Valentine’s Day Classroom Activities

February is a magical time of the year for the little ones!  I have sweet memories of making a Valentine mailbox, treat bag, and passing out special valentines. Don’t you?

Even though February is so much fun, it can be stressful to planning. It’s a short month with quite a few holidays! Here are some tips to help make it fun and stress-free.

Use Parent Volunteers

I have been blessed to have such wonderful volunteers who decorate, schedule all the details of the party, gifts for the students.  The best part is they handle all the details without me. They save me so much time, and I am so appreciative of their help.  Not only do my volunteers do everything for the party and clean up, but they also put together my valentines. Score!

If you are looking for inexpensive, easy gifts for your students, check this out. 

Make Valentine Mailboxes at School

We make our valentine mailboxes at school on the day of the party. The students have pent up excitement about the upcoming party.  I keep the day as normal as possible until 90 minutes before the party.  Then, we decorate our mailboxes and have a brain break before the festivities begin. If this is something you wish to try, my Valentine Bags or Boxes pack is great.  There are 50 options so every student can have a bag or box that is unique.

No Name Valentines!

Don’t have students address their valentine cards.  It is so much more efficient to have the littles not put names on their cards.  I learned this the hard way.  It takes them forever to pass out cards to specific kids.  With no names, they can go in table order and not pop around the room to give specific kids their card. Not only is this a huge stress reliever, but it also keeps everything equitable. This way everyone is included and there are no hard feelings.

Have an Extra Box of Valentine Cards in Your Classroom

Every year I have a student that doesn’t have Valentine cards to pass out.  I always feel awful for them and hate for them to feel left out. Having an extra box at hand instantly brightens up that one student’s day and will make your teacher heart full! You can also snag my printable valentine cards for only $1.00 in my Tpt shop. These cards come in color and black and white and are perfect in a pinch!

GET OUT ALL OF THE VALENTINE BOOKS

Here are my all-time favorite picture books for Valentine’s Day.  See the complete list here.

These are affiliate links which means I get a few cents if you purchase from my link.  Thank you for supporting my blog.

Love by Matt de La Pena  

Slugs in Love by Susan Pearson   

Love Monster by Rachel Bright  

Valentine’s Day Jitters by Julie Dannenberg

Love is my Favorite Thing by Emma Chichester Clark  

When an Elephant Falls in Love by Davide Cali  

Love is by Diane Adams   

Love, Splat by Rob Scotton 

Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson  

A Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger  

Click, Clack, Moo, I Love You by Doreen Cronin 

The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll

How to Catch a Lovesaurus by Alice Walstead

CELEBRATE CLASSROOM COMMUNITY AND KINDNESS

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate kindness and build community in the classroom.  Here is how I do it:

REASONS WE LOVE FIRST GRADE

This is a beautiful way to build community. Every student gets a heart and writes what they love about first grade.  Then, one by one, each student shares what they wrote and we place their heart on the poster.  Grab it for free here.

PIECE OF MY HEART 

Have students notice when someone is being kind.  They can get a heart and give that student a shout-out.  Display on a shout out board entitles, “You’ve Got a Piece of My Heart”.  I do this quickly and easily by taking colorful paper and cutting out hearts on the die cut machine.  This way I have a ton of hearts ready to go!

Now, are you ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day in your classroom? I hope I gave you some great ideas. What’s your favorite way to spend the Day of Love?