Use What You Have for Valentine’s Themed Fun

Sometimes making learning activities that go with a holiday means going out and buying lots of holiday-themed items, which isn’t great for your budget or the environment. While all those heart-shaped things are cute, there are things you can do without having to buy any other supplies that are still a lot of fun.

These Valentine’s Day learning activities use things you probably already have in the classroom (and at least a couple of them are things you probably have at home even if you don’t homeschool).

Take the Valentine brick challenge from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. This is a printable list of 28 challenges related to love and Valentine’s Day that kids can make with Legos. It includes things like making the word “love” out of bricks, making a heart with bricks, a box of candy and other fun challenges. (Head to the blog for the printable.)

If you have snap cubes you can use these Valentine’s Day themed building challenges from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games. (They could be done with Legos, too, but might not come out exactly the same since Legos are not cubes.) This one includes a math activity in that it has kids count how many blocks they used. You could also talk about how many blocks of each color, does one project use more or fewer blocks compared to another, and other math concepts.

Or try these fine-motor mats from Life over C’s. They use similar Valentine’s Day symbols but kids can cover up the images with different colored pom-poms (or use buttons, plastic discs, whatever small and colorful you have on hand). They can use their hands to move the pom-poms or use tweezers to make it a bit more of a challenge. Kids could also use these printed in black and white with dot markers to “color in” the shapes.

[Photo: Kindergarten Worksheets and Games.]

Next Plan Idea:

Valentine's Day STEM Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply