Cards, candy, and crafts — these are the essential ingredients to any Valentine’s Day celebration. But before you jump straight into end-of-day-class-party mode, get your students’ hearts (and minds) racing with these engaging Valentine’s Day activities. 

Elementary teacher Genia Connell shares her favorite heart-themed activities that will keep your students learning throughout the day as they eagerly await their Valentine’s Day celebration.

Valentine’s Books and Reading Graphic Organizer

Whether your favorite Valentine’s book is a madcap Black Lagoon adventure or a Geronimo Stilton valentine mystery, this reading graphic organizer will be a lovely fit. Using the organizer as a guide, students will identify the setting, character, problem, main events, and solution of the story. The organizer is a great follow-up to a whole-class read aloud, small-group lesson, or for use during independent reading time. 

Pair the graphic organizer with any of the Valentine’s books for PreK-5 here, or with one of the read-aloud favorites below.

Story Starter Writing Prompts

Challenge your students to write their own Valentine’s Day stories using one of these thematic writing prompts. Connell recommends giving students about 35 minutes of writing time to craft their stories. 

• Write a friendly letter to someone you love. In your letter, give that person at least three reasons why they are special to you.
• Some schools do not have parties during the school day because it takes time away from learning. Do you think elementary schools should have class parties for Valentine’s Day? Take a stand and write a persuasive paragraph with at least three details that support your claim.
• You just got a job writing new phrases to put on the candy at the conversation hearts factory! What ten phrases would you add to the candies this year? Write out the phrases and explain why you chose them.
• What do you love more than anything in the world? Write a narrative that describes something or someone you love and why.
• Write a poem about Valentine’s Day or love. You can use any style of poetry you prefer, such as acrostic, haiku, a limerick, or free verse.
• Congratulations! You just invented a love potion. Write a TV commercial advertising your new potion. How will you persuade people to go out and buy your potion?

Heart-y Graphing Activity

Candy conversation hearts are perfect for graphing data! Pass out an individual box of conversation hearts to each student in your class. Instruct your students to write a survey question for their classmates using the conversation hearts as inspiration. 

Students might survey classmates about which color candy they like the most, or which color or phrase shows up the most frequently in their box. Students should then use their collected data to create two different graphs and fill out this Candy Heart Investigations activity sheet.

Here are a few other ways to use conversation hearts in the classroom:

• Figure out the fractions each color represents in their box of hearts (such as 4/18 are yellow, 3/18 are green, etc.). 
• Write a story using the sayings on all the hearts. Share these silly stories with the whole class.
• Make arrays to demonstrate multiplication facts.
• Divide the sayings into parts of speech. Label each section noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.

Love Is… Bulletin Board

A love-themed bulletin board can really brighten up the classroom during a dreary February winter. A great way to fill the room with Valentine’s Day cheer while prompting student reflection is to ask what love means to them. As a class, have students share their thoughts and ideas about what fills their hearts with love. 

Once students start to dig deeper and reflect on the true meaning of love, they are ready to fill out and decorate the Love Is… heart. Display their finished hearts on the bulletin board to fill the room with loving thoughts. To expand your lesson, explore these best-selling books about kindness.

Shop books about Valentine’s Day below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.