Dendrite Duo: Valentine's Day Activities

Happy Valentine's Day!

The month of February is all about Valentine's Day. Stores get on the bandwagon right after Christmas! It's that day where you are supposed to tell the people you love how much they mean to you. (Shouldn't we do that everyday?)

Valentine's Day in an Intermediate Classroom:

If you teach older grades you probably won't do a lot of Valentine's activities but depending on the age you teach, they may still want to exchange cards etc. I would have a discussion with your class on what works best. I would always do some sort of an activity to "celebrate" the day and this is a perfect time to join up with your buddy class* and have some fun together.

*A buddy class is a class (usually younger than what you are teaching) where you do different activities together. You pair students up and whenever the two classes get together those students work together. Usually you do an activity once a week.

Most classes I have taught above the age of 11 would actually rather not exchange cards (and the parents are happy with that...one less thing they need to purchase) but of course who doesn't want to play a fun game or two to break up the day. Valentine's Day celebrations are a nice way to break up the month of February with some fun activities. Just do what works best for your class and have some fun!

Valentine's Day in an Primary Classroom:

Valentine's Day the kids love giving and receiving little cares/candy/and trinkets. So, because the day is so exciting, its bes to get ahead of the chaos that is sure to ensue. The first thing I do is write a note to parents ahead of time, to let parents know how many students there are in the class. I ask parents to only put 'from' on the card not to fill in the 'to' part. This makes it easier for the students to hand out their cards independently, because helping pre-k/k read all the names of their classmates at the same time when there is only of you is near to impossible.

Next is, what will the students use to hold all the cards/candy and trinkets? I used to have th students make their own holders with materials I already had in the classroom.

Something like this:

Or you can purchase the kit from amazon:

I'd use paper bags from the Dollar store, just plain brown ones. That is where you'' ll also find stickers and googlie eyes. If you are short on cash you might want to add an extra not to parents that a couple of $ will be needed for supplies. I cut out construction paper. 4 strips, 2 mall and 2 medium, for the arms and legs. Be patient because making accordion paper is difficult for some students. Construction paper was also used for the heart face, hands and feet. For ease I used punch cutter.

https://a.co/d/iIT6mU5

But you can also just cut them out by hand. I also make sure these are done ahead of the day as they do take time to make. If the students are older they can do all the cutting of the construction paper themselves.

Once the bags are done. Tape them to either the cubbies or the back of their chairs and have the students make a line up to deliver the cards. Just remember, on the day of deliver and opening the cards will take some time. then spend the rest of the day doing some of the activities in the bundle below.

We have put together some activities that you can do in your classroom or at home to celebrate the day. Each product can be purchased separately or in this big bundle!

Click HERE to go to our store.

Included in this bundle is

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This activity is really easy to do and the whole class can be involved. Included is 5 Look and Find boards for your projector, and 5 checklists. I would suggest printing off the checklist in colour and laminating it to use it again or just put it in a sheet protector. Each board is bright and engaging and comes with 15 hidden pictures. Most are easy to find but a few may be a challenge. There is the option to just print as a pdf and students can have their own copy to do at their desk. Just print them back-to-back with the checklist. I have also included an answer sheet for each board if needed.

Free! Click HERE to go to our store.

Next we have a Valentine Bingo. 5 different games, 4 are medium difficulty and 1 is a little more challenging. This is included in our Valentine Bundle but its actually a FREE item. So if you want to get a Valentine wordsearch for your class that if free then just click the link. You will have to have a Tpt account.

Click HERE to go to our store.

Valentine Cards! Just print back-to-back, cut, colour, fold, and voila. There are multiple templates that you can combine together. 1 page equals 3 cards. This is a nice way for your students to put their own personal touches on their cards this year!

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This is a fun take on math task cards. 1 page comes with 2 tasks. There are 14 task cards so this is better done in pairs or small groups. They would be great to use as a Big Buddy activity. Included are 2 pages for students to write their responces and answer sheets for you! Comes in colour or black and white.

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Who doesn't like a good game of BINGO? This is 30 full BINGO cards in either colour, that you can laminate and use over and over, or black and white and you can have your students colour the sheet as well! Each set comes with 40 calling cards. One has verbal prompts so you can even have students call the cards for you! The calling cards are also in colour, but without verbl prompts.

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Also included is a small group BINGO. This also comes in colour or black and white. There are 8 different BINGO sheets (small group) and 16 calling cards. This is a fun activity you can do in a small group.