15 Insanely Easy Valentine’s Day Activities

Jordana — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:16:00 +0000

Holidays are always an exciting time in the classroom and Valentine’s Day is no exception! With their minds focused on all things hearts, candy and cards, it can be hard to keep them focused in the classroom. I love incorporating Valentine’s Day activities with my students, but sometimes I think it takes more work to prep than it does for the students to actually do the activities and crafts. I’m sure you can relate! This year, I am determined to use cute crafts and activities that are insanely easy! Here are 15 insanely easy Valentine’s day activities to try this year.

Build Classroom Community With Easy Valentine’s Day Activities

This special holiday is a favorite in my classroom, mainly because of candy and crafts. But, it’s also a time I like to focus heavily on kindness and building classroom community. And by this time in the year, we could definitely use a renewed sense of community.

Use the Valentine holiday to engage and teach students with fun, themed activities plus spread some love and kindness at the same time. Valentine’s can make students feel so special especially when they are giving and receiving from the heart.

These 15 insanely easy Valentine’s day activities will keep your kids engaged and full of love this Valentine’s season.

1. Handwritten Notes

Have your students write handwritten notes of kindness on heart-shaped paper. Not only is this a great way to get in some writing practice, but it is a great way to help students notice the kindness and generosity of others.

All you need to complete this activity is some heart-shaped paper. Have your students cut their own hearts or ask a parent volunteer to spend a few minutes in the workroom at the die-cut machine. It’s simple and easy to do!

I like to ask my students to create a rough draft of their handwritten notes for some peer or teacher review before creating their final draft. That way students know that their final note is the best they can do! It’s an easy way to add a Valentine’s theme to your daily writing practice or center activities.

These handwritten notes can be given to friends, family, or even a member of our school staff. Nothing is quite as special as receiving a handwritten Valentine from a child!

2. Read and Write Poems

I don’t need a Valentine’s treat

My students are already too sweet

Full of kindness and love

Each one I will hug

They make my world complete.

Valentine’s day wouldn’t be complete without some poetry. It’s a wonderful time to jump into a poetry unit with your class. With so many different styles of poetry the activities are endless!

Some easy Valentine’s Day activities could include writing poetry on your classroom or school windows with window paint or chalk markers. You could even hold a poetry jam for your class or grade level for younger students or parents to attend.

But one of my favorite is using the traditional “Roses are red, Violets are blue . . . ” poems. Students love to write these poems to their family as cards for the holiday. They are also great to share with friends too!

Check out this fun poetry freebie for students to write out their own “Roses are red, Violets are blue” poems. Use this as a writing center activity, morning work or even put out as an early finisher activity. However you use it, this is one of those easy Valentine’s Day activities that’s sure to bring out your student’s creativity.

3. Valentine STEM challenges

No matter what time of year, STEM challenges are always a fun and exciting way to teach in the classroom!

With simple items like cardstock, construction paper, tape, straws, and popsicle sticks, your students can create a candy box large enough to hold their Valentine’s Day cards and candy. It’s a great way to connect some critical and creative thinking with a usable project like a Valentine’s Day box.

To turn these easy Valentine’s boxes into a STEM challenge, present your students with a problem they have to solve by creating their box. Better yet, grab these already planned out Valentine STEM activities.

All you need to do is grab some commonly found items, copy the pages, and let your students get busy. STEM is always a great way to get students engaged and learning and using these challenges near Valentine’s Day is a no-brainer! These easy Valentine’s day activities are low-prep, teacher-friendly, and easy to put together.

4. 10 Random Acts of Kindness

Valentine’s Day is about love and friendship which is the perfect time to incorporate random acts of kindness into your classroom activities.

Take some time to talk with your class about what a random act of kindness is, and why it is important to spread kindness. Then, challenge your students to complete 10 random acts of kindness before Valentine’s Day.

Before we begin I love to do a class brainstorming session. We talk about random acts of kindness we can do at school, home or in the community. This really helps to get the class thinking of a variety of ideas.

Your students can plan out and start completing their random acts of kindness over a couple days, or done one a day for the 10 days leading up to Valentine’s Day. It is such a great group activity for the entire class to participate in!

My absolute favorite thing about this activity is that the students learn that they are not too young to make a difference or be kind. That’s a lesson that I love teaching them! You can teach this lesson too by grabbing this Random Acts of Kindness freebie!

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5. Candy Heart Estimation Activity

It’s easier than you think to incorporate some math into your easy Valentine’s Day activities. With a jar and some candy hearts, your students will be using their estimating skills to try to figure out how many candy hearts are in the jar.

Each day I change the number of hearts in the jar. While students are truly taking a guess those first few days, it’s not too long before they start using what they learned on previous days to make educated guesses. I love incorporating this into our morning routine or as a math warm-up activity.

It’s a really fun, hands-on way to practice estimating. Every few days I ask my students to reflect on the activity and what they’ve learned. This reflection time really pays off as their guesses get closer and closer.

6. I Love… Valentine’s Day Self-Esteem Activity

Valentine’s Day is the holiday of love and that means loving yourself too, right? I love this Valentine’s Day I Love that I… activity so much. Because students are taking time to think about things they are good at, and what they like about themselves, they are going to get a nice confidence boost.

In the past, I have laminated these and made a super cute display for my students to see as we prepare for state testing. It’s a great reminder of their strengths, abilities and attributes. It’s also great way to visually remind them how amazing they are. Once we are done having them on display, they can be sent home for parents to treasure.

You can grab this self-reflection resource for free. But don’t let the hearts fool you, it’s a good thing to do any time of the year!

7. Color By Codes

This Valentine Day color by code activity is so much fun. It’s also a great way to engage your students in practicing their math skills the weeks and days leading up to Valentine’s Day!

Students will use 3-digit addition to solve the problems for each space on the picture. Then they will color in the picture using the code at the top of each page.

These bright, beautiful pictures are perfect for hanging up in your classroom or hallway to add a little Valentine’s decor to your space and show off some amazing math skills at the same time!

I really love this math activity because it’s engaging while also bringing in the fun of the holiday. I love to use these activities in a math center and as morning work. But they are so versatile and can be used in many ways.

This set includes 6 Valentine-themed coloring pictures to choose from! There is also a Place Value color by codes activity and subtraction activity as well!

8. Read Valentine Themed Books

Reading is such an important part of our day-to-day life in the classroom. I love to incorporate holiday reading all year long. It is a fun change of pace for the students and brings joy and excitement. There are lots of fun, Valentine-themed books options for the holiday! Use them as a mentor text or just as a read aloud. And . . . for a fun change of pace throw in an audio book or a book video.

We love the “Love Monster” books by Rachel Bright! It is an adorable and witty book that you are sure to enjoy just as much as your students.

After reading a Love Monster book to my class, it’s time for a Love Monster craft. This easy activity is also super cute.

This simple craft uses easy to find supplies including:

Construction paper
Stickers (optional)
Crayons/Markers
Scissors
Glue

The students love the connection to the book and it makes a great way to add in discussion about the story elements, sequencing or retelling too!

This cute love monster can be added to a bulletin board, glued to the front of a paper bag or box and used as a cardholder, or incorporated into the class Valentine’s Day party.

One of my favorite Valentine’s Day party activities is doing activity stations. With a few parent volunteers we can fill the afternoon with some fun Valentine’s Day fun. This craft is perfect for these types of stations.

9. Valentine’s Day Bookmarks

A simple, yet fun craft for students is making their very own bookmarks! This activity can be as simple or complex as you like. It can be as easy as some pre-cut cardstock and markers or you can add embellishments like stickers, stamps, ribbon, glitter and anything else you can think of!

You could ask your students to write a quote from their favorite book, write a positive message, or even design a bookmark to be used in a bookmark swap during your Valentine’s Day party.

I have had my students create their bookmarks a week or two in advance so I could laminate them all. Then I punched a hole in the top and add a piece of ribbon. It makes an easy activity that students love.

I’ve even had students come back years later and show me that they are still using their bookmark.

10. Valentine’s Day Math Mystery

What’s more mysterious than a secret admirer? This Valentines Day math mystery is a “crack the code” type game your students won’t be able to get enough of! Your students will be challenged to use their problem-solving skills to find clues to figure out “who done it”.

The case of the secret admirer is about a girl, Lucy, who is receiving Valentine’s gifts from a secret admirer. Lucy wants to thank the person, but first, she must figure out who it is! Your students will love finding clues and narrow down her admirer in this adorable, fun Valentine game!

I love using these NO PREP Valentine’s day math mystery activities during the week of or the week before Valentine’s day. The students are so engaged and they are easy to use in an already hectic week.

11. Heart Collage

During this holiday focused on love, creating a heart collage is a great way for students to think about those things that are important to them. Using heart cut-outs, students write the name of a variety of things that they “love.” Then we glue them on a sheet of paper to create a heart collage.

In addition to writing on the hearts, students can draw pictures or find pictures in magazines of different things they love. I also tell students that they can bring in a picture of important people in their life too! They love seeing all those special people, places and things in one picture!

12. Heart Hunt Game

When you have the opportunity to combine math with a game, you are sure to get your students’ attention and focus. I’m still surprised sometimes when I tell my class we are going to play a math game and I’m met with cheers instead of groans.

For Valentine’s day, I mix things up a little by making our game Valentine-themed. This simple game gets your students to practice their addition skills in a fun competition. I have done this activity with students individually, in small groups, and even as a center activity during our Valentine’s day party.

I grabbed some cheap foam heart stickers from the dollar store and wrote values on all of them. Then I hid them around the room. When it was time for the game, my students would walk around the room searching for the hearts adding up the values as they went. It’s a great way to review the commutative property of addition too!

The winner is the first student to find all the hearts and also have the correct answer. It is a simple, engaging game that students enjoy! And with a few number changes, you have a whole new game!

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13. Valentine’s Day Bingo

This is one of my student’s favorite games and always an easy Valentine’s Day activity! Bingo is always a huge hit in my classroom for both me and my students, but with a Valentine’s day theme, it’s even sweeter.

This ready-to-use game just needs to be printed out. I suggest laminating the cards so they can be used year after year. Playing bingo is a great class reward or addition to the class Valentine’s Day party.

This awesome activity comes with everything you need including calling cards and 20 original Valentine’s day themed Bingo cards.

With adorable pictures like candies, hearts, and flowers, your students will have a great time finding the images as you or a student helper call them out. I love to use candy hearts for students to mark their Bingo cards.

14. Candy Hearts Writing

Okay, this is such a fun and silly Valentine’s day activity that will have everyone cracking up. Using candy hearts, students write out a story and use the phrases or words on the candy hearts to take the place of some of the words in the story.

It’s easy to differentiate this activity for lower or higher-level grade levels. For younger students, sort through the hearts ahead of time to find words or phrases you are sure they will know. For older students, I ask them to randomly select a specific number of candy hearts and then use whatever words or phrases they get to write their story.

Asking for student volunteers to read their stories is one of my favorite activities. I’m always amazed at their cleverness when it comes to writing a story using candy hearts.

This Valentine’s activity helps with important writing skills and lets your students utilize their creativity by finding words to fit their narrative. It is a really fun, engaging activity that your students will love!

15. I Love You to Pieces Activity

Looking for easy Valentine’s Day gifts students can make? This “I Love You to Pieces” freebie is your answer! It’s a great card for parents, grandparents and other special people in your students’ lives.

I create a station filled with all the supplies students need, including: big cut-out hearts in pink, red, and white. Each heart says “I love you to pieces”. Students can color, decorate and write a message inside. At the station, students can use a variety of materials like stickers, glitter, markers, crayons, and puzzle pieces to decorate their paper heart. Alternatively, they can use Reeses Pieces too!

Students will love creating this for their family and I love being part of teaching them importance of giving to others!

Valentine’s Day Made Easy

If you are like most teachers, holidays can be a little stressful and chaotic. Students can get easily distracted by all the fun and excitement surrounding each holiday. Having engaging, fun, and easy Valentine’s day activities on hand can help students stay on task while also hitting important learning targets. These are some of my favorite games, activities, and craft to excite and engage students during the month of February with a fun Valentine theme they will love.

Be sure to grab your Valentine’s day FREEBIE pack today for all of the free resources from this post! You can also find more easy-to-use, fun Valentine’s Day activities in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I know you and your students love all of these easy Valentine’s day activities as much as we do!

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