Are you looking to make Valentine’s Day a celebration in your classroom that older students will actually enjoy? As much as I love the cute mailbox crafts and individual cards, my Grade 8’s do not. So, here are two Valentine’s Day activities for Upper Elementary students that won’t result in any eye-rolling or cringing.
Focus on Self-Love
Rather than having students express their love and gratitude towards others, have them spend Valentine’s Day focusing on loving themselves a little extra. As our students get older, the pressure of fitting in and looking/acting a certain way becomes more consuming.
In order to help my students with this, I do a Self-Love Challenge starting on February 14. This resource includes meaningful and fun activities that will actually teach students important Social-Emotional Learning strategies.
The challenges include things like:
- Writing & reading affirmations
- Creating a feel-good/hype-up playlist
- Gratitude prompts
- Flipping the Script – turning negative thoughts to positive ones
- Writing thank you notes
- Creating a collage of things that make them happy
- Writing a love letter to themselves
And more!
Not only will your students leave the challenge feeling more confident, they will also be able to refer back to this and use these strategies throughout the rest of the year. Click on the image below to check it out!
Writing a Break-Up Letter
Have students write a fictional break-up letter. This is such a fun task and students enjoy it in whatever capacity you do. You can have them create a breakup letter for:
- Two fictional characters
- A book they didn’t like reading
- Something they think should be “cancelled” (e.g., dress code)
- A character in a book
This can be a quick assignment they get done in one day or you could make it an assignment and walk them through the different elements of a letter. If you want to shorten it, try a breakup text instead and print off a phone template for them to write it on.
Hope you enjoy these Valentine’s Day Activities for Upper Elementary students. If you try any, please let me know below or tag me in your photos on Instagram!
Click here to check out my post on other engaging activities for students!
