Valentine's Day Lesson Plans for Elementary Students

Valentine's Day lends itself to easy and fun lesson plans with themes around candy, hearts, and love. When I was a teacher in the public school, I used these simple lesson plans that motivated and reinforced basic skills. All of these lesson plans can be adapted for children in kindergarten and first grade.

Valentine's Day Math Lesson Plan--Graphing with Conversation Hearts
Lesson Plan Objectives: Given a box of conversation hearts, children will sort candies according to color and create an individual graph. Children will evaluate the graph and answer follow-up questions with accuracy. Children will compare classmates' results and participate in a discussion to help create a class graph.

Lesson Procedures: Give each child a box of conversation hearts and a teacher-made valentine candy bar graph worksheet. Tell children to sort candy hearts by color. Demonstrate how to color in each blank heart at the bottom of each bar graph or key section on the worksheet. Show children how to place the pink conversation hearts in the correct bar or line, beginning at the bottom of the graph. Children will complete the rest of the graph independently. Upon finishing his graph, each child will answer questions such as "Which colors have the most/least hearts?" and "How many purple and pink hearts are there all together?" Follow up by gathering information from each student, recording in a large, class graph. Ask pertinent questions such as "What was the most popular color or most frequently occurring conversation heart color that came out of the boxes of candy, according to our class graph?" This Valentine's Day lesson plan can also be used with second grade students for a probability lesson.

Valentine's Day Word Work Lesson Plan--I Love Word Games
Lesson Plan Objectives: Given laminated hearts with words printed on them, children will match sight words, pair rhyming words, put together contractions, and create compound words to help reinforce and build simple word skills.

Lesson Procedures: Prior to the lesson, prepare and laminate die-cut construction paper hearts. Use a permanent marker to write the targeted words on the valentine hearts. Before dividing the children into small groups to play the games, read aloud from the book I Love Words, pointing out the contractions and compound words included in the book. Divide students into four groups. In all the groups, children will play a game of "Memory Match." Taking turns, each child will turn over a valentine heart and read aloud each word that is showing. In one group, children will play with sight words (such as "like" and "come"). In another group, children will play with rhyming pairs of words, such as "jump-bump" and "make-cake." In a different group, children will play with contractions, matching two words on one heart ("will not") with its corresponding contraction ("won't"). The final group will play with compound words. When turning over one heart, the student will announce the first part of the compound word and try to match it with the last part of the compound word ("rain" "bow"). Rotate groups until all students have had a chance to go through each game session. Or, put the games into a learning center for extra practice during the week.

Valentine's Day Language Arts Lesson Plan-Class "Love" Book
Lesson Plan Objectives: Children will create their own pages for a class pattern book, using simple phrases to encourage shared and independent writing and reading.

Lesson Procedures: For motivation, read aloud simple Valentine's Day poems. Using chart paper, show children how they will help to create a class pattern book using the sentences: "I like ____. I like ____. But what I really love is ____________." On the chart paper, write "I like pizza. I like cats. But what I really love is waking up to three feet of snow on a Friday." Model other examples, using the students' responses. Kindergarteners can be given pre-printed sheets of paper, with the blanks ready to be filled in with one-word responses. First graders can write out each sentence. Children should illustrate their book pages with pictures that will match the words they have chosen. Combine book pages to create a class book. After reading aloud this pattern book, put the book into rotation so that children may take it home to read.

Although learning about the history behind Valentine's Day is important, primary children enjoy Valentine's Day activities that use candy, game play, and creativity. Take some time to plan some Valentine-themed lessons and your class will have fun while learning basic skills.

Source:
McGrath, B.B. (2003). I love words. New York: Charlesbridge Publishing