Student Valentine Boxes

Can you tell I love Valentine's Day? I've loved it since childhood. My mom would always buy us heart-shaped boxes of candy. I remember the school parties and fun love-themed decorations ... Needless to say, I love celebrating this holiday with my students.

Here is a cute idea for Valentine boxes. We've done them this way for the past two years. We just have kids bring in a cereal box and then let them cover them in paper, wrap paper arms from the front to the back and glue/tape down cut-outs of their own hands. We then print pictures of their faces and staple them to the back of the cereal box to complete the "Valentine hug" look. They're simple and the kids love them.

 

"Thank You Valentine" Cards

I always like to acknowledge gifts I receive, so this year I made a "Thank You" card to give kids who brought me a Valentine. I printed them in color, then hand wrote a message to each kid on them. I then laminated them and cut them out so that they double as bookmarks (kids in my room always LOVE getting a new bookmark). Click HERE for the "Thank You" template.

Enjoy!

Love, Splat!

For the past few years I have done a Love, Splat writing activity the week before Valentine's Day. I read aloud the book Love, Splat by Rob Scotton. We discuss what love means to them and do a class brainstorm about the different things that make us feel love, and the things we do to show others love. Afterwards, they write a paragraph on what love is, following this simple template for each sentence:

• I feel loved when ...
• I like it when ...
• To show others I care, I ...
• To me, love means/is ...

Then they use craft paper to cut out hearts and a cat head, paws, tail, eyes, nose and the insides of the ears. (I have them crinkle the tails with an accordion fold to make it look spazzy like the real Splat's.) It is a quick writing assignment that helps students think about love on several levels, and it creates a very cute Valentine-themed bulletin board.

 

 

Cute, Affortable Valentine Gift for Students

One of my teammates introduced me to a cute idea for Valentine's gifts for our students. This year, we made bracelets for them. It is super cost effective, simple and meaningful. She had done this with her kindergarten class before and said the kids loved the bracelets and wore them until they fell off. Here are the simple steps involved (the whole idea came from THIS blog post):

• Make bracelets (with string and a simple braid - VERY affordable, simple and quick)
• Print templates from THIS site with "Our class would knot be the same without you" message
• Glue the template to cute craft paper
• Cut holes with a hole punch and strung the bracelets through
• Sign each valentine (which I haven't done yet so it's not reflected in the picture, but the signature will be underneath the saying)

Here is the result!