10 Valentine’s Day Activities for Grades 1-3
Is that pre-Valentine’s Day buzz already hitting your classroom? I totally get it—the energy is high, the sugar is coming, and you’re just trying to keep things on track! Instead of fighting the chaos, let’s channel it into something actually productive. I’ve rounded up 10 tried-and-true Valentine’s Day activities that won’t break the bank (or your spirit). These are simple enough for your Kinders to handle, but still ‘cool’ enough to keep a 3rd grader’s attention. Let’s dive in and make your February planning just a little bit sweeter!
Create Valentine’s Day Mailboxes
Have students bring in cereal or shoe boxes to transform into “mail carriers.” For younger kids, provide pre-cut hearts and stickers; for the older ones, let them design complex “functional” slots or 3D elements.
- Pro-Tip: Do this a few days early so they are ready for the big exchange!
STEM Challenge: The Candy Heart Tower
Valentine’s Day activities can include STEM! Give students a box of conversation hearts and a set amount of time. The goal? Build the tallest free-standing tower. It sounds easy, but the uneven shapes of the hearts make it a tricky lesson in balance and gravity.
The Kindness Chain
Instead of a standard countdown, build community by having each student write one kind thing about a classmate or someone else at the school on a strip of red or pink paper. Link them together to create a giant garland that loops around the room. It’s a visual reminder of how much “love” is in the room.
Heart Maps
This is one of the Valentine’s Day activities that first graders do at my school. Give students a large blank heart and have them “map out” the things they love most (family, hobbies, pets, favorite foods). Younger students can draw pictures, while older students can section the heart off by “percentage” or fraction of importance.
Hands on Science: Fizzy Candy Hearts Reaction
Incorporate science into your Valentine’s Day activities! Place conversation hearts or heart-shaped baking soda molds in a tray. Let students use pipettes to drop vinegar (dyed red) onto them. It’s a classic chemical reaction experiment with a festive, colorful twist.
Keep reading for more teacher bags!
Community Connection: “Heart-y” Thank Yous
This is a great way to take the focus off getting candy and put it on giving gratitude. Have your students create Valentine’s cards for people who help the school but might get overlooked—the bus drivers, the cafeteria staff, the custodians, or the front office team.
- The Twist: For older kids (3-5), have them write a persuasive paragraph on why that person makes the school a better place. For the littles, a sweet drawing and a “Thank You” does the trick!
Read a Great Valentine’s Day Book to the Class
I will be publishing a whole blog post on great read alouds for Valentine’s Day on February 5! Click here or on the image to go read it on or after the 5th, but here are my top 3 favorites:
PS: You know I am a reading teacher so that of course, one of the Valentine’s Day activities I chose would involve some books!
Math Discovery: Candy Heart Sorting & Graphing
Give each student a small box of hearts. Have them sort by color, count the totals, and create a bar graph. For 4th and 5th graders, you can scale this up by calculating the mean, median, and mode of the colors in the box of hearts.
Valentine’s Day Themed Brain Break
Brain breaks can count as one of the most fun and easy to implement Valentine’s Day activities! We love Coach Corey at my school and he has a bunch of brain breaks on Youtube but this one is great.
The “Secret Admirer” Compliment Circle
Tape a large piece of paper or a giant cardstock heart to every student’s back. Have the kids walk around the room (play some upbeat music!) and write one positive word or a short compliment on each other’s hearts.
The Why: It’s a movement break and a kindness activity rolled into one. When they finally take the hearts off and read what their classmates wrote about them, the smiles are absolutely priceless. It’s a “warm and fuzzy” core memory for the kids.
Which is your favorite? Will you try a few this Valentine’s Day?
READY TO GO ACTIVITIES FOR VALENTINE’S DAY
Also if you’re looking for some ready to go Valentine’s day activities that connect to your curriculum, check these out over at MY TPT store – save yourself time and energy by grabbing them now instead of frantically copying on the morning of February 14th.
Valentine’s Day Writing Prompts are a great way to get everyone writing – even the kids who usually say: “But I can’t think of anything to write”. The prompts are fun and cute and include narrative, friendly letter, informational and opinion writing and come with checklists for student accountability.
Valentine’s Day Antonyms is a fun little matching game! Check it out here!
The Valentine’s Day pack of ELA activities includes antonyms, contractions, a subject and predicate activity, a fill in the blank activity (similar to Mad Libs) and a parts of speech resource. Lots of way to learn while having fun!
Feed the Heart activities are a fun way to practice important decoding skills. I actually tape the heart onto a paper bag (with the mouth cut out) and my students read the words and drop the candy into the heart’s big mouth. There is also a CVC word version as well as one for vowel teams.
Other blog posts you may want to check out:
- The best Children’s Books for Valentine’s Day (to be released on Feb. 5)
- 10 Tips to Teaching Telling Time and Clocks
- Unlock Elementary Math Success Now with these 10 Tips!
- The Classroom Lifesavers: 5 ELA Resources Your Students (and You!) Will Love
- Engaging Your Students with Interactive Notebooks (That Actually Save You Time)
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