TeachersFirst: Valentine's Day Resources

TeachersFirst's Valentine's Day Resources

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Happy Valentine's Day Grade K to 4 - PBS- 4915

If you need a little bit of inspiration for a class Valentine's Day activity, check out this collection of simple ideas. Includes interactive games, recipes for Valentine cookies, coloring book pages, and Valentine cards to print out and share. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Share the activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create e-cards or other printables for friends and family. Why not include the cookie recipe on your class website or in your class newsletter?

PreK Valentine's Day Unit Grade K to 2 - - 7907

The ideas at this site will work for any early childhood classroom for Valentine's. The site does play some "festive" background music....you might want to turn the volume down or hit "mute." There are many game ideas for your class or party. The site also lists numerous books (to purchase), art and craft ideas, music activities, and other Valentine's Day features.

In the Classroom:
Planning a Valentine's Day party? Check out this site to get some new ideas for your students.

Make Crystal Valentine Hearts Grade 3 to 6 - Planet Science: Out There- 7906

Use this science experiment to teach about crystals AND make a great Valentine decoration! Learn how to make crystal valentine hearts using pipe cleaners and borax. The site also provides a detailed explanation about the WHY and HOW behind the project.

In the Classroom:
Make this a class science/art project just in time for Valentine's Day. No time to do this in class? Assign this as a homework assignment and then discuss the explanation in science class. Have students make video footage of the project and share the videos on a tool such as SchoolTube (reviewed here).

We Love Valentine's Day Grade K to 5 - FunSchool- 7970

FunSchool has created a wonderful Valentine's Day website for kids. At the website, you will find reproducible pages and crafts, interactive games, jokes, cards, and more. Some of the interactives require Flash. The printables require Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Share this site with your students around Valentine's Day. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share the activities. Print off the pages for students to color and create homemade Valentine's for friends and family.

Computer Capers: Valentine Ideas Grade 1 to 5 - Buddy2- 7905

Scan through this list of lesson ideas that bring learning into Valentine's Day using technology. The activities include Indiana standards. The site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Use this site to find some new ideas to celebrate Valentine's Day in your class.

Valentine's Day Math Grade K to 5 - Googol Learning- 7904

Will you be my math-en-tine? Love is like Pi, natural, irrational and very important! Check out this Valentine's Day site to find some entertaining ways to correlate your math lessons with your Valentine's Day celebration.

This site is slow to open - but worth the wait! There are many links at this site. Some requires Flash or Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Use this site to teach your students about temperature, multiplication, counting, and more. Many of the activities provide pictures to go along with the activity.

Valentine's Day Grade K to 5 - DLTK- 7971

This website provides a wealth of resources for any elementary school teacher. There are reproducible math worksheets (numerous subjects and levels), lots of challenging puzzles, writing pages, reading activities and puzzle worksheets. Plus they provide craft ideas, poems, recipes and cards. If you are planning your Valentine's Day lessons - this site is a must have!

In the Classroom:
Save this site in your favorites, to visit every February for some Valentine's Day ideas.

Valentine word Games Grade K to 5 - BlackDog- 7902

Although this site is plain vanilla and basically a "hotlist." The site provides all sorts of word games for Valentine's Day! This site does contain some advertisements. There are interactives, printables, and more. Some requires Flash, Java, or Adobe Acrobat. You can get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Demonstrate some of these activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work on individual computers and try out the language arts activities at this site.

Valentine's Day Grade 4 to 12 - Vocabulary University- 9852

This Valentine's Day site is "full of heart." There are interactive word puzzles, a wordbank of related vocabulary terms, reference information about kisses and more, and a TON of classroom ideas. The puzzles are printable. This site does include some small advertisements.

In the Classroom:
Share the puzzles on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work with a partner to try out the puzzles on their own. Have students try to create their own word puzzles.

Valentine's Day Coupon Book Grade K to 5 - Activities for Kids- 7903

This site offers a basic printable coupon book (cover page and all). There are coupon books to create for kids (for example, a free dessert) or adults (for example, a free car wash). There are black and white or full color page options.

In the Classroom:
Have your students make and decorate these printable coupon books to give as Valentines to their parents and family members. Make up some coupons of your own, too!

Calendars of National Days and Festivals Grade K to 5 - Woodlands Junior School- 8284

This informative and resourceful website provides information about numerous holidays. Although this website was created for use in the United Kingdoms, it provides a great deal of knowledge about holidays celebrated in many countries throughout the world. Some of the specific topics include New Years, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Christmas, and other holidays. Use this website to help your students gain a better understanding of numerous holidays in other cultures. This website provides information about the history of holidays, how the holidays are celebrated and much more.

In the Classroom:
As you study other cultures, be sure to include this resource for students to research the celebrations there. Or include the link on your teacher web page with the title "Every Day is a Holiday?" asking students to use the holiday calendar to become more be aware of different cultures. Instead of reporting on a current event from the newspaper, give them the option of reporting on a holiday that occurred this week in another part of the world.

Teach Children ESL: Games Grade K to 3 - Teach Children ESL- 6882

This site has many games available for downloading including card games, board games, and Valentine’s Day bingo. Children learn vocabulary and have fun while manipulating the various versions of memory cards, Go Fish, and other traditional children’s past times. Downloads include colorfully illustrated cards and game parts as well as instructions. Links include more goodies: worksheets, songs, and flashcards. At certain times of the day this site can be slow in loading. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Download the games and laminate the materials or send them home for parents and children to do together. Speech and language teachers as well as ESL/ELL teachers will love the free games-to-go!

VoiceThread Grade K to 12 - VoiceThread- 8315

TeachersFirst Edge entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Voicethread allows you to upload images (from your digital camera, scanner, or even paint program), then allow students to record their own comments and/or narration about the images. Other listeners can "comment" back, as well. TeachersFirst is providing the link to the VoiceThread home page but suggests that you first watch this quick explanation about two types of FREE educator memberships being offered for classroom teachers (one completely free, the other after a one time fee of $10...so "sort of" free). You can click to go to the home page from there. Access to the ed.voicethread site (as opposed to www.voicethread)is restricted to grades K-12 students, educators, and administrators.

VoiceThread explains how to set up a classroom account and has some ideas for classroom use, as well. Ideas from the TeachersFirst Edge review team are listed below, under "In the classroom."

This site requires FLASH. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Skills needed: join the site (free). You will be logged into your account immediately after you fill in the registration form. Watch the "One Minute Voicethread" to get a very quick overview of how easy it is to create a digital story. Set up student identities. You will want to "Browse" some Voicethreads to get an idea how they work. Use first names only. You need to know how to locate and upload saved pictures. You WILL need a microphone, either plugged into your computer or built in. They can be purchased for less than $10 at a discount or electronics store. Once you create a Voicethread, it can be shared by copying the URL and sending it via email or other means, inviting others to comment back. You can also decide whether you wish to allow comments and whether these comments will be moderated by you.

Of course, you should be sure that you have the RIGHTS to any images you upload. Fair Use does not apply when you put an image on the web!

Safety/security: TeachersFirst recommends that you explain the VoiceThread projects via a note sent home and obtain parent permission to post student work to the web, even anonymously. Then invite parents to share in the results (The VoiceThread classroom page tells you more about this). TeachersFirst does not recommend using actual, identifiable pictures of children. Let them draw a picture or take a digital picture of an object that somehow represents them (middle schoolers will love that idea!). If you allow others to "comment" on student Voicethreads, the experience can be both wonderful and a bit intimidating. Use this opportunity to promote ethical and kind interaction with other students and their projects.

Possible uses: Elementary classes can create or take pictures, then ask each child to talk about the images. Each child can comment on the SAME pictures, creating a collaborative collection of responses. After a field trip or special class event, you can assign groups of students to explain each of the digital pictures you took and how they relate to curriculum topics. In art class, students can critique works of their own or of fellow students. In language arts classes, students can scan and comment on writing pieces as part of a reflective phase of the writing process. Or post an image as a prewriting activity and allow students to respond orally in an idea-generating phase. In social studies, have students provide a picture of a grandparent then narrate what they learned about that grandparent from interviewing him/her. Have students create narrated pictures as gifts (for parents or other care givers) for special occasions, winter holidays, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.. During a science experiment or demo, have a student take pictures of the steps. Then ask students to "narrate" them by commenting on what is happening. The narration assignment could even be a center activity or an assignment on a few classroom computers for students to rotate through. What a great way to review and apply key vocabulary! Be sure they identify their voices if you are using a single class account and want to be able to assess understanding. Other ideas: narrated local history projects (pictures of local sites), audio "museum tours" of artifacts (photos) or war veterans telling their stories along with images of their uniforms or old photos. Speech/language, ESL/ELL or early childhood teachers could use this tool to promote vocabulary development and oral expression.

Colonial Williamsburg Interactive Grade 3 to 12 - Colonial Williamsburg Foundation- 8140

Want to write with a quill pen? Play a paper doll game? Or how about make a colonial Valentine's Day card? Interest in colonial life will soar when students use this interactive site sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Students will enjoy playing the many games from colonial life, or they may enjoy making an acrostic of their name. Slide shows of coinage, Gilbert's paintings, and the Queen's visit in 1957 add depth to students' education on Williamsburg. A comparison study between Queen Elizabeth's visits to Colonial Williamsburg in 1957 and 2007 opens the door to looking at differences in our world over a span of 50 years. Click on the Jigsaw Puzzle logo to enter the multitude of games and activities available. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom:
Students may be paired or work individually to explore the activities found at this site. Make sure your computers are fairly fast or the games may be too slow to use.

To spice up a writing lesson or add interest to a writing center, have students send colonial postcards, via email (or blog), to classmates. Content of messages may require extra supervision. A safer way to send messages to fellow classmates would be to use the Colonial Card Creator where the students must print out the card, then handwrite their message in the cards. A printer needs to be accessible for the card creator. Older students can explore the interactive draft of the Constitution on an interactive whiteboard or projector.

Be sure to include this one on your teacher web page for students to continue to access from home.

HeartPoint Grade 6 to 12 - HeartPoint- 7793

HeartPoint has created this site that takes a creative approach to teaching students (and adults) about the heart, heart functions, and heart problems. Highlights include "Foods You Will Love" and "Health Tips". Be sure to visit the "HeartPoint Gallery" for detailed pictures, descriptions and other information.

In the Classroom:
FCS and health teachers can use this site for student research or scavenger hunts about the heart. The recipe section would be great for FCS classes learning to plan healthy menus. Health/PE classes studying life habits and disease will find lots of information on cardiac conditions and prevention.

The Day After Pearl Harbor Grade 6 to 12 - - 3293

Here’s a collection of audio recordings of interviews with “ordinary Americans” conducted by the Library of Congress on December 8, 1941. Users can hear how people reacted to the Japanese attack, and the thoughts that were foremost in their minds as America went to war. This one could be an interesting sidebar to the study of World War II.

In the Classroom:
Open the section entitled "Marine Valentines" on the interactive whiteboard or projector, and play a few minutes of it for the class. Use this as a way to discuss how life may have been for families on the home front and how they were affected by more than rationing. Some of the letters are touching, so be aware if you have quite a few sensitive girls in your class when to stop. But the letters show a different side of the war than normally discussed in class. Teachers can also have students use this as a writing prompt - have students write a letter from the perspective of a soldier on different fronts. Letters can be used to detail the different experiences of soldiers or even how varying locations were subject to more or less warfare. A touching side to war - who would have thought?!