Valentine's Day Fun - and Freebie!

   A few years ago, I discovered a way to organize the chaos of handing out valentines, and sneak in some learning in the process!  I ask students to bring in their valentines in some sort of container – bag, box, etc.  Then we spend time putting the valentines in alphabetical order.  Once everyone has their valentines ready, we are ready to commence the “passing out!”  Here’s where my little idea came in – I have my students sit in a circle on the rug – in alphabetical order!  Now, all each student has to do walk around the circle and drop a valentine in everyone’s bag (or box, or whatever you use.)  I have about 2-3 students walking around the circle at a time.  The valentines are already in order, so there’s no looking around for each person, figuring out who you forgot, etc.  It works perfectly!

Once everyone has their valentines handed out, the fun begins!  Students find a spot in the room to take their valentines to, and open them.  I keep small buckets nearby for trash (envelopes).  After a few minutes of looking at the valentines, I hand out one of my valentine cards activities.

The "Find Someone Who" activity is quick and easy.  Students sit with their valentines and write the name of a classmate who gave them a valentine that fits each box.

The second sheet is a little more involved.  Students use their valentines to find nouns, verbs and adjectives, to graph the different types of valentines, to compare and contrast and to give their opinion.  It’s always interesting walk around and see how different students organize this task. 

Some take each valentine one at a time and add them to the tally, while others look for each category on the sheet.  And of course, still others just randomly pull a valentine and put it back!

The back of the sheet asks students to tally different categories of valentines and use the information to answer 3 questions. I've found this to be a great way to put some focus onto passing out the valentines, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re getting a little review and practice in with it, too!

You can download the sheets for free (along with a valentine word search) by clicking on the image below.

I've also taken out my Valentine centers to use last week and this week during our math time.  I really LOVE the letter delivery activity.  It really gets my kiddos thinking about numbers!  You can check out my centers by clicking the image below. I created them to be quick and easy!

Happy Valentine's Day!