Valentine’s Day Activities and Decor for the Classroom

Looking for some easy activities for the classroom to do around Valentine’s Day, or need some new ideas for classroom decor to show your kiddos some love? Check out these posts full of great (and simple) ideas.

Chaylor & Mads has collected a bunch of ideas for door decorations, bulletin board themes and treat ideas you can use in the classroom for Valentine’s Day.

Fun Learning for Kids has an easy, low-prep printable classroom activity for Valentine’s Day. You just print out the hearts with different numbers of hearts or dots on them and hang or hide them around the room, down the hall, etc. Kids get a printed sheet where they can practice writing the numbers of the different numbers they see. (She has some other great ideas, too, if you click through and scroll down in the post.)

Pocket of Preschool has ideas for centers with a Valentine twist. Some of these are sensory, some she has paid printables for, or you can use these ideas to set up your own simple centers in the classroom (or at home for little ones).

Raise the Bar Reading has a lot of great ideas for low-prep centers and activities. Some of them are printables available through Teachers Pay Teachers, but one of them is a free printable that can help kids get to know wach other a little better: people bingo!

If you’re looking for a more traditional bingo game to play with your students to fill time or to use during a party, check out the printable Valentine’s Day bingo cards from the Girl Creative. These adorable cards would also be super fun for kids to color in before or while you are playing. She also has an I-spy printable game and a collection of super cute color by number coloring pages for different skill levels.

Next Plan Idea:

Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

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