Whaddya say we welcome February with a giveaway? (Did I just hear a “Yippee!” or two?) I’d love to hear your ideas for planning and carrying out a successful valentine exchange among students—including how you handle the student list, make valentine holders, and manage the valentine exchange. Or perhaps the traditional classroom valentine exchange is no longer a part of your Valentine’s Day festivities. If this is the case, please tell us!
Now about that giveaway! Leave a comment to share a tip, a suggestion, an idea, or even an explanation by the end of the day Thursday, February 3, and your name will be entered in a drawing for a $20 gift certificate and a valentine surprise.
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Whom do I appreciate?
You, you, you!
Happily,
Diane
Yippee, Melissa T.! You’re the winner!
I use the mailbox “Valentine’s Class List” from a past magazine. I type my students names and send home to parents.
During the week we decorate a holder for valentines.
In the past,
I have had them add stickers to a white sack lunch bag.
I have had them glue foam hearts to a half paper plate that was glued to a whole paper plate to make a pocket. (a little hard when they had valentines with pencils and candy)
This year we are adding our name with foam letters and foam hearts to a kleenex box.
While the students are watching a Valentine video,
I help 1 at a time put the valentines in the holders for each child. The children enjoy putting them in their classmates valentines holders.
We have a valentine box decorating contest. I give them about two weeks to create their box at home with their parents. It is amazing to see what they come up with. I send home a typed up list of everyones name but I make it in a handwriting font so if they want to trace it they can, gives them some practice. When they come in that day either their parents or we help them. I actually recommend to parents that they just have the kids just sign their name and not put friends names on it, it is easier that way but some kids have to give certain friends certain valentines so do allow them to do that too. We have a party for the day. We play many different games, bingo, throwing beanbags in holes game, ring toss and make a craft. One year we sent all the hearts we decorated at the party to soldiers in Iraq.
The Valentine exchange this year will have children from ages two through five years of age. We will be letting the kids decorate paper bags using a variety of items to use to collect the valentines. They will be able to use markers, stickers, foam stickers, ribbon, construction paper, and a variety of other things. Since they are so young we don’t put the names of the children receiving the Valentines. We only put the child’s name on the card that is giving it. We find it is easier for them to just place one card in each bag instead of having to look for names because they don’t have the patientence to do that.
Here are a few activities.
1. Heart Relay
Arrange children into two teams, reminding them that teams work together. Give each team a large heart-shaped pillow. Have one child from each team place the pillow between his or her legs and hop to the end of the room and back. Repeat for each team member until everyone has a turn. Note: There does not have to be a winner or loser.
2. Create A Quilt of Hearts
Cut large hearts from many kinds of fabric. Cut each heart into three sections. (Each heart should be cut on the same lines as the others; all the hearts should have identically shaped parts.)Note:Depending on the age of the children the teacher may have to cut the different shapes of the hearts. Give each child a heart and encourage children to trade heart sections with others for a patchwork look. Help children glue their patchwork hearts on a square of colored posterboard. Hang the squares on a bulletin board to create a heart quilt. Remind students that each of their squares contributes to the final large creation.
3. You may want to share with children one or more of the Valentine’s Day books below.
• The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond
• Raggedy Ann’s Candy Heart Wisdom by Johnny Gruelle
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• I Love You as Much by Laura K Melmed
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
• Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli
Not allowed to celebrate. It makes me sad because as a child this was always my favorite holiday party to attend at school. I’m surprised there aren’t more teachers saying that too aren’t able to celebrate it. Interesting…
We do not a Valentine Party we have a Friendship party.
We do exchange cards,everyone looks forward to that especially since we will be in school on Valentines Day this year.
I send a list of names of students in the class home for the cards. When I had older students they copies a list of students, good handwriting practice.
We also have a friendship fruit salad for snack that day. Everyone brings in some type of fruit and I ask a parent or two to provide waffle cone bowls.
The students put thier own salad together and we enjoy together. After they deliver thier friendship cards. Here to I have use different methods, girls first, people wearing blue first, if you have a “v” in your name..and so on. It just depends on the make up of my class. No matter how I handle that part they students love to deliver thier mail to their friends.
I have used several differnt types of holders from paper bags to paperplate pocket holders. I find the paper bags hold more expecially when some cards include pencils and such. We decorate them with markers, stickers or whatever I have on hand.
I like the idea of just putting the givers name on the cards and sending hearts to the soldiers. Thank you.
Danielle,
We are not allowed to celebrate Valentine’s day as well. Last year I was at a school that did celebrate Valentine’s day and we decorated cookies and practiced patterns with red and pink hearts that we then turned into a head band. Another thing that I did was that we made “love bugs”. I took the little gumball containers that you get the small toys from at stores and we glued black pompoms to the bottem as the head and pipe cleaners as the feet. We then used small black hearts on the top clear dome so that it looked like a ladybug. It was too cute! But alas…it is not to be this year!!
My class of 2’s and 3’s will be making a decorated file folder type mailbox for themselves. We will take turns “delivering” the Valentine’s mail each child brought in or made at the center. I will hang the “mailboxes” with the owner’s name displayed on the front. Several of our 3’s recognize some others’ names. Help will be given to all. Name recognition is a fun game we practice every day at Circle time. The child delivering his mail can wear our mailman’s cap and bag.
My Kindergarten class loves Froggy’s First Kiss. We play the pin the lips on the frog using a pattern from past issues. We sit in a row with our sacks in front and take turns passing out our cards, the kids love giving each other cards or goodies. Thanks for the new ideas. A friendship party is an excellent alternative.
Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. I have red and pink tabecloths on the tables along with heart shaped confetti. I also hang up red, pink and white balloons with hearts on them. I have used white paper bags that the students decorate with foam heart stickers as well as a long sheet of construction paper folded to a traditional card holder and I’ve also used a heat shaped construction paper “basket” which is made in a similar way but a heart shape top with cone shaped bottom versus the rectangle one. I send home a list from the mailbox online or I just make my own. Students distribute valentine’s usually one table at a time to reduce congestion. We have a party at the end of the day usually with either cupcakes, chocolate chip cookie cake or little debbie valentine’s cakes along with ice cream.
We decorate bags the week before and leave them lined up in the classroom for students to deliver their valentines all week. On Valentine’s Day we start the day with a Valentine movie and breakfast treat (usually donut holes, some fruit and juice boxes. Then each student gets their bag of Valentines to dig through. I request that students only sign who they are from instead of addressing to each student. I also require that if they are bringing valentines they must bring them in for the entire class, not just special friends in the class.
We spend a week getting ready for Valentine’s Day. We make heart people, valentines for our parents, heart cookies and decorate white lunch bags with many different items. We play heart match and heart patterning. Conversation hearts make a great math project for sorting and classifying. We also use this time to talk about our hearts and how to keep them healthy. Again we stress how and why we celebrate and being kind to our friends by giving them this token of friendship.I send home a list of the childrens’ names which they copy on the cards. On the day of the party each child puts their cards into the correct bags. They know how to spell everyone’s name.
My biggest tip for a successful card exchange is not to address the cards to individual students. Just have the student fill in the “from” with their name. I keep the schedule fairly the same just with a Valentines day “flair”. We end the day as we always do with simple project based valentines day centers.
The wonderful thing about Coop preschool teaching is that we celebrate everything. I LOVE IT. When I was in the system we could not celebrate anything my last few years.
Valentine holders: I have each child bring in a clean empty milk jug. Cut the top off leaving the handle. Each child decorates a piece of paper with hearts and their name. We tape it around the milk jug and they have a carrier. (this works great for Halloween and our school Halloween walk treats. as well)
I ask the Parents to have their Child sign the back of their valentines and not have their child write student names on the front.
I line the jugs up on a table on the day of the Valentines day party. Each Child takes turns during free time wearing a mail carrier’s hat and putting their valentines in the carriers.
I love the pleasure of clebrating holidays again. It makes me sad that our little ones are losing this pleasure and those fun memories that we all have.
I’m love, love, lovin’ the tips and ideas everyone is sharing! Thank you so much. I’m eager to see what gets posted today. I do have to ask, however, why Valentine’s Day is off-limits in some school settings. In these schools, are no parties allowed? Or does this rule apply only to Valentine’s Day? The idea of a Friendship Party is a wonderful alternative!
We are having a Valentine Social Where the parents come in to school and help their child make a valentine’s box. We will be having refreshments and visiting with the parents. Then the children will leave their boxes at school until our Valentine’s Party where we give out valentines to each other.
Well, February is such a busy month in our classroom. Today we learned about Groundhog Day and made a class book-students wrote what they had learned about Groundhog Day and hats to wear. Next will be the 100th day celebration and lots of festivities are planned-complete with a special snack, project to share, and lots of learning!
Finally, of course we are having a Valentine exchange and special snack! My students have a project to complete at home. They are to make a valentine holder for the valentine’s they get. Today I read the letter they took home to explain what they will do-it also had the student names for valentines.) The students helped me make my holder by giving ideas for what I should put on the holder I am making for me. (My theme is bees so it will of course have a bee on it!) It turned out so cute!
I love having fun celebrations for my kids and in my opinion, when I can tie in fun activities to go along with their learning, they just thrive!
I send home a note listing the students’ first names on it. I suggest to the parents that they have their children write their names on each valentine. I also suggest that the children write their friends’ names. It’s good writing practice!
For a Valentine-themed activity, I use heart-shaped muffin tins and write a number inside each heart. I buy candy hearts, and I have the students count the correct number to put in each tin.
The candy hearts are also good for patterning activities.
The week before Valentine’s Day, we decorate a medium size paper bags, I get these from our local store. The students are free to use stamps, stickers and trace hearts and color them in.
We ask parents to only have their child sign the back of each card, as this makes it much easier to pass out. The children also can bring treats to pass if they wish.
The day of the party, we collect and label each of our students valentine’s as they arrive, so they can pass them out after we have snack. We have the children sit in a large circle and put the bags they decorated in front of them, then we have the children go 2 at a time and go around the circle and drop their valentine’s and treats that they brought into each one the their classmates bags with our help. It takes a little bit of time, but we have had very good luck doing it this way. After all the valentine cards are passed out, we space the students around the classroom and they are encouraged to look at their valentine’s and pick one treat to eat.
We also play a few games if time allows. One of my favorite games is “Valentine, Valentine, Who Took Your Heart”, for this game, one student closes their eyes and the teacher picks another student to takes a paper heart and hide it behind there back. All other students also put their hands behind their back and the first student has try to guess who has it, I usually give them 3 chances. The person that has the heart is the next person to guess.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all!
I send home a student list the week before Valentine’s Day. Part of their homework assignment, is to write names on cards. They can make them or buy them. Since they are Kindergarteners, their handwriting is not the best. So, I request that their parents write (in small print) under their writing the student’s name. I also create a Valentine card holder (out of construction paper) for students to put their cards in. On Valentine’s Day, one of the centers the students participate in is sorting their cards into the correct holder. I have a para to assist them for any names they are unsure.
At our school, students don’t address the Valentines to any particular student and just sign their own name on the back.
We’ve done different things. My favorite idea is to have the parents send a self addressed stamped envelope to school with the children and then have the children make a Valentine card for their parents/guardian and take a field trip to the post office (community helper’s unit) and mail the card there. We have a Valentine’s party as well.
I use the valentine candy hearts and a graph for a fun math lesson. The kids sort, place their candys on the graph, count, and then record how many of each color heart they have. Of course, the best part is they get to eat them!
Our school’s elementary program, we’re a small private school, teaches K-7. While all of our younger students (K-3) have afternoon classroom “Friendship Day” parties, we felt this wasn’t really appropriate for our older students. Our solution… We have a Friendship Day Brunch in the morning. The students can, if they choose exchange Valentines in their homerooms (no boxes or decorated bags) and we may turn it into a Pajama party to go along with a Pajama Drive we are trying to organize, too. We put up sheets of large construction paper for students to write positive comments about each other and their teachers, too.
Fun and not too mushy or little kid cutesy for our “middle” students.
My class creates patriotic valentines and we display some in our hallway for veterans to read as they pick up their children and grandchildren. We have also displayed some at our local post office. One year each child decorated a large heart and then they lined up and formed a heart shape holding their creations. We took a picture and sent that as a Valentine greeting to a group of soldiers in Afghanistan.
We have a elegant valentine’s day party. The children come in their sunday best. The boys “escort” the girls into the room and to their tables. We eat elegant food (cheese, crackers, fancy little debbie cakes, grapes, punch in champagne glasses). They learn to put their napkins in their lap. Then the boys ask the girls to dance.
To exchange valentines, the students only put who the valentine is from and then they can just easily drop one in each bag without having to worry to look for someone’s name.
I use the valentine’s the students receive as a graphing project. Each group of students represents their finding with a different kind of graph.
My students decorate paper lunch bags with hearts & paper doiles to put their Valentines in. We have a very small school, so we do not send name lists home. My students are making a Valentine for their parents next week that will be a picture frame with a picture of themselves in the middle of a circle and the words ‘Love you to Pieces’ written around the picture. Then they will glue puzzle pieces around the words & picture to make a frame.
I really like talking about how Valentines Day can be about friendships and reading books on it. I like a lot of these ideas about decorating bags and I have wanted to use the holiday to talk more about the mail system and they can have miniature mailboxes. I like letting the kids be creative in a variety of activites!
I don’t have a homeroom, but I have my math class use the candy hearts to sort, graph, and review all types of math skills.
My first graders walk into the room with dozens of pink, red and white 2 inch paper hearts strewn all over the floor of our classroom. They decorate a shoebox at home with their family to put their valentines in. I ask parents to not address the envelope of the valentine, just sign the cards. We all sit in a large circle with our valentine boxes with our valentine cards in our hands. We move one box to the left every time I clap my hands and drop a valentine card in the box we are standing in front of. I join the circle too! I found this was the most organized way to pass out valentine cards without some getting doubles and others not getting any. When they are done they take their valentine boxes to their desk and open every card. It is amazing how important each and every card is to a first grader! We will make heart sunshine ornaments as our craft. I will have a few parents bring their iron and ironing boards to school. I will have waxed paper, pink, red and orange crayon shavings for this craft. Students will place the shavings between layers of waxed paper; next a parent will iron the two sheets together causing the crayons to melt. After the sheets have dried, students will cut out many hearts from their paper. The hearts will be attached to strings which can be hung at home. A first grade valentine’s day to remember!
My class is 2 and 3 year olds. Our center also has an infant class, so for our Valentine holders we will use empty formula cans with slots cut into the lids. The kids will decorate with paper, doilies, stickers, stamps, glitter, etc.
We also plan to not have the kids address their cards to their friends as this makes it so much easier to have the kids pass them out themselves. Everything they can do by themselves makes them feel like the “big kids”.
Hi,
I’ve done the box and bag thing in the past, but this year, we are making Valentine Robot card holders out of recycled items. This goes along with our math unit, geometry (cone, cylinder, rectangular prism, etc.), and our class mission of “being green”!
We use Valentine cards in art projects. My favorite is to cut the valentine in half. Students then glue the picture on a plain piece of paper. Using crayons or colored pencils, the students need to draw the half of the valentine that is not there. We call the hidden picture. It is amazing how well the children can draw the other half of the card. Sometimes they have the details on the picture that were cut off from the original.
My preschooler and I have had a great job finding Valentines online and making them into her own fabulous creations for her classmates
When I ran the student news team at my MS we always used Valentines day to do a school wide service project like books for Camel bookmobiles in Africa or DVDs for troops. It was q great way for the kids to show ‘love’ for society!
This idea is for Pre-K students. Give students brown paper bag, google eyes, crayons, hearts, and glue. Have them design their own Valentine puppet.
I have Pre-k children with special needs and they love to find the hearts that I have hidden all around the room. I will use positional words to help them find them. On the hearts is written a letter, number, or a friends name. They can find three hearts and bring back to the circle time area. Then we read the hearts and give them to the appropriate person. I keep the ones with the letters and numbers to use in finger plays.