8 Writing Activities for Valentine's Day
Your students are no doubt getting excited about the cards and candy they’ll receive as the tradition of Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us. We are too! Students’ excitement is the best vessel for teaching students new skills and concepts. Mobile Ed has several ways you can turn this “love-ly” holiday into an entertaining and educational lesson for your students.
Known today as a day to celebrate love, Valentine’s Day originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyr named Saint Valentine. One thousand years later, Chaucer’s poem discussing the “lovebirds” of early springtime influenced the association of love with February, then considered to be early spring. In the 14th and 15 centuries, the date celebrated yearly courtly traditions around love influenced by the association of springtime with “lovebirds”. By 18th century England, couples began expressing their love with flowers, sweets, and notes.
For thousands of years, writing has been the best tool used to communicate with each other and express our feelings. It is now one of the most important skills students must perfect in their academic, professional, and personal lives. Writing is a crucial skill for academic success and also one of the most important tools we can use for teaching: writing allows students to process and reflect on the information in a way that will be better remembered in the future.
Studying writing:
- Enhances communication skills
- Provides a creative outlet
- Helps process information
- Increases knowledge
- Grows confidence
Advance your students’ writing abilities and get students excited about learning with these easy writing exercises:
- Practice vocabulary and spelling with Valentine’s-Day-related words or by writing Valentines to staff members. Use this as an easy warm-up, a lesson, or a Valentine’s Day party activity.
- Make and share acrostic poems using Valentine’s-Day-related words. Acrostic poems are a great way to express emotion, practice a new genre, and have some fun! Example words include:
- LOVE
- KIND
- GIFT
- VALENTINE
- FEBRUARY
- FRIENDSHIP
- Teach students letter formatting by composing “love” letters to family members. Writing letters gives students practical communication skills they’ll use outside of school, so make letter writing educational and engaging by incorporating themes of love, friendship, and joy.
- Draft essays defining “love” as it means to each student. Adapt this exercise to fit your students’ writing ability, but have students explore their different perceptions of love. Advance this project by including research about the psychology, history, or perception of love.
- Compose a breakup letter to a historical figure or fictional character. Encourage some laughs as students use logos, ethos, and pathos to write a funny (or serious) breakup letter. This activity is best suited for higher grade levels.
- Practice personal narratives by describing a time when students felt loved or gave love to someone. Share these with each other or keep them personal in a writer’s notebook. This activity is easily modified for your students’ grade level.
- Edit Cupid’s social media account. As if Cupid has his own account, write and design a few social media posts that you can print or post for the class. Students will have a fun time correcting punctuation and grammar in their silly or serious posts about love.
- Write book reviews of books the students “loved”. This will help students think critically about their favorite literature while practicing comprehension and communication skills. If these are shared with the class, students now have book recommendations from their friends to choose from.
Mobile Ed’s Young Author’s Day program is the easiest way to get students eager to write. In this educational program, our performer discusses elements of a story, story structure, and where to get inspiration for your writing all while making your students laugh and hungry to write. The audience will have the opportunity to write their own stories for the chance to have their story performed by our team!
Click here for more information about Young Author’s Day.
