6 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day in Your Classroom

Almost every holiday can be an inspirational teaching moment, even Valentine’s Day! The students’ excitement on this fun-filled day will be at an all-time high, and you can help them celebrate with these enriching activities.

Here are a few ways to incorporate Valentine’s Day into your classroom.

Make Heart Animals

Your students will love making heart animals during Valentine’s Day this year. Heart animals are not only easy to make, but they also come with many options — bird, bunny, crab, hippo, dog, and elephant, just to name a few. Research the ideal methods and steps to follow to make the best heart animals with your students.

Exchange of Notes

Valentine’s Day is a day that personifies love and kindness. Encourage students to write a note touching on the themes of Valentine’s Day. To make this activity even more fun, write each student’s name on a slip of paper and place them in a jar. Without looking, every student should choose one name out of the jar and write that person a note. When everyone is finished, students should exchange the notes with each other. You can even display the notes in one corner of the classroom as a reminder that love and kindness should be celebrated every day. 

Decorating Contests

Liven up Valentine’s Day with a decorating contest. Invite other teachers and students to decorate their classroom doors using rich themed ideas. Let the students evaluate their peers’ creations and aesthetics to pick a winner.

Read a Valentine’s Day Book Together

Valentine’s Day is a great way to celebrate the love of reading. Pick any of the available Valentine’s Day picture books in the school library and read them together with your students. Some great picks to get you started include:

• Ollie’s Valentine by Olivier Dunrea
• I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg and illustrated by Jacqueline Chwas
• We Go Together!: A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse by Calef Brown

Random Acts of Kindness

You can also use Valentine’s Day to teach your students how great it feels to be kind to others. Be a role model and find ways to perform random acts of kindness for them. Your students will love the feeling of doing something good for others and might even develop a passion for helping those in need. Here are 10 random acts of kindness to get started. 

Heart Hunt Game

A Valentine’s Day with your students cannot be complete without some level of physical activity. If you want to burn off some extra energy, try a heart hunt. Design hearts of different sizes and colors and hide them throughout the classroom. On the back of each heart, place a point value. Add up the points on each heart to determine the winner! You can also involve the whole school in this event so that classes can compete with each other.

If you need help getting started, contact The Teacher’s Academy. As former teachers and approved providers of professional development hours for teachers, we are always happy to help. Our website features numerous professional development units for teachers to attain their teaching license in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states. You can purchase and download our courses to your home computer today!