What to Teach Children about Valentine’s Day!
Are you wondering what to teach children about Valentine’s Day, if anything? This article will address this idea and more.
What to teach children about Valentine’s Day!
I LOVE VALENTINE’S DAY AT SCHOOL! This is my absolute FAVORITE holiday to experience with school children. Now, I have to point out here that I’m talking about elementary school. I’m sure the holiday is much much different at middle school or high school — it may even be a nuisance.
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Everyone feels loved
So, I’m sure you are wondering WHY I feel so strongly about this holiday at school. On Valentine’s Day, if the teacher sets the stage correctly, all students feel accepted and that they are liked and fit in.
The reason I add the part about “if the teacher sets the stage correctly” is that this part is CRUCIAL. To set the stage correctly I sent notes to parents with a class list of all the students’ first name AND I had a discussion with the students about my RULES.
My rule was that you can bring valentines or not, BUT if you chose to bring them you had to give one to every child in the class. Picking and choosing was NOT ALLOWED.
The point of this is for all students to have the WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE of opening lots of valentines from their classmates. It is so wonderous to watch your students open their valentines. Each child, if just for that day, feels loved, accepted, a part of something, and happy.
And this time more than any we need to provide students a way to feel accepted and part of the group. If you are still teaching remotely, I am not sure how you are going to tackle this holiday. Perhaps you can discuss Valentine’s Day and ask you students to make valentines for their family members. If your students don’t have craft supplies, perhaps they can write a loving note to their parents.
Another idea is to have them write about five nice Valentine notes that you will deliver to a retirement community near by. What a great surprise this would be for the elderly residents at that community.
What to teach children about Valentine’s Day…The main point is to make connections.
One year when I was teaching second grade, our school was about 4 blocks away from the local post office. I combined Valentine’s Day with a walking field trip to the post office, a post office tour, a unit on letter writing and how to properly address an envelope. Each student wrote a sweet letter to their parent or guardian. Before hand, I had a printed out page with each child’s address on it so they had it for addressing the envelope.
Back when I did this I had to hand write all these prompts out, but how simple would this be today with computers and spread sheets at the ready.
And an added bonus to this is, the child will be at the home when the letter is delivered by the mailcarrier (this is why you send it to the parent and not a grandparent (unless they are the guardian). They love it when their creation arrives in the mail. It is so fun to have them arrive to school the next day to tell me that their parent got the letter!
If your school is not near a post office, consider requesting a school bus for the transportation there.
This lesson also teaches joy of giving, just as passing out Valentines does too. Now when you get ready to have students hand out their valentines, you need to only have about 3-4 at a time handing theirs out. So, you will need to start this “delivery” part about an hour before your class party.
Managing Classroom Parties
I’ve written another article on this website about how to organize and manage classroom parties. You can read it here:
Managing Classroom Parties at School
I hope this article has given you some inspiration on ways to bring Valentine’s Day into your classroom. Have fun my teacher friends, this truly is a great holiday for young students.
Until Next Time,
