Valentine's Day Stories & Lesson Plans

Valentine's Day Activities Should Promote Friendship!

Evelyn Smith

M.S. in Library Science, University of North Texas (2012)

Children should enjoy listening to the stories below 

as well as participating in the following math and 

language arts activities the week of Valentine's Day.

 

Valentine's Day Picture Book Stories

 
Bond, Felicia. (2006). The Day It Rained Hearts. New York: Harper & Collins.

Valentine’s Day it started raining hearts,

and Cornelia Augusta caught one.

Originally published as Four Valentines in a Rainstorm (1983), this now classic tale sends Cornelia home to make special Valentine’s Day cards for her friends.  Accordingly, the teacher or librarian could read this story book and then help the children make their own cell-phone photo valentines:

 

Using a heart-shaped pattern, trace around  a print-out of each child’s cell-phone photo  and then attach it with double-sided tape to  a heart-shaped doily, so the child can give it to Mom or Dad as a Valentine’s Day present.  Children can then decorate the borders of this card with ribbons, stickers, or sequins.

Casteel, Michelle. (2013). Zombie Valentine's Day Party. Illustrator Nathalie Magrii. Douglasville, Georgia: Butterfly Press.

Kindergarteners and first-graders will love laughing at this twist on Valentine's Day traditions particularly if they are already familiar with how Valentine's Day is ordinarily celebrated. The story also emphasizes the message that Valentine's Day is for everyone, although some people might need help telling others that they like them. Children can also fashion plantable Valentine’s Day hearts sprinkled with flower seeds, as featured on the HGTV blog, “Plantable Valentine’s Day Cards” to symbolize how friendship and love needs nurturing for it to bloom and to grow (http://www.hgtvgardens.com/crafts/plantable-valentines-day-cards).

Dean, James & Dean, Kimberly. (2013). Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day Is Cool. New York: Harper Collins.

Pete, a hip, skate-boarding cat, thinks Valentine's Day isn't cool until a friend

reminds him of all the special cats he has in his class. Pete then decides to make Valentine's Day cards for all his classmates.

deGroat, Diane. (1996).  Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink.  New York: Harper Collins.

Violets are blue,

Roses are pink,

Your feet are big,

And they really stink.

DeGroat treats kids to an anti-bullying message that they might need as part of a mid-year refresher course in discipline.  In other words, this story just might occasion some follow-up discussions on bullying (more on these later).

Kroll, Steven. (2006).  The Biggest Valentine Ever. Illustrated by Jeni Bassett. New York: Cartwheel Books (Scholastic).

Once there were two mice who fell in love with the same valentine, but it didn’t start out that way. 

In a tale that teaches how to work with others, two boys learn how to share ideas when creating a valentine for their teacher.

Connor, Jane. (2009). Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart. Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. New York: Harper Festival.

Connor sets up a session of over-the top Valentine's Day card making while also helping to start a discussion about Valentine's Day traditions, like giving friends and loved ones flowers and chocolate.  In other words, bling  is in  for Valentine's Day!

Geronimo Stilton: Valentine's Day Disaster. (2006). New York: Scholastic.

Geronimo Stilton goes to bed dreaming about the special Valentine's Day celebration he has planned, but he forgets to set has alarm clock.  Originally published in Italian and aimed at 7 to 10-year old children, this tale should charm early elementary students.

Wing, Natasha. (2000).  Illustrated by Heidi Petach.  The Night Before Valentine's Day.  New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

T’was the night before Valentine’s Day,

And all through the town,

Children were busy,

Not making a sound.

Inspired by “A Visit from St. Nicholas” or “The Night Before Christmas”, this Valentine Day adaptation of the famous Christmas poem provides preschoolers and kindergarten pupils with a preview of what happens at a school Valentine’s Day party as well as inspiring the creation of homemade Valentine’s Day cards in first-graders. It’s also a great book to teach young children about rhyming, so make sure listeners write down the rhyming words as they occur.

The  Night Before Valentine's Day might serve as a cue for kindergarten kids to compose a simple verse together and perhaps send it to an ill classmate or a special adult in their lives.

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Addendum

January 22, 2016

 

Mary-Kate-Warner (2016). Printable Valentines. Teach Sunday School. Retrieved from

http://teachsundayschool.com/i/printablevalentines/

Check out these free printable, Christian-themed Valentines.

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Valentine's Day Math Activities

Yes,  kindergarten, preschool, and early elementary school teachers can work math activities into a Valentine's Day-themed lesson plan.

Hershey's Kisses Math

Check out the Hershey's Kisses Addition Book on Amazon.com.

Use Hershey's kisses to teach adding, subtraction, or multiplication; for example, pointing to a child, ask, “If Kayla first had eight kisses and she ate two, how many does she have left?” If Dylan has only 8 kisses, and the teacher gives him two more, how many does he have?” Go around the room until each child has answered a question and has been given a total of 10 kisses or else prepare a worksheet and supply plenty of Hershey's kisses counters.

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Big Cookie & Pizza Pie Fractions 

A king-size cookie or a pizza can teach kids fractions.

Use a large Valentine's Day cookie or a pizza as a pie chart, cutting it in thirds, halves, fourths,  and eighths while additionally pairing fractions with their corresponding percentages.  Students  might map out these fractions and percents on the board before cutting into the cookie or pizza.

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Mixing-up Math for Valentine's Day 

Valentine's Day is a great time to teach math through cooking!

Also, have  students measure out a recipe for cookies (to be served the next day)  using  a mixing bowl and  dry and liquid measuring cups.

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Valentine's Day Counting Songs

Put hearts on a flannel board and then lead the kids in counting songs.

Preschool Valentine's Day Songs and Music. (n. d.). Retrieved from http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/valentines/songs.htm

Using a flannel board on which to  place pre-cut flannel hearts, lead preschoolers and  kindergarten kids in  songs like "Five Pretty Valentines" and "Ten Little Valentine's".

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Language Arts Lessons Kids Will Love

Acrostic Name Poem



Acrostic name poem marker with photo. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.wishafriend.com/photo/namepoem/

Students might want to write an acrostic name poem addressed to a friend, parent, or teacher by using adjectives to describe him or her.  The students can type these poems out on a computer, thus giving them a professional, custom look.

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Conversational Hearts & Mapping

Chouhan, Andrea Howell. (2012). Valentines Day Crafts, Games and Activities. Green Bean Kindergarten. Retrieved from https://greenbeankindergarten.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/valentines-day-crafts-games-and-activities/

Chouhan gives teachers and children's librarians a remarkable number of fun and educational Valentine's Day activities, but her conversational hearts activity and Valentine's Day concept Web are particularly inventive.

After looking at conversational heart candies, provide the class with pre-cut construction paper hearts, so they can compose their own short messages and delivered them to their friends.

The day following the class Valentine's Day party, the students can review what happen on Valentine's Day with a Valentine's Day concept web.

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A Brainstorming Activity 

Brainstorm with students ways they can show others they like them as a warm-up language arts activity. List their suggestions coming up with three main  ideas and three  more detailed supporting details  before  trying  to write a sentence that summarizes everything the class has come up with and  another sentence that could serve as a conclusion.  

After reading a story that addresses this topic,  have third through fifth-graders write an essay about ways they can show others they like them. Younger children  can draw three illustrations about friendship.

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 Valentine Anti-bullying Activities

Educators have recently published Online anti-bullying lessons that may help teachers deal with with bullying and anti-social behavior at the kindergarten and early elementary-school level that also tie into a Valentine's Day theme.

Danny Tee Bully Free.  Kindergarten classroom anti-bullying lesson—with universal design for learning/differentiated instruction. (2012, June 15).  Word Press.  Retrieved from http://dannyteebullyfree.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/kindergarten-classroom-anti-bullying-lesson-with-universal-design-for-learningdifferentiated-instruction/

Danny Tee’s Bully Free blog features two hearts, one a typical, intact Valentine’s Day heart labeled “Before Bullying” and “Happy and Peaceful”, and another heart labeled “After Bullying”. The class passes the second heart around whereupon each pupil tells about how he or she felt after being bullied. 

 

At this point, the student rips a piece off the heart, placing the torn paper on a table. After each student has finished telling his or her story, the class puts the heart back together again to make it whole. Both hearts then go up on a bulletin board to remind the class how victims of bullying feel when others harass them.

Bullying and teasing results in heart break!

Since these stories might also result in further name calling, as an alternative activity, the class can watch a short film or bullying, and then each child can comment upon it as the class passes the second heart around rather than revealing a personal story where he or she has been ostracized, teased, or called names. 

Ordman, Bryan.  (2014).  Bullying Activities for Kindergarten.  eHow.  Demand Media.  Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_7954145_bullying-activities-kindergarten.html

Preventing bullying is a two-part process:

1. Stop young children from becoming bullies;
2. Help bullied-children feel comfortable about reporting being bullied.

(Ordman, 2014, para. 1)

After providing some links to sources about bullying, Ordman proposes some anti-bullying activities, although some of these suggestions might give impressionable young minds some tempting ideas:

• Scenarios: This option has students first act out a bullying scene and then identify the bullying behavior.  In a teacher-led discussion that follows, the class learns the meaning of unacceptable behavior as the teacher asks how they would feel if someone bullied them. Although this is the first of Ordman's recommendations, an adult needs to closely supervise the project, or else it might get out of control.

• Kindness Day: On Kindness Day, which could also double as Valentine's Day, the teacher assigns a kindness task for each student that he or she must perform during the day; for instance, helping another student with classwork or playing with a child during recess that he or she has shunned previously.  Obviously, this activity requires both careful selection and monitoring.

• Story Sharing: Pupils share stories about how they felt when bullied. Sharing personal experiences, however, might open up some of the victims to further teasing and name calling.

• TV and Movie Bullying: This option is perhaps the best one since the characters being bullied are fictional. The class can identify examples of bullying after watching a previously reviewed children's TV show, movie, or YouTube film that provides an example of bullying.  

        (Ordman, 2014, para. 2-5)

While Ordman makes the last option a homework assignment, the teacher will exercise more control if the students watch a video together that he or she has pre-selected.   That way, the teacher can then stop the video to discuss bullying scenes immediately after they occur.  Arthur Stands Up to Bullying (2013) and An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong (2009) are two DVDs that cope with bullying in younger children while Laura Ingalls had to put up with the bullying of Nellie Olson on Little House on the Prairie.