
- Tip: I would keep the number to just three to five characters.
- Word Suggestions: Mom, Love, BFF, XOXO, Hugs, QT Pie, Smile
Step 3: Align your letters.
Step 4: Group the letters.
Step 5: Leave the default dimensions (width, length, and depth) for the letters.
Step 6: Move and center your word on top of the heart.
Step 7: The word and the heart will be on the same plane and you need to raise the word with the black teardrop tool 3 mm. Leave 1 mm “buried” in the heart.
Step 8: Group the shape and the words together.
Step 9: Save and download the .stl file to print.

3. Friendship Bracelets

The fishtail, twistd and twirled bracelets pictured. — Photo created by the author

Red Heart Yarnspirations provides three types of patterns for friendship bracelets: the fishtail, twirled, and twisted. This should be a low-cost activity as far as materials go. A skein goes a long way! But I suggest finding a colleague or parent who knits or crochets. If they are like me, it is very hard to throw away those last little bits of a skein. I bet they would be willing to donate to your class instead of scrapping the yarn. You only need a small quantity of yarn for these bracelets. Check out the PDF instructions here.

4. Valentine Acrostic Poems

Two Valentine's Day acrostic poems for Peggy. The first one is generic and the second image is personalized. — The left Acrostic Poem is generic, while the right Acrostic Poem is personalized. How you word your prompt is so important.

An acrostic poem is a form of poetry where the first letter of each line spells out a word or message when read vertically. They are popular for their simplicity and creativity, offering a structured yet flexible format for expression. If you are interested in putting an AI twist on an acrostic poem, try asking a chatbot to generate one. Try two prompts: a generic prompt and a more specific prompt to see the difference in what the AI generates. Here are two example prompts:

Generic: Write an acrostic poem with my name: Peggy. Limit each phrase to three words or less.

Detailed: Make an acrostic poem with my name: Peggy. Limit each phrase to three words or less. Include something about training in robotics, love for rescue dogs, baking, residing in Austin, Texas, and crocheting.

The detailed poem you see above was generated by ChatGPT 3.5 but the final poem I am sharing was adjusted to my liking. Remember, AI can get you started, but you get to put on the finishing touches.

5. Two Are a Pair

Opening slide for the Two are a Pair activity created in Canva. — **Edit the Template in Canva** | **View the Activity in Canva**

This slide deck was created in Canva. Two Are a Pair consists of giving you the first half of a famous pair. Participants guess the missing half of the pair. For example, if you are given “Bonnie,” the response would be “Clyde”. The first ten pairs should be known by students and the second set of pairs are a bit dated. So, if you are meeting with your teachers or coaches and want a Valentine’s Day activity, try this out.

6. Valentine’s Day Idioms

Two idioms shown: A face only a mother could love and all's fair in love and war. — **Edit the Template in Canva** | **View the Activity in Canva**

Valentine’s Day Idioms is a fun language arts twist on idioms! In this Valentine’s Day activity, students team up to guess the idioms and expressions related to love and friendship. Individuals or partners can guess the idioms and then determine their underlying meanings. Learning idioms has never been sweeter!

7. Valentine’s Day Breakout

Valentine's Day Breakout title page with instructions.

And of course, would it really be a holiday without a digital breakout? The Valentine’s Day Breakout has five digital locks:

7 Letter
3 Word
5 Direction
3 Number
4 Color

Remember, email me at preimers@tcea.org and I will send you the answers. Access the breakout here.

Access the Valentine’s Day Breakout

With this diverse mix of traditional and technology-infused activities, your classroom is sure to be filled with fun, creativity, and lots of Valentine’s Day spirit this February. From puzzles to crafting stylish bracelets, there are options for every interest and ability level. So break out the red, white, and pink to try out these unique Valentine’s Day ideas.

When I was teaching elementary school, according to district policy, classes could celebrate with three parties per year. And guess what? Valentine’s Day made the list! We played games, stuffed our faces with cupcakes, and opened up our valentines. It was a good day. And if I was teaching today, here are some activities that would definitely be on my list.

1. Compare and Contrast

I do like to make resources for holidays, so here is my latest for Valentine’s Day. I created a compare and contrast activity in Google Slides. Match your students up to one of their classmates, and they can find and share four ways they are similar and 4 ways they are different. Or mix it up! Each student could choose a historical figure, celebrity, or their own personal hero for this activity. Make your own copy of my compare and contrast Google Slides deck to use.

TIP: I set up the first slide to automatically jump to each student’s slide when they click on their name. You can easily edit the names by clicking on each name box and selecting the pencil tool to edit the text. The link to each slide will not be lost if you edit the text only. Be sure to check out my colleague Katie’s and my example above.

2. Paper Heart Sculpture

Use paper hearts to make a fun Valentine’s Day craft or a STEAM-building activity! Here is a template with instructions. This article also offers various STEAM challenges for the paper hearts related to structure building. It’s low cost and low prep which is always a plus. The whole activity should take about 30 to 45 minutes.

Materials:

Construction paper or cardstock (either pre-cut or available for students to cut)
Template
Glue sticks, glue dots, or q-tips dipped in glue
Scissors

Connections to STEAM

Talk about gravity and how it pulls an object to the earth unless there are supports to hold it in place. Explain the challenge to your students– to make a sculpture out of paper hearts that can stand completely on its own. They will need to make their sculptures balanced or they won’t be able to stand. Students can also make their sculptures as tall as possible without them tipping over. Then, you can measure the heights of each sculpture to see just how tall they are.

Melissa Motta shares, “I had a kinder who engineered hers with hearts upside down and backward at the base to create legs to help it stand.”

Melissa goes on to say how the student noticed her sculpture was too heavy, so it started to fall. Then she understood that she needed to strengthen it on one side.

“It was awesome to see her problem solve and articulate her thinking as she explained her design and what she did to improve it.”

3. Jamboards

Cristina Hutton provides two Valentine’s Day-themed Jamboards for early learners. Her Jamboards can be used for in-person or remote learning.

Valentine Math Jamboard: This is a two-frame Jamboard that includes a Count and Graph activity and a Valentine Measurement activity.

Would You Rather Jamboard: Here’s another great Jamboard with two frames. The first is a polling frame for whether students would rather eat a cupcake or candy. The second frame is meant to encourage conversation and have students expand on their choice.

4. Heartfelt Hallway Messages

I found this wonderful idea on Twitter. Use construction paper hearts or heart doilies to leave a message for your principal, nurse, cafeteria staff, office staff, custodians, other teachers, bus drivers, and more. A little message goes a long way and will be remembered forever!

5. Wordle

Use Flippity’s Wordmaster (like Wordle) to enter your words and give a Valentine’s Day spin to this craze. For more Wordle information, check out this blog post.

Here are a few words to use: candy, heart, party, Cupid, treat, cards, and friend.

6. Physical Movement with Phonics Man

I am very excited about this find. Whoever thought you could add jumping jacks and the running man to Valentine’s Day? PhonicsMan Fitness shares a “Would you Rather?” Valentine’s Day Edition Candy Workout. It is a seven-minute video that can be used for a brain break or after your Valentine’s Day class party.

7. Scratch Lesson

Build a “Hearts & Arrows” game for Valentine’s Day. This free lesson from createcodeload.com includes an introduction video and three short, step-by-step animated tutorials. It’s a great way to get students to engage in coding while celebrating.

For even more Valentine’s Day fun, check out my 2021 V-Day blog post. There you will find my three favorite Valentine’s activities: Digital Breakout, Autodraw and Puns, and a Word Search. Do you have any activities that you love to do each year? Leave them in the comments, and happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day

Six Valentine’s Day Activities for the Classroom