Besides Halloween, Valentine’s Day is at the top of the list when it comes to kids’ favorite holidays. Thinking about trading cards and candy gets them really excited the days leading up to the holiday. As teachers, we know ‘if we can’t beat them, join them’ is the way to go. The best way to do this is to come up with Valentine’s activities for upper elementary students that will not only engage them but help you continue with your curriculum.
Here is a list lessons that work in my classroom, so I’ve adapted them into a Valentine’s Day theme. I’m hopeful that you will find some ELA activities here that you will enjoy using with your students.
1. “Heart” Idioms Valentine’s Day Activities
If your students love idioms as much as mine do, they will love interacting with idioms focused on the “heart.”
Introduce your students to 14 different idioms and allow them time to engage with them throughout the day.
Students can create idiom books, banners or SweetHeart candy bags as a class or in groups. They can engage in a Scoot activity using idiom task cards or in Charades with mini preprinted idiom cards.
I’ve created a Valentine’s resource with all these idioms activities that you can grab over at TeachersPayTeachers.
2. Valentine’s Day Themed Vocabulary
Break away from your regular vocabulary wordlist. Introduce your students to words focused on Valentine’s Day.
Teach students the meaning of these new words. Educate them on how to search for synonyms and antonyms using a dictionary or online resources. Help them identify when to use the words by creating brainstorming webs. Then, have them create sentences and illustrations related to the words.
After having them share their sentences and illustrations with a partner, assess their understanding with a quick ten question quiz.
3. Cupid’s Arrow Prepositions
Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 has a great prepositional airplane lesson that ties in really well with Valentine’s Day. She teaches the students how to create an arrow paper airplane. She then has them go outside and throw the airplane around. As the airplane landed, students write the prepositional phrase of where they landed straight onto the airplane. (Ex. on the grass)
To adapt this into a Valentine’s Day assignment, tell the students that they are creating the arrowhead for Cupid’s arrow. Have them create an arrow paper airplane. Then, have them complete the lesson as stated above. To wrap it up, have the students gather their prepositional phrases and fill in the Cupid’s Arrow poem template.
4. Valentine’s Day Activities: Conversation Heart Sentences
Have your students review 3rd – 5th grade grammar standards by having them write sentences using the words found on conversation hearts. They will enjoy the challenge, and it’s a great way to get them reviewing the rules to writing sentences.
If you’re teaching virtually, you can pull out the hearts yourself, show them the phrase, and challenge them to incorporate it into the sentence.
5. Story Map Valentine’s Day Activities
Students who can summarize can figure out theme, important events, and analyze information. This skill is connected to many other standards.
Because of this, incorporating story maps and plot diagrams is important. This helps scaffold students thinking about the story.
This Valentine’s Day story map activity allows students to work through this activity in a fun and engaging way. It also makes a great visual for bulletin boards.
It contains posters so you can reintroduce the terms to the students. This type of activity works well in pairs because students are able to support each other and discuss the text.
6. Grammar Review Valentine’s Day Activities
We know that keeping grammar front and center is important, but most students don’t associate grammar with fun.
Incorporating grammar into the holidays and gamifying them is a smart way to get students reviewing their grammar skills. This is why I created a Valentine’s Day grammar review resource that even includes a “Track Your Progress” page that will encourage students do complete all ten activities even if its used as an early finishers activity.
One Last Thing
I hope these ELA Valentine’s Day Activities for Upper Elementary help you keep your students engaged. If you’d like to share some Valentine’s Day read alouds that are great for upper elementary students, there’s a blog post for that as well. Happy Valentine’s Day, my Co-Teacher! I’m sending you a virtual hug for all you do for your students.
