Sweet Valentine...Doo Doo Doo :)

This month for our Random Acts of Kindness, my mom (also a teacher) brought me a great idea, and she told me I could share it with you. She does a Valentine Exchange in her classroom, but she wanted to also have her fifth graders complete an activity that involves a little more than writing their name and a lot more implementing writing strategies. So she created...

 

You know what is perfect about this activity??? The secret part! You know how our upper elementary/middle school students start to get a little squirrelly about Valentine’s Day.

Students spend a week creating their messages to their classmates. They can’t use the overused words of nice, pretty, sweet, cool, or awesome. And the messages aren’t very long...only about a sentence! Then students turn them in for “review.” This allows us to catch and correct any possibly unkind messages (not that my sweet kiddos would intentionally be unkind...but just in case!). On Valentine’s Day, students will cut apart their messages and stealthily distribute them. My mom says her students spend more time enjoying these messages than the other cards they get.

Not allowed to do a Valentine Exchange? Then this may just be a perfect way to get around that by incorporating these messages into your writing class! Add the requirement of a certain number of similes, metaphors, and other figurative language that need to be included in the messages your students create. You could even take a grade on these if you needed one!  

To get your download your copy, click on the banner below...

Prep is easy. Simply print...write your students’ names on the lines...copy (make sure to copy only single sided--this is a reminder for myself too! I just know I will press that duplex button!) Your students will do the majority of the work!

I can’t wait to show you the Valentine’s I am distributing to my students...I just have to make them first!