It’s Valentine’s Day and the kids are excited and maybe a little hyperactive. We know this day can be a little crazy. The kids come in class ready to share their Valentine cards, eat Valentine candy and have a party. So we created a day that was structured to help calm our students down and still have all the fun of Valentine’s Day. Read below for these great Valentine’s Day activities.
Pre Valentine’s Day
There are a couple of things you will need to do to prepare for this fun holiday.
Parent Note
About two weeks before, send home a note to parents telling them about how we pass out Valentine’s Day Cards. Students should write their name only on their cards so students know who it’s from. This will help them when passing out their cards to their friends (scroll down for this activity called Passing Out Valentine’s Cards).
Valentine Bags
The day before Valentine’s Day, create bags that will hold cards and treats students receive from their friends. You will need lunch size paper bags and different color construction paper. Demonstrate how to fold the construction paper in half and cut a heart. Students cut out different size and color hearts and glue them to their bag. I prewrite everyone’s name on their bags so students can easily read the names.
Valentine’s Day Reading Lesson
Our favorite book to read on Valentine’s Day is The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. (Click on the title to purchase from Amazon). This is such a sweet book about a girl who catches a bunch of raining hearts. She uses the hearts she caught to create valentines for her animal friends. After reading this Valentine’s Day story, ask your students what they would do if it rained hearts. Have them use the sentence starter, If it rained hearts, I would… Model how to complete a reading response page, like the one pictured below. Our students love coming up with fun ideas they could do with hearts, like put them on a pizza as heart pepperonis.
Valentine’s Day Math Activity
When we introduce our math lesson as, “Today, we are going to sort and graph candy hearts,” we get a lot of cheers. Anything to do with candy brings on excitement! This is a fun activity, but make sure you model how to do each step. Show them how to color the hearts on the sorting page before sorting them. Then demonstrate how to graph their candy hearts. You can find this candy hearts graph in our Candy Graphs resource. It comes with sorting and graphing sheets for other candy, like gummy bears and M&Ms. Click on the picture below to purchase this resource.
Valentine’s Day Science Experiment
This Valentine science experiment is incredibly fun. We always start any science experiment by going over the steps of the scientific method. Start off with the question: What will happen to the candy hearts when we add baking soda to the sparkling water and vinegar? Explain that a hypothesis is what they think is going to happen. Have them use the sentence starter, I hypothesize the candy hearts will… to discuss with a partner. Then do the experiment in front of them so they can all watch the candy hearts. Have them discuss their observations as you are doing the experiment. Afterwards, have them discuss what they learned for the conclusion. See below for instructions on how to construct this experiment.
Science Experiment Instructions
Materials
- Candy hearts
- 3 tsp baking soda
- 1-2 cups sparkling water
- 1-2 cups vinegar
- Clear glass container
Steps
- Pour sparkling water and vinegar into the container.
- Add about a handful of candy hearts to the container.
- Add baking soda slowly.
- Watch the candy hearts.
Valentine’s Day Craft
Kindergarteners can always use practice cutting, and this Valentine’s Day activity gives them plenty. Demonstrate how to cut out each page one at a time. Then put the pages in order so the hearts lay on top of each other.
Passing Out Valentine’s Cards
Why not get a little abc order practice on Valentine’s Day?! Use the valentine bags the kids decorated the day before for this Valentine’s lesson. Tell students you’ll need their help putting the bags in alphabetical order. To start, say something like, “What letter comes first in the alphabet? That’s right, A. If your name starts with A, stand up.” If there are more than one, write their names on the board. Then say, “How do we decide which student’s bag will go first if they both begin with A? We need to look at the second letter in their names.” Then put their bags in order in a space where students can pass out their cards. Continue with every letter of the alphabet until you have all students’ bags in place. Have a few students at a time get their cards, and put them in the bags. While the students are passing out their Valentine’s cards, have them complete the Valentine’s Day Alphabet worksheet.
Valentine’s Day Snack
This super cute Valentine snack does take a little prep work. If you have parents that are willing to help, this could be the perfect task to ask of them. You will need watermelon (precut in big chunks or a whole watermelon), a heart cookie cutter, and cake pop sticks. Use the cookie cutter to cut hearts out of the watermelon. Then put the cake pop sticks in, and that’s it. Enjoy!
Valentine’s Day Coloring Pages
To make this day even more enjoyable, add in a coloring page or two. We like to use these when students finish activities faster than others. You can also offer these at center time. However you choose to use these valentine coloring sheets, your students will be happy.
Holiday Activities
Looking for more holiday lessons and activities. Check out St Patrick’s Day for Kids and Celebrate Dr. Seuss Day with Online Resources and Fun Activities.
Thank you for reading our article. We hope you find it helpful!
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