Valentine’s Day is a popular and lovely celebration originating in the United States, but which has turned into a global phenomenon. Every February, people all over the world celebrate this special day and the love and appreciation that they have for each other. Using out of the box Valentine’s Day activities will ensure that your students will be highly engaged and will learn so much. This year I am taking things one step further and celebrate the entire week with activities meant to entertain and teach important lessons.
Do you want to know what I will be using in class? Keep on reading!
1. Valentine’s Day Digital Escape Room
I like to start the week with a fun digital escape room. They will travel through a variety of questions to escape the game. My students are crazy about escape rooms. Everything that is digital and gamified appeals to them in a special way. So I hope that this activity will give this special week the start it deserves.
2. Valentine’s Day Bell Ringers
Each class will start with warm-up activities. This will give my students the opportunity to settle and get in the right mood for the lesson. Therefore, they will do brainstorming, challenges, puzzles and many more. These are the perfect Valentine’s Day activities to raise their interest and to sharped their English skills in a fun manner.
3. Valentine’s Day Reading Comprehension Passages
I try to take advantage of every celebration to strengthen their reading skills. Being excellent readers is crucial for their future exams and life. I like to give them short texts and use reading comprehension exercises: 2 vocabulary multiple choice questions, 1 short summary, 2 open comprehension or inference questions, 1 multiple choice inference or comprehension question. In this way I am sure that I hit all the standards they need to master.
4. Valentine Blackout Poetry
My students love blackout poetry and the twist that I gave to it has made it even more interesting. Instead of simply ripping pages out of a book, I bring real stories. They read the story, briefly analyze it and then create their Valentine blackout poetry. I adore to display their work every single year.
5. Love Themed Unit
My students will also dive in a mini unit about love. Therefore, I will use paired texts to get them exposed to a large variety of content and activities. In the first day, they will read an informational article about Why Does Love Feel Magical? and answer open ended and multiple choice questions. Next, we will look at the poem I Am Offering This Poem – Jimmy Santiago Baca, analyze it and create a fun one-pager. Last we will read the short story The Love-philtre Of Ikey Schoenstein by O. Henry. Out of all the things I could give them to do, I decided that a story analysis bingo board would be the best choice. My students really love choice boards of all types.
6. V-Day Poetry Writing
The whole week will be sprinkled with inspiring poetry writing activities. Therefore, the imagination of my students is set on fire and they simply love this activity. I challenge them with various types of poetry activities, like acrostic poem, book spine poetry, haiku, rewriting poetry or graphic poems.
7. Valentine’s Day Writing Prompts and Crafts
I like to sprinkle during my classes a large variety of activities, crafts or writing prompts. These worksheets are so easy to use and my students love the variety I give. However, this year I’m creating centers and allowing them to select what they want to work on. I will offer them activities like letters to a stranger, loving notes, look and write, words of love, the loving tree and many more.
8. Valentine Catchy Picture Prompts
Because a picture expresses so many deep feelings, I love to use picture prompts for the narrative tasks. Moreover, they are excellent for making inferences and for giving the students an excellent starting point in their writing. My students feel more inspired in this way.
9. Scavenger Hunt Game
This scavenger hunt is a fun game for groups or pairs. Cupid has lost 10 hearts and the students have to complete certain activities to find them: acrostic poem, love letter, fortune cookies, crosswords, reading comprehension, word search, mini story writing, trivia, testing friendship and the Valentine Card. As they complete each activity, the students get a heart they will put in their hearts gallery.
10. Get Your V-Day Activity for Vocab and Writing
Now I have a surprise for you! Are you ready? You can get for a popular V-Day activity which was also featured on the TPT blog. It is called Loveable Idioms and it combines popular idioms with narrative writing. Try it out in your class now!
These are all the Valentine’s Day activities I have planned for this year. I do not want this special celebration to go away unnoticed. Therefore, I decided to make the most out of it. What are your plans for this day in your class?
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