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.]

There’s something great about every state, and Clive Gifford has collected fun facts, trivia and firsts from every state in Record-Breaking USA: Celebrating America’s Biggest, Brightest and Bravest.

Each state gets a one or two-page spread, with facts scattered around the page and illustrations by Paul Hammond. The page lists a state nickname, the capital, state mammal, a fun fact and some famous residents, as well as firsts and record breaking events that happened in each state.

You’ll learn that Alabama is home to the biggest unclaimed baggage center in the world, that Florida is home to the most toxic tree (the manchineel tree, which has sap that can burn the skin and make people go blind, and its fruit is toxic) and that Iowa is home to the largest model of a strawberry, to name a few facts. Loma, Montana, holds the record for the largest temperature range in a day (from -54 to 49 degrees F, which is a 103 degree difference), while Ohio’s Geauga County once employed the smallest police dog on record, an 11-inch-tall chihuahua/rat terrier mix.

South Dakota has the world’s biggest Bigfoot statue, the cotton candy machine was invented in Tennessee, and a car that was 91 percent cake was driven (and eaten) in Washington state in 2021, now holding the record for the fastest moving mostly edible car.

As you might guess from these sample facts, kids will find this book funny and probably learn some things, too. In addition to the states there’s a page for Washington, D.C., where President Theodore Roosevelt broke the record for the most hands shaken in one day (8,513, a record that’s held since 1907), and the US territories, as well as records that cross state lines and span the globe.

Readers will also learn about records set in space and read what it takes to be a record breaker. There are even a few records listed that you can try to break yourself.

This fun and colorful book is sure to engage kids who love facts, and would be a great one to take along on your next road trip.

About the book: 96 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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