How I Teach - Week of Valentine’s Day Activities - ELA, Math, SEL, Test Prep
Valentine’s Day week is one of my favorite times of the year to teach both ELA and Math, as well as incorporating rigorous reading and writing test prep for upper elementary, because it is easy to make these challenging activities super fun for students and with a lot of buy in. Students are excited, the classroom energy is high, and it’s the perfect opportunity to lean into engagement without sacrificing rigor. I’m very intentional during this week: everything we do still ties directly to math standards, reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and social-emotional learning. I’ve taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grade and largely have used the same activities for each grade, but differentiated and slightly adjusted expectations by grade level. Below is how I structure Valentine’s Day ELA and Math activities in my classroom:
Valentine’s Day Reading Comprehension and Paired Passage Test Prep Activity
One of my core ELA lessons during Valentine’s week focuses on nonfiction reading and constructed responses. I use my Valentine’s Day History of Candy Paired Passages to integrate holiday fun with real test-prep skills. Students read an age-appropriate nonfiction passage about the history of Valentine’s candy and how traditions developed over time. We focus on vocabulary, close reading, and answering text-dependent questions using the RACE strategy.
What I love about this activity is that it’s super engaging, but it’s doing serious academic work. Students are practicing the same skills they’ll see on state tests with paired passages, text evidence, and written responses but in a way more engaging way. It’s completely no prep, which is a huge win during a busy week. It also comes with differentiated leveled passages which not only lets me differentiate within my class for lower and higher readers, but has also allowed me to use this ELA test prep activity across multiple grade levels over the years.
BUT my FAVORITE part is the real candy compare and contrast that follows. Once the more rigorous academic work is done, I pass out real skittles and MnMs and students get to compare and contrast the actual candy, including taste! This is of course my student’s favorite part! Its fun while still maintaining a relevant ELA skill. But most importantly, I only allow students to do this part of the activity when their RACE writing is finished. Because its a high motivation item, this causes my students to work hard on their writing so that they will be allowed to move on to the fun part!
Valentine’s Day Math Project: Candy Factory Fractions PBL
We start Fractions in January, which means by mid February we are wrapping up. That makes this Candy Factory Math PBL the perfect and engaging fractions math review. This takes us 2 to 3 days and includes a series of fraction word problems and challenges. I LOVE that it is differentiated with 4 different versions, which has allowed me to use this same project across multiple grade levels. Currently, I teach 5th and the majority of my students get the 5th grade version. However, my students with IEPs who struggle in Math get the 4th grade or even 3rd grade version. It’s perfect because the differences are so subtle that noone knows they are working on different versions, and yet everyone is being challenged at their own level. When I taught 3rd, I was still able to do the same thing by giving some students the Below 3rd grade version and then could also challenge my top students by giving them the 4th or even 5th grade level version!
We do this project in partners who are working on the same difficulty level, but it could also be completed individually in class, or even as a homework project. What I love most is the easily organized, easily graded foldable that also makes a great bulletin board display. I used to dislike Math PBLs, because they were always a jumble of hard to grade pages. So I made my own to fix that! Because students put this project in a foldable, its SUPER easy to grade, and also looks great on my bulletin board!
Valentine’s Day Read Alouds
Every day of the week, I like to read for about 10-15 minutes out loud to the class. The week of Valentine’s Day I generally read picture books (including taking a break from our novel read if necessary), that focus on SEL concepts such as self love but also relational concepts such as friendship. These are the books that I read, with a brief description as well as a link to youtube read alouds. If you own the book, that’s great, but never forget that showing a youtube clip of someone else reading the book and showing the pictures totally counts too! In a busy week like Valentine’s, it can be super helpful as the teacher to have 5-10 minutes to prep the next activity while the class listens to a relevant picture book.
Valentine’s Day Read Aloud #1: Love Monster by Rachel Bright
Love Monster is the most “on the nose” Valentine’s Day book that I read during the week. It is about a monster that is looking for someone who loves him just the way he is. This story is simple and quick, an easy read! Click here for the Youtube Read Aloud!
Valentine’s Day Read Aloud #2: I Am Enough by Grace Byers
This book is short and sweet, and perfect for starting an SEL lesson on self love. It focuses on appreciating yourself, even through challenges or if a goal isn't initially met. It’s an easy and cute read aloud written in the form of a flowing poem. Here is the Youtube Read Aloud.
Valentine’s Day Read Aloud #3: Love Is by Diane Adams
This one is my FAVORITE, and if I had to choose just one read aloud to recommend, it would be this one. This story is sooo cute, and really tugs at my heart strings (and makes me tear up) as a Mom especially. It focuses on familial love. The story is about a little girl raising a little duckling and then eventually releasing it back into the wild. Each page of the book starts with “Love is ____________” and describes some aspect of caring for someone and how it is love, from long sleepless nights to eventually leaving the nest. This one is super short and easy, but sooooo good! I love this one! Here is the Youtube Read Aloud, but I definitely recommend buying this one if you don’t have it already!
Valentine’s Day Read Aloud #4: Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
This one is a great book about friendship. It starts out as a boy who does not get along with another boy, and his father gives him advice on how to “get rid of” an enemy. The advice of course includes spending a day playing together, and soon enough he has in fact gotten rid of his enemy and instead made a friend. Friendship is a great thing to focus on during Valentine’s Day for elementary students, who really are too young and shouldn’t be worrying about relationships. Learning how to make a friend is a great substitute! Check out the Youtube Read Aloud.
Valentine’s Day Read Aloud #5: Love Makes A Family by Sophie Beer
This inclusive family book is similar to “Love is”, in that it focuses on several “Love is ______” statements, that describe what a family is like. Sentences like “Love is lending a helping hand” or “Love is watching from the front row”. The words describe any family, and the pictures are incredibly inclusive so that any student will see themselves represented and see families of all different kinds, from older and younger, and single family homes, from different religions and ethnicities and genders.
Valentine’s Day Social Emotional Learning Lessons
I put a big emphases on SEL in my classroom, and Valentines Day is a great theme for it. As I said with my read alouds, I tend to focus on self love, platonic friendship love and familiar love for this age range. During the week before Valentines Day, I do two main SEL lessons. The first is a quick stand alone, I tend to do on Monday. The second takes us a bit longer, and I incorporate it with our read alouds, for instance having students color their project while they listen to that days read aloud. Here they are:
SEL Lesson #1: Wrinkled Heart Activity
This lesson is pretty well known, but is quick, easy but meaningful. I have students decorate a heart, but no writing yet. Then we go to the carpet and I have students trade with a partner, and then I tell everyone to CRUMPLE their partners heart! The way that they gasp! Then I tell them to smooth it out again, and of course they can’t and I teach the lesson about how we can’t take back our mean actions or words and they always will leave a mark, so we need to avoid them entirely. Finally, students go back to their desk and write on their crumpled hearts “Before you speak, think and be smart. It’s hard to fix a wrinkled heart.”. This lesson is short and easy and takes about 20-30 minutes max.
SEL Lesson #2: Self Love Heart Writing Craft
For the rest of the week, our SEL Lesson + Writing Time is spent on these Self Love Heart Crafts that then also get put up on one of my bulletin boards when we are done. This project is double sided and students write about themselves, their friends and their family on the back of the hearts in paragraph form, so it ends up making a 3 paragraph writing assignment. However, if you are crunched for time, it works just as well to just make a single sided craft and skip the writing. We do this craft in conjuction with some of the read alouds that I listed above. In fact, I often have students color their hearts while they are listening to that day’s read aloud.
Valentine’s Day Vocabulary ELA Test Prep Craft
Finally, I wrap up the Valentine’s Day Week with this Valentines Day Cut and Paste Vocabulary Test Prep Craft. We are in full test prep mode at this point of the year since we usually have state testing in March, and have just learned about text structures so this is a great review for that as well. This craft has the 20 most important ELA vocabulary terms for state testing. It includes text structures, reading comprehension skills, morphology and test questions vocabulary. Personally, I have students work in pairs to find the definitions for their 20 words, and then each student colors two of the bouquets. They then combin them into a great 3D craft! However, they also work just as well for a 2D craft if you are looking for something faster. These bouquets make very colorful displays on our windowsill!
Where To Get These Valentines Day Activities
These are my main Valentine’s Day Activities that I do each year, and have completed successfully whether I was teaching 3rd, 4th or 5th grade. If you are interested in using one of these activities, click on the links or images below!
Or check out all of them in one “Week of Valentines Day Activities” Bundle, and save big! This bundle has 5 activities for $9.98, which amounts to buy 3 activities and get 2 free!
