[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the Firstieland Podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab, and today I’m feeling a little love in the air. I got all my Valentine decorations out over the weekend, and now my house pretty much looks like Cupid paid us a visit. I have a little tea bar in my dining room area, and I like to decorate it for all the different holidays, so it just looks really cute.
So since we’re into the month of February, I thought today would be a good day to dive into some ideas that have a little Valentine theme for this month. So let’s get started.
Hey there, I’m Molly from Firstieland, a former elementary teacher with over 30 years of experience in kindergarten and first grade. I’m here to help make teaching a little easier and a lot more fun. Whether you’re looking for the perfect read aloud, fresh writing ideas, or simple classroom tips, I’ve got quick, practical strategies you can use right away.
New teacher or [00:01:00] experienced educator, there’s something for everyone in Firstieland, so grab your coffee and teacher bag. Let’s get started.
I don’t know about you, but I always liked to try to fit some different holiday-themed activities into each month. It just kind of broke up the monotony of our reading and math series.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I stuck to the script when it came to those things, but I was always trying to figure out a way to make it more fun and interesting for the kids. So today’s episode is all about how you can still teach subjects like reading, math, phonics, writing, or whatever, but give it a fun little Valentine twist.
So let’s get started with some read alouds because you know I love to add a good story anytime I can. The first one, and this is a really cute book, is called Love Monster and the Last Chocolate by Rachel Bright. It’s about a little friendly monster who comes home from vacation and finds a box of chocolates waiting for him at his front door.
He’s [00:02:00] super excited because he loves chocolates and can’t wait to eat them. But then he realizes he should probably share some with his friends. He wrestles with this thought for a while because he really wants to eat them all, but eventually he decides he’s going to share them.
So he rushes over to his friends and blurts out how he got this box of chocolates and how he really wanted them all to himself, but decided he would give them all to his friends and not even eat one.
But then his friends tell him he’s being silly and to open the box. When he does, he finds out there’s only one chocolate left, and it’s his favorite. His friends left him a note saying they saved the last chocolate for him because they missed him so much while he was on vacation.
It’s such a sweet message for kids, teaching them that when you stop to think of others, you find out just how much they think of you too. It’s a super cute book.
What I used to do in my classroom was pick up a box of chocolates from the drugstore. After I read the book, I’d ask the kids if they’d ever had chocolate before, and I’d make a really big deal about how [00:03:00] delicious they are and how they’re all different in the box. I’d open the box, smell it, and then let the kids smell it too. By then, they were very excited about the chocolates.
Then I’d let each child choose one chocolate. We’d all eat them at the same time, and everyone would share what they got. You’d hear things like, “I got caramel,” or “I got raspberry.”
After that, we’d write an opinion piece about Valentine chocolates. The kids wrote whether they liked theirs or didn’t like it and gave reasons why. Then we made a really cute box of chocolates craft to go with it.
It was such a fun writing activity for Valentine’s Day and a great way to work a read aloud into the day.
Another one of my favorite picture books for February is The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. In this book, a little girl goes outside one day and discovers that it’s raining paper hearts.
She gathers up the hearts and decides to use them to make Valentines for her friends. Each Valentine she makes resembles her friend in some way. For example, she makes one for her bunny friend that looks like a big red heart with a cotton ball because it reminds her of the bunny’s fluffy tail. For another, she punches holes in the heart and gives it to Mouse because it reminds her of Swiss cheese.
It’s another really cute book, and we used it to teach comprehension strategies. We talked about characters and setting, retold the story, discussed the plot, and then practiced procedural writing by writing the steps for how to make a Valentine.
There are so many things you can do with that book. Both of these book activities are in my TPT store, and you can take a closer look at them at firstieland.com/february, or I’ll put the link in the show notes.
[00:05:00] Another easy opinion writing activity for February is having kids write their opinion about those little conversation heart candies. It’s super simple and very inexpensive. All you need is a bag of conversation hearts.
Give each student a few to try, then have them write their opinion. Some kids love them, and others hate them. Personally, I think they taste like chalk, but that’s just my opinion.
The kids used a simple template where they stated their opinion, gave a couple of reasons, and then restated their opinion. Then they made a little banner with paper hearts that looked like conversation hearts. It was a fast, easy, and fun writing and craft activity for February.
So what are some other easy writing ideas for Valentine’s Day? Love letters, for sure. You can give students a simple writing template or lined paper and let them write with red or pink markers or colored pencils. They can write letters to their mom, dad, grandparents, or someone special.
You can also have them write secret admirer notes. You might have students choose a name from a basket and write something kind to that person. I used to have templates called “Nice Notes,” where kids wrote positive messages to each other. They could sign their name or keep it a secret and let classmates guess who it was from.
Another fun activity I liked adding to the writing center in February was a Valentine scavenger hunt. I’d hide Valentine-themed pictures around the room, like hearts, rings, or Cupid. Students would use a clipboard and a writing sheet to walk around, find the pictures, and write them down. It was a simple “write the room” activity.
[00:07:00] Let’s move on to math. One easy idea is sorting and graphing conversation heart candies. You can use all kinds of Valentine candy as math manipulatives. Cinnamon red hots, pink and red M&Ms, or heart-shaped gummies work great for sorting, graphing, patterns, and even addition and subtraction.
Another cute idea is filling a jar with Valentine candy and having students estimate how many pieces are inside. Then you can count them together. If you’re using unwrapped candy, you’ll probably want to do the counting yourself, but it’s a great way to practice counting by tens and ones.
February is also a great time to teach friendship skills. I used to set up friendship stations where students worked with a partner. They made friendship bracelets, painted kindness rocks to hide on the playground, and made friendship soup.
For friendship soup, I used seven different types of cereal, each representing a letter in the word FRIENDS. As we added each ingredient, we talked about what that letter stood for. For example, F was for fun, R was for respect, and so on, until we spelled out FRIENDS.
If you want to try this, you can grab everything you need for the friendship stations and soup at firstieland.com/friend.
[00:09:00] And of course, there’s Valentine’s Day itself. Instead of a typical party where kids pass out cards and get very wound up, I used to do a Valentine room transformation and turn my classroom into Loveland for the day.
I’d read a short story I wrote about Cupid and explain that he had lots of jobs in Loveland and needed help. Students filled out a job application to be Cupid’s assistant, answering questions like, “Do you like candy hearts?” and “Can you write a love letter?” Then they explained why they’d be a good assistant.
After that, students rotated through Cupid’s job stations. There was a writing station for love letters, a math station where they solved addition problems to mend broken hearts, a mystery message station, a craft station where they made a love bug, a sorting and graphing station where they created a love potion, and a phonics game with the CH digraph where the goal was to fill a box of chocolates.
Everything was math and literacy based, so we didn’t lose a day of instruction, but the kids were still engaged and excited.
If you want to take a closer look at those Valentine stations, head to firstieland.com/cupid.
[00:11:00] All right, friends, there you have it. Lots of ways to add some fun to February with writing, math, reading, and even your Valentine party. Let me know if you try any of these activities, and tag me if you share them on Instagram. I’d love to see what you’re doing in your classrooms.
I’ll leave the links to everything I mentioned in the show notes, and until next time, remember to make learning feel like play. I’ll talk to you next week.
Thanks so much for tuning in. Be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode, and if you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a review. You can find the show notes and links at firstieland.com.
I’ll see you next week in Firstieland.