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1st and 2nd Grade Valentine’s Day Activities
Your first or second grade classroom is full of students who want to be your valentine. So make them happy and keep them busy with Valentine’s Day theme activities across all of the content areas.
Students see just a hint of a holiday decoration and their attention is gone. In addition, holidays up the energy level of students challenging teachers to keep the learning and engagement happening.
My best advice: give up the fight and use the holiday vibe to your advantage. With the right activities, you’ll keep your students engaged, excited, and learning.
Valentine’s Day Craft Projects
There are so many art projects for your students to create for Valentine’s Day.
- Decorate cards or write letters to give to the office secretary, gym teacher, music teacher, classroom volunteers, cafeteria workers, etc.
- Create a dog using different sizes of hearts. (This was one of my favorites when I first started teaching.)
- Cut and glue a heart shaped face with accordion folded arms and legs.
But don’t miss the chance to sneak some learning (dare I say “standards”) into Valentine’s Day crafts.
If you teach kindergarten or need to differentiate for a few students in your classroom, create just the 3D heart. Students can draw and label their picture.
Your first and second grade students can work on their opinion writing with this Valentine’s Day craft. There are small page as well as full page versions to use for their writing. They’ll have space to state their opinion, supply a reason for their opinion, and provide a sense of closure. You’ll make the crafty kids in your class happy but also get to target that writing standard too.
Sentence Building Task
With scrambled sentences, your students get to move during this activity as they put the words in order to build Valentine’s Day themed sentences. They’ll get to crawl and bend with the cards all scattered on the carpet before them. Place the cards in a pocket chart and students will be reaching and twisting and even crossing midline. Then follow it up by having them write the sentences on a recording sheet.
Math with a hint of Valentine’s Day
Math can be challenging for some 1st grade students, however, add a Valentine’s Day drawing to color and watch how quickly some students complete the task. They are magic words for some students: color, art, craft.
Love Includes Kindness
Although most kids focus on the candy and chocolate which comes with Valentine’s Day, love is in the air. For 1st and 2nd graders, that concept of love is easy to expand to include acts of kindness. Now is the perfect point of the school year to build or rebuild a sense of community, belonging, and friendship.
Grammar Worksheets
Although 2nd grade students aren’t always a fan of grammar, it is something that still needs to be done even on Valentine’s Day. This February set of worksheets even includes a few pages about Groundhog Day. Each page focuses on one standard such as reflexive pronouns or irregular plural nouns. These worksheets are perfect for review, extra practice, or morning work. Let your students show what they know as they apply their knowledge . . . and color too.
Writing Tasks to Try
Let the Valentine’s Day activities happening all around your kids be the topic of their writing. In the building I teach at, 2nd grade students create a valentine box as a home project. However, students could create one at school if that works better. Either way, extend the task and have them write about decorating the box. It’s a great opportunity to work on sequence writing using temporal and transition words: first, next, then, after that, finally.
Don’t miss the chance on Valentine’s Day to incorporate opinion writing activities as well. Given two choices, students state which one they prefer. Then have them provide a reason supporting their choice and finally add a sense of closure. Complete it as a whole group writing and then let them try it on their own.
Try a “This or That” Valentine’s Day writing activity too. You can select your own choices and have students write in their journal or on a blank writing paper. However, I have 4 opinion prompts along with 5 sequencing narratives all prepped and ready in my resource. Click the picture to grab this just print resource to use with your class.
Eat and Write
If you’re getting treats for your 1st or 2nd grade kids to eat during a Valentine’s Day party, bring in some mini cupcakes and follow it up with a “How To” writing activity. I know it’s not that healthy of a snack but it’s perfect to practice using sequence words. If you don’t want to have a pile of frosting stained papers to collect, I would recommend writing “How to Eat a Cupcake” on the day after the party or at least after a bathroom break.
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