There are a few things in life that I stress about, but Valentine’s Day has never been one of them (yes, even when I was single). I like to make things fun, but not if that means spending countless hours planning and prepping for something that will last an hour (if that). Even my wedding was simple so I could avoid the drama that comes with saying yes to everything on Pinterest (though…Pinterest wasn’t around when I got married so I lucked out I guess!). Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of ideas for Valentine’s Day classroom ideas that might help the big day go a little bit easier for you.

If you’ve decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the classroom, you’re probably going to want to let parents know. As I just said, I like to keep it simple. And that means I ask parents to not label valentines with each students’ name. Let me explain.
If students don’t have to go searching for “Gavin’s” Valentine bag, they pass them out waaaaay quicker. It’s extremely helpful for primary grades because they have trouble reading their peer’s names, which means it can take an hour to pass out Valentines, which isn’t actually that fun. So, I ask families to not address Valentine cards and to simply have their child sign them. You can grab the editable parent letter here. It has a version where you can type all of your student names and another that asks families not to put names on them. You can grab the editable Valentine’s Day party letter here.


Another fun, low prep and CHEAP Valentine’s Day game you can easily do with your class is the Qtip Cupid. Cut out a heart froma piece of paper (you can keep the heart and the cutout heart if you want to have 2 groups doing this activity at the same time). Place it in the middle of the room. Give each student a straw and a Qtip. Students take turns blowing their Qtip through their straw and aiming for the heart in the middle of the room. You can have them try from various positions in the room or by taking a step back each time. This game is a hit with kids (and adults) of all ages!

One of my absolute favorite Valentine’s Day crafts is this lovebot craft. I made the writing prompt editable, so you can have students write about anything you want (get as punny as you want, “Will you BEEP mine?”). You can find it here.


Another fairly cheap activity is cookie decorating. This can be done for pretty much any celebration, andhere’s how I make it easy on myself. I buy premade cookies. That’s right. Cookies that are already baked. In whatever holiday shape I need. Check with your grocery store bakery if you don’t see any on the tables by the bakery and see if they’ll do an order for you. Make a cookie decorating station with just a few ingredients. Add cans of pink, red and white frosting, plastic butterknives and Valentine’s Day sprinkles and you’re set. A yummy and affordable center that you can *test* out while you show students how to properly frost a cookie (spreading frosting on the top is hard for those primary kids sometimes–so you may need to eat a couple of cookies demonstrate a few times. Aww shucks.
If I have spare time (haha, I know), I like to make some special Valentines that my students are more likely to save for years. I know some people don’t consider themselves artists, so when I made these Valentine portrait templates, I included the basics to make it a little easier. I originally made these to draw my own students and give them as my Valentine’s, but I know many people also let their students draw each other and use them like that. Really, you can do both. There’s no limit to your creativity here! If you want to make portraits for your students, I recommend that you print them on white cardstock at least a week in advance (this way you can take them with you and work on them when you have a moment), write each of their names on the cards, use a pencil first, outline with thin black marker, and color with colored pencils and cut out.


And you also probably know about GoNoodle already(it’s free to sign up), but did you know about this GoNoodle video? It’s perfect for Valentine’s Day! You can click below to find it (or look in the “Awesome Sauce” channel on GoNoodle).
And what holiday celebration would be complete without a read aloud?! Here are some of my favorite Valentine’s Day Read Alouds! You can click on any of the books to see them on Amazon.

And lastly, Kidz Bop has a Valentine’s Day album you can listen to here
for free on Spotify. You and your kids will likely be singing along (at least that’s how I roll). I hope you found this post somewhat helpful in finding Valentine ideas for the classroom!
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Love all of these ideas!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!