Valentine’s Day will be here before we know it and one of my favorite things about celebrating holidays in the classroom is crafting! While the students think crafts are fun I know there are so many more benefits of using crafts in the classroom. Today, I am so excited to share a couple of my favorite adorable Valentine’s Day crafts. Not only are these crafts cute, but you can sneak in some writing and literacy practice too. I know you and your kids will love these crafts as much as my students and I do!
Crafting in the Classroom is Important
While crafting with your students is a fun way to break up the regular routine and capture your students’ attention; there are so many other great reasons to make room in your lessons for crafts! Students love exercising some creativity, but it’s also a great opportunity for your students to practice fine motor skills, following directions, and more!
Carefully planned crafts can help teach key skills in a fun and exciting way. Crafts can teach colors, shapes, names, numbers, the alphabet, and more! I find that adding in seasonal and holiday crafts gets students even more excited about our lessons. They also help students connect the time of year to something memorable. This in turn helps with understanding our calendar lessons as well.
The benefits to crafting are truly endless and really bring some light, fun, and engaging learning to the classroom.
Valentine’s Day Mailbox Craft
I can tell you one of my student’s favorite activities is passing out and receiving Valentine’s Day cards and treats. A close second is designing and creating a Valentine’s Day mailbox to keep everything in. I like to take it a step further and do a Valentine’s Day mailbox craft with my students to help them practice spelling their names before we write them on our Valentine’s Day cards.
This cute and simple Valentine’s Day Mailbox Craft is a great way to practice name writing and name building just in time for Valentine’s Day! Whether you have students create cards in class or pass out their cards, having each student’s name displayed is a great help.
The editable template provided for this Valentine’s Day craft enables you to type your class names and print them out. Or, you can leave the envelopes blank and let your students write their own names independently. This is also a great way to practice last names if your group has already mastered their first names.
These Valentine’s Day mailbox crafts make a great classroom decoration or bulletin board for February. The added bonus of displaying your students’ names helps build classroom community and adds some holiday flair to your room!
But you can take it a step further too! Glue these crafts to the front of a paper bag or box and let them become the perfect Valentine’s Day mailbox for your class party. With each student’s name written on the front, it makes passing out Valentine’s cards something the students can do independently. It’s a very convenient way for students to match their Valentine’s cards to the correct student.
Bunny and Bear Writing Crafts
Your students will love making these Valentine’s Day writing crafts featuring a bear and bunny. These make a great addition to your writing center during the first weeks of February. You can choose one of these cute crafts or do them both.
Who can resist a special hand-made Valentine’s Day card that says, “I love you ‘beary’ much!” or “Some ‘bunny’ loves you!” written on the front? Not only do the students love making them, but they love giving their creations too! These simple little crafts feature silly puns, step-by-step directions, templates for the craft pieces, and a variety of writing templates.
I like to begin this activity with the writing portion. Since my class skill level differs from year to year, or even from student to student, I make sure to have a variety of writing template options available. Sometimes, my students need a simple sentence starter, and other times they are ready to write a few sentences independently. By having both on hand I can easily differentiate for my students allowing each to be successful in their writing.
The students love writing a special Valentine’s Day message on their cards. I love that this activity gives them an example of how we communicate through writing in the real world. It’s a great way to connect a skill we are learning with real life.
Once we are done with the writing it is time to move on to the craft. These crafts can be done in a couple of ways, depending on your available time and resources. The craft templates can be:
- traced onto construction paper and cut out
- printed directly on colored paper and cut
- you can even print on white paper for students to color before cutting out the pieces
All of these options work great, so pick what works best for you!
Once you have your pieces cut out and ready to go, it’s time for easy step-by-step directions. This is a great opportunity for your students to practice carefully following directions and exercise those listening skills!
These bear and bunny Valentine’s Day crafts are a perfect way for your students to create a special Valentine’s Day card for a parent, grandparent, sibling, or special person in their life. The writing prompt templates can also be used to create an adorable bulletin board or hallway display to celebrate the season of love.
This craft can also be easily used to create a holder for all those class cards and treats. Just glue or staple the finished craft to the front of a large paper bag and your students will be ready for the Valentine’s Day party. And . . . the parents will thank you for since they won’t have to create one at home!
Grab your Valentine’s Day Crafts
You can find both of these Valentine’s Day craft activities in the Miss Kindergarten store.
If you are ready to add more crafting to your classroom, check out the Winter Crafts Bundle filled with lots of fun crafts that are perfect for December, January, and February. Or, grab the Year Long Craft Bundle and have everything you need to incorporate crafts and their benefits all year long.
Save these Valentine’s Day Crafts
Make sure you save these fun Valentine’s Day crafts to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find them later!
