The Best Valentine’s Day Activities to Teach the True Meaning of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is an exciting day of the year. Valentine’s Day activities include drawing hearts on everything and sending Valentine’s cards to friends, family, and loved ones. What is Valentine’s Day really all about, though, and what should we be teaching our students while we’re having fun with Valentine’s Day activities and making all those Valentine’s Day cards?
The History of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day activities originated in Rome in the 5th century when Pope Gelasius I replaced the celebration of Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day. Lupercalia was a pagan, mid-February celebration of the coming of spring and paired women with men by a lottery system. Although it doesn’t sound very romantic now, some of the romantic sentiments of the day were left over and helped make Valentine’s Day the romantic holiday it is today.
It is pretty well accepted that Valentine’s Day was named after a Christian martyr named Valentine, but there are a couple of different stories of who the man or men were. He could have been a priest named Valentine who, while in jail, befriended his jailer’s daughter and signed a letter to her “from your Valentine.” Some accounts say it was a priest who secretly defied the emperor’s orders to marry couples so that the husbands would be spared from going into war. These two men could also have been the same person or two different men both named Valentine.
With the history of Lupercalia, notes signed “from your Valentine,” and the weddings secretly performed by a martyred priest, the romantic notion of Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day activities was born.
History of Valentine’s Day Activities
For some fun Valentine’s Day activities for your classroom, I have a few resources dedicated to the history of Valentine’s Day. With these fun history of Valentine’s Day activities, your students will learn more about this internationally celebrated holiday as well as practice their reading comprehension, and problem-solving skills.
Valentine’s Day Activities for the Classroom
There are lots of fun Valentine’s Day activities you can find and do in your classroom to celebrate Valentine’s Day. There are tried and true cards and paper flowers, but you can also explore some digital and print resources for Valentine’s Day activities.
Valentine’s Day Cards
Valentine’s Cards, messages written down and delivered to ones you love, dating back to the 1500s. Commercially produced, paper cards, printed, were available for purchase in the 1700s in England. The United States joined in on the commercial celebration in the 1800s.
Valentine’s Day Around the World
Now, Valentine’s Day is not a public holiday in any country, but it is celebrated pretty universally throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, most of Europe, Australia, South Korea, and Argentina, and is a very popular wedding day in the Philippines.
Explore some of the Valentine’s Day Around the World resources available to you. Help your students understand Valentine’s Day activities that are celebrated in different countries with color-by-number activities, escape rooms, puzzle breakouts, and scavenger hunts.
With the romantic feelings associated with Valentine’s Day, the Roman god Cupid is often depicted in illustrations of Valentine’s Day. Birds of love are often included in Valentine’s Day cards and paraphernalia as well because the season of aviary mating was thought to begin in February as many birds begin returning from their winter roosting locations.
Valentine’s Day Flowers
Red roses are a symbol of beauty and love, so they are the ideal romantic Valentine’s Day gift, but really any flowers will do, as well as candy and chocolate to demonstrate your affection for your Valentine. The bigger the bouquet of flowers or box of chocolate, the more you love someone, right?
Remember Valentine’s Day Activities in Your Classroom
Today, Valentine’s Day celebrations in most of the United States include making or buying and delivering cards expressing friendship and affection to friends, family, and loved ones. Many school rooms and family rooms are turned into craft centers while many hearts are cut out of different colors of paper, glued onto another piece of paper, and written statements of “I love you!” “Happy Valentine’s Day!” and “Be mine!”
Valentine’s Day Activities are a great way to remind your students what they love about their family, friends, and loved ones, as well as why those people are important in their lives. In a world full of animosity, war, and strife, Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to talk about love and giving gifts just because they love someone. Let them make a mess, spread little tiny bits of cut paper all over, and get sticky glue on their fingers. Talk about who you love and why you love them while you’re helping make Valentine’s cards and working together to clean up the mess. We need a dose of love every now and then and Valentine’s Day is a great day for love!
Remember to check out all the resources available to you for Valentine’s Day activities in your classroom!
