Looking for free and easy Valentine’s Day Lesson ideas for your classroom? Check out some of these ideas for all grade levels!
Elementary (K-5)
Candy Heart Connections (TeachHub.com)
If you’re teaching colors, have students sort hearts by color. If you’ve got early readers, have students match pictures related to the messages. You could have small bins with photos of kissing lips (Kiss Me), a phone (Call me), a puppy (Puppy Love), a bride and groom (Marry Me), an angel (Angel), a ladybug (Love Bug). Kids can take turns putting their candies in the proper bins.
There are really endless possibilities. Heart messages can jump-start synonym or antonym brainstorming, act as sentence starters. You could have a worksheet with columns for nouns, verbs, etc.
If you don’t want to use the actual candy hearts, you can start by having students make them. Older students can amp up the vocab by using SAT words to create their conversation hearts.
Flower Math (TeachHub.com)
What better time to cover the increments of 12 by calculating flowers by the dozen?
Depending on your current curriculum, adapt word problems that calculate cost per flower, calculate average pedal per flower or per bouquet, etc. You can even use real ads to find the best Valentine’s flower deal. Remind students to factor in tax (practicing percentage calculations) and delivery charge for multi-step word problems.
Younger students can just count, add, subject, multiply, divide the flowers, petals, etc.
Friendship From the Heart (Scholastic.com)
This activity should be completed after you have discussed the characteristics of a friend. Give each of your students a small heart with the name of a classmate on it. Have each student write one adjective that describes that classmate on the heart. Glue each student’s small heart to a large heart in the classroom. Hang it in the classroom so students can remember the qualities of a good friend.
Leaning Tower of Hearts (Scholastic.com)
This Valentine’s edition asks students to try and stack as many candy hearts as they can, one on top of the other, in just one minute. Put a countdown timer on the projector and watch your students get to work. Because candy hearts are not perfectly flat, the game is much more difficult than it seems. Your students will love this game and probably beg to play more than one round as they try and engineer the perfect stacking strategy.
Hallmark.com Valentine Party Ideas – Games and activities for kids; with printable puzzles, game ideas, crafts, and treats
Middle (6-8) and High School (9-12)
History.com – Valentine’s Day videos, articles, and photo galleries from “History of Chocolate” to “Great Romances in History”
Catapult Challenge (Scholastic.com)
A STEM activity in which students build a catapult to launch valentine candy.
Budgeting for Your Date (TeachHub.com)
You are in charge of planning your date for Valentine’s Day. You need to take a special someone for an evening out.
First, set your budget. $25 date, $50 date, $100 date and a $500 date
Then, identify the expenses required for the evening. Where will you go? How will you get there? What are some potential unintended costs? Will you bring a gift?
Once you’ve figured this all out, write each item in a list and specify the cost of each item.
(You can either let students do online research to find prices for restaurants/activities OR provide a selection with menus and brochures that provide pricing.)
The Business of Valentine’s Day (TeachHub.com)
Have your students create a business plan for a Valentine’s Day product or service.
Step 1: Brainstorm their product or service. Answer the question:
- How does this stand out from other Valentine’s Day pack?
- Who are my potential customers?
Step 2: Budget for supplies, labor and/or other production costs.
- Your produce can be as simple as pre-made valentines, but you need to consider the cost of the paper, scissors, markers or computer products needed to create the cards.
- Allot part of your budget for advertising. Even if this just means posters around the school, list the cost of those posts, tape, etc.
Step 3: Set pricing, sales goals and projected profits for your business
Step 4: Compile all of this information into a presentation for the class.
BONUS: Create a prototype, demonstration or drawing of your product to really SELL the idea to potential business investors.
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