If you’re a teacher in Grades 5 or higher, you know Valentine’s Day looks slightly different than in a primary classroom. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t tons of fun activities you can do with your older students!
At this age, the hormones are kicking into high gear. The kids love each other one moment and rip each other apart in the next. I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about! 🤦♀️
Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that they’re still kids, and yes, they still want to celebrate events like Valentine’s Day, but the activities also need to be age-appropriate.
Here’s a fun round-up of 7 great activities that you can do to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your middle school classroom.
Valentine Minute to Win It Games
There are tons of fun Minute to Win It games that students can do with a Valentine’s Day theme. Here are just a few:
To play this game, every player has a large craft stick (they’ll be holding these in their mouths) with three candy hearts. Players need to balance the hearts on the stick while crossing the classroom to touch the other wall, then walk back to tag the next player on their team to go next. The team that completes the relay first wins. Set a time limit for an added challenge!
Students can be challenged to stack as many candy hearts as possible in one minute. You can change this one up as you see fit. Maybe how many hearts before the tower topples, the highest tower in a specific time, it is totally up to you and your students!
For the “Blowing Kisses” game, your students must use a balloon to push the kisses from one side of the table to the other. You could set a time limit or have the first team to push all the kisses off the table be the winner.
Other alternatives include:
- Putting a Valentine’s cookie on a student’s forehead and having them wiggle it down to catch it in their mouth.
- Have a bowl with a certain number of cinnamon hearts for each team and an empty bowl beside it. Students use a plastic spoon with the handle in their mouth to transfer the hearts from one container to the other.
- Take a general Minute to Win It activity and put your own Valentine’s Day spin on it!
Measure It!
Children love to hand out Valentine’s cards, and many classes have a tradition of making mailboxes to collect these in. Why not build these during math class and calculate the surface area of the mailboxes as you create them?!
Involve the Whole School
Why not get your students to organize a whole-school Valentine’s campaign? Years ago, we had a group of students organize “Candygrams” that the students could purchase for 25 cents each. Orders were taken and personalized on paper hearts, and students attached a small candy treat, sorted them, and delivered them to classrooms on Valentine’s Day. It was lots of fun for everyone! (And yes, steps were taken to ensure every student received a card! 😉)
These wouldn’t have to include food or a purchase price and could become a great data management task for your students.
Get Artistic
There are tons of creative art ideas out there that are the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day in the classroom. Do a quick search on Pinterest to find some amazing ideas!
This year, we will try doing the art project in this YouTube video focused on value!
I’m always looking for more ideas! Be sure to email me if you have a great Valentine’s Day art activity!
Valentine’s Day STEM Challenges
STEM challenges are fun and engaging at any time of the year, but why not take advantage of the seasonal products available and use them to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Here are some great STEM ideas:
Have students build the tallest structure they can using Valentine’s candy and toothpicks.
Design and construct a Valentine’s delivery zipline!
Older students will LOVE constructing working Cupid’s bows!!
And these catapults would be an absolute hit with any middle school grade!
Valentine’s Day Card Exchanges
Exchanging Valentine’s cards is a tradition in many schools and something students look forward to, even in the upper elementary grades.
This year, our students aren’t allowed to distribute cards with their classmates, so I’ve created a Virtual Valentine activity to make up for this.
You can grab it FREE right here!
Big Helpers to Little Kids
As a primary teacher, I LOVED having the older students visit my classroom to support my little ones with more challenging activities. Spread the love and reach out to a primary class to create an art masterpiece like this one:
This idea initially came from my friend, Leigh, The Applicious Teacher. You can find her post about it and grab Leigh’s free Heart Print poem here.
Creative Valentine’s Day Writing
We’ve connected to math and science, and finally, I’d like to share a free “Would You Rather” writing prompt resource with you! My kids are obsessed with these questions. We start every day with one.
Use these as writing prompts or conversation starters. It is totally up to you!
Don’t Forget The Gifts!
No matter their age, your students will love receiving this little non-food token of your friendship on Valentine’s Day! Grab these glow wand tags right here:
You can find more Valentine’s Day resources here in my TpT store!
I hope that you’ve been inspired by something in this post. Reach out to me here if you have other great Valentine’s Day activities that I can add to this round-up! I love hearing from you!
You might also be interested in starting a kindness challenge with your students. Find more info about that in this blog post:
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