valentine's day Archives - Teacher's Brain

5 Engaging Activities To Celebrate Valentine’s Day In Your Elementary Classroom

December 30, 2023 teachersbrain Craft Ideas, Teaching Tips

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, now is a great time to sprinkle some love and joy in the classroom.

Wondering what your little cupids can do to celebrate the holiday? Or maybe you’re looking for ways to make the day extra special for your kiddos? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! If you’re looking for Valentine’s Day activities for students or Valentine’s Day for the classroom, you’re in the right place.

What do students do on Valentine’s Day?

There are lots of things you can do to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your little learners. You can spread the love with some cards, create some crafts made with love, share sweet treats with your students, celebrate Friendship, and even share some heartfelt stories.

How do you make Valentine’s Day fun for kids? Here’s some ideas to get you started!

Themed Dress-Up Day

Add an extra layer of excitement by having a themed dress-up day. Encourage students to wear red, pink, and white, or even dress up as their favorite storybook characters.

Dance Party Extravaganza

Crank up the tunes and let the kiddos boogie down with a dance party. Create a playlist of fun, upbeat songs, and watch as the classroom transforms into a dance floor filled with laughter and joy.

Love Scavenger Hunt

Turn the classroom into a treasure trove of love with a scavenger hunt. Create clues that lead students to various hidden treasures, like small treats or festive decorations. It’s a playful way to keep them engaged and excited.

Heartfelt Games and Activities

Plan a variety of themed games and activities. From “Pin the Arrow on Cupid” to a heart-shaped bean bag toss, there are countless options to keep the kiddos entertained and smiling.

Classroom Decor Galore

Transform your classroom into a love-filled haven with simple decorations. Think heart garlands, cupid cutouts, and splashes of red and pink. A festive atmosphere can do wonders in making the day extra special.

So, there you have it, my fellow teachers! With a sprinkle of creativity and a dash of love, you can make Valentine’s Day a memorable celebration for your elementary students. Here’s to a day filled with joy, laughter, and heartwarming moments in your lovely classroom!

Valentine’s Day Activities and Crafts

Are you looking for some Valentine’s Day-themed Math and Language Arts printables to help your students to be engaged while learning? I have you covered with these worksheets and engaging activities for K-2 students. Students can sort conversational hearts, graph them, write about friendship, write poems, solve heart themed math problems, make a heart bee, and so much more!

Valentine’s Day Escape Room

Looking for an ENGAGING Valentine’s Day activity for your students to help them review sentence structure, counting, and problem-solving? Digital Escapes™ are a fun way to get students to learn without even realizing it. NO Printing and No Prep needed for this digital escape! Super EASY for in-person or Distance Learning.

Digital Valentine’s Day Cards

WOW! You don’t have to miss out on the fun tradition of exchanging Valentine’s Cards this year! These digital Google Slides make it easy for your students to personalize and move editable conversational hearts to give virtually or in person! There is even a name grid provided so students can keep track of who got one and how to spell classmate’s names!

Valentine’s Day Hat and Writing Craft

Looking for a print-and-go activity for your class? Use this Valentine’s Day Heart Hat to engage your students in the celebration of the holiday tradition of the holiday. Writing Prompts on primary and intermediate lined paper are included.

Valentine’s I Spy Activity

Want to make sure your students are engaged with writing in February? Check out these hidden Valentine-themed word searches! Students use a magnifying glass to find hidden (small) words on the printable. Then they use the words in their writing.

Looking for more Valentine’s fun? Check out my post here!

3 Reasons To Use Holiday Escape Rooms

October 28, 2023 teachersbrain Fall & Halloween, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day Ideas, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Winter

Let’s talk about escape rooms!

If you know me, you know that I’m a huge fan of this incredibly engaging and exciting way to teach little learners various concepts. It feels like a game and it’s just, well, fun for teachers and students! What’s not to love?!

If you’re looking for the perfect classroom escape room kit or even a fun digital escape room to use in your classroom, you’re in the right place! But first, let’s discuss some of the many benefits of escape rooms for students.

What skills do escape rooms build? What does an escape room teach?

It Boosts Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

Escape rooms are like a real-life puzzle that our young learners get to solve together. As they work their way through the challenges and riddles, they’re not just having a blast; they’re also honing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s like a sneak-attack on those important cognitive abilities!

It Fosters Teamwork and Collaboration

Escape rooms are all about teamwork. Our students have to communicate, share ideas, and assign tasks to successfully complete their mission. This experience helps them learn the value of working together and teaches them essential skills for life. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun in the process!

It Makes Learning an Exciting Adventure

The best part is that escape rooms can sneakily incorporate educational content. Think math, science, history, and language—all cleverly disguised in the form of puzzles and challenges. By turning learning into an adventure, we can keep our students engaged, curious, and excited about learning. It’s like a magic potion for knowledge retention!

With the holidays around the corner, it’s the perfect time to bring in some engaging holiday themed escape rooms to your students! Whether it’s Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or anything in between, it can be celebrated with a classroom escape room.

Luckily, I have the perfect resource for you! I created an all inclusive Holiday Escape Room bundle that will have you covered for all holidays!

Use these holiday themed Escape Rooms to guarantee student engagement while they learn and solve a classroom mystery. With little prep, your students will work as a team to break into a box, which breaks them out of the classroom as they beat the clock!

What’s inside this download?

6 escape rooms all meeting 1st and 2nd Grade Standards to use for the holidays. Several can be used with 3rd or Kindergarten too!

These escape rooms are focusing on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Veterans Day, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

What does an escape room look like for primary students?

You will have to spend about 40 minutes to prep your materials. Students will be separated into two groups. First students watch the YouTube video as a hook. Then, students are handed or find a mystery envelope with a clue. The clue might have them find letters to build sentences, solve puzzles, or solve a riddle. (Each escape room is different.)

Each time they complete a challenge, they get another mystery envelope. There are 3 to 4 clues in each activity. Eventually, they will discover keys that will open a box. (The keys are paper. The box can be an old paper box filled with a treat or homework pass that you will open together once each group has their key.)

Once the box is open, the student can escape the room to recess or the library.

Certificates are provided for students who are Master Mystery Problem Solvers. The activity takes about 45-60 minutes to complete!

Check it out here!

Have you tried escape rooms in your classroom? How did it go? Let me know in the comments! For more escape room fun, check out my post here!

How To Celebrate Valentine’s Day In Your Classroom Online or In Person

January 28, 2022 teachersbrain Teaching Tips, Winter

Valentine’s Day is just a couple of weeks away! February is such a jam-packed month with lots of things to learn about. We get to celebrate Valentine’s Day (of course), Chinese New Year, and this year, the Winter Olympics!

Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite Valentine’s Day traditions from when I was in the classroom. Valentine’s is one of my favorite days to celebrate because it’s so fun to show our love and appreciation for each other. I love seeing the little cards that students bring in for their friends and their teachers.

Here are some fun ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day in your elementary classroom

Decorate your classroom. This one goes without saying but decorating your classroom or even just your classroom door for Valentine’s Day is so fun! A great place to find cute and festive decor on a budget is Dollar Tree. They have tons of heart-shaped banners and other decorations.
Have a Valentine’s Day party. This is a great time to break out the Valentine’s Day candy and activities. I love doing this escape room with my students. It is an activity that is guaranteed to get their engagement. Another very popular activity is the Love Monster Writing activity!
Exchange Valentine’s Day Cards. You can have your students decorate a paper bag or a shoebox with Valentine’s Day-themed supplies to collect their cards! This is such a fun way to get creative in the classroom and it’s so exciting to see what students come up with.

If you are teaching online this year, don’t worry! You can still have tons of fun with your students, even digitally.

Just host an online Valentine’s Day party! You can decorate your Google Slides with cute Valentine’s Day clip art. I created a digital Valentine’s Day escape room activity for teachers who need virtual activities that you can check out here.

As for exchanging Valentine’s cards, I have you covered there too!

This digital Valentine’s Day card resource was created with the needs of teachers who are doing virtual lessons in mind.

These digital google slides make it easy for your students to personalize and move editable conversational hearts to give virtually or in person. There is even a name grid provided so students can keep track of who got one and how to spell classmates’ names!

Included with this resource you’ll get 27 Colorful Google Slides with premade titles, editable text boxes, directions, movable conversational heart parts, and a video tutorial that you can check out below.

You can delete slides you don’t want to send to students, add your own directions or images to the sides of the slides to personalize.

Are you celebrating in person or online this year? Let me know in the comments!

Valentine’s Day Escape Room Students Will Love

January 15, 2022 teachersbrain education, Winter

One of the latest trends making waves in the education world (and in the outside world too), is escape rooms. If you don’t already know, escape rooms are a game where people (or in our case students) work together to solve clues, puzzles, or complete designated tasks in order to “escape the room” in a set amount of time. Sounds fun, right?!

These games are so exciting because they are very immersive. The interactive aspect really makes you feel like you are living the story of the escape room!

In the classroom, escape rooms can include puzzles or tasks related to the skills you are working on in your lessons. This makes it an educational activity for students that feels like fun, not work!

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted an escape room that had a fun and festive Valentine’s Day theme while still being an engaging way to work on skills in the classroom.

So, I created this Valentine’s Day Escape Room!

This Valentine’s Day mystery requires little prep and includes detailed directions, 3 clues to solve, a video hook, and set-up photos to help you put it all together. The set-up checklist will help you ensure that everything runs smoothly for the activity.

To start, students will watch the video hook or introduction to learn about their mission. Then they will be tasked with solving 3 clues using comprehension skills. If you find that any of the activities are too easy for your students, there are additional activities included to differentiate. Students will practice teamwork skills while solving clues to help learn about holiday vocabulary and number patterns.

The clues will help them unlock the box and claim their prize. For prizes, you can use candy, homework passes, or bookmarks. Whatever you choose!

The supplies needed are simple. You’ll need a box , some surprises to put inside the box (homework passes and bookmarks are provided), pencils, 6 large file folders (or regular folders), candy hearts (paper ones are provided if you don’t want to use real candy) and magnifying glasses (2 or more).

This activity is so engaging! It’s so fun to see how excited students get to put their detective skills to work so they can solve the clues.

What are your favorite Valentine’s Day activities for elementary? Let me know in the comments!