Valentine's Day in ELA: Lessons of the Heart Kids Love

I’ve written blog posts about the importance of setting a good feeling tone in the classroom, making learning fun, and affective learning (find out why it’s the most effective learning of all). So this post goes right along with this idea that you can deliberately advance students’ learning just by making them feel good and comfortable (something some of them don’t even get at home). I mean, think about it. Do you learn better when someone is yelling at you while reminding you of the negative consequences that loom, OR do you learn better when someone is like “Hey, welcome, I want to teach you something so cool! Ready?” ANYWAY, I digress…this post is about Valentine’s Day!

The point is that Valentine’s Day is one more opportunity to focus on the positive and set a good feeling tone while engaging students’ emotions and having fun (THIS IS THE SECRET PEOPLE!). So, here are some ideas for you. And please let me know or link up if you have some great ideas too.

 

 

Here are some ideas for Valentine’s Day in ELA:

1) Express love or appreciation in an Ode: According to the dictionary, an “ode” is “a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter – a poem meant to be sung.”

And, according to poets.org, an ode was “originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments—is a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.” Wow, who knew? (I didn’t.)

I recommend keeping it simple and just having students write freely with a simple abab or abca rhyme scheme…but I also found this great lesson online that looks very helpful for both teachers and students writing odes.

So, have students brainstorm all the things and/or people and pets they love and appreciate. Ask some leading questions, such as What’s your favorite thing to do after school? or What food or drinks do you LOVE? or Who do you love like a sister? or Who shows you love?

2) Shower with Compliments: I got this idea from “The Cult of Pedagogy,” a TPT seller who has inspired me. She says students take turns of about 10-15 minutes each being in the “hot seat” while their classmates write compliments on the board behind them. She says you have to see it to appreciate its full impact. What a great idea. I’m thinking the teacher needs a turn too!

3) Sticky Note Love: I have a friend (a mother of 5) who covers her kids’ doors with sticky notes that show what she loves about that kid – on or around Valentine’s Day (or maybe it’s birthdays…). Anyway, I’m sure this can somehow be incorporated into Language Arts. For example, instruct students to write 10 adjectives (one word each) to express what they love about a person, thing, whatever…

4) Idioms about the heart and love: My heart really goes out to you…especially if you have teenagers acting head over heels in love or who have just gotten their hearts broken…One of my blog posts lists 20 idioms about love and the heart. It gets students thinking why the heart is associated with love anyway. These are fun to read, to incorporate into writing, or to research their origins.

5) ELA Science Fusion “Your Cardiovascular System” (Mini-Unit or Lite version text only): Relevant, interesting, engaging scientific and technical informational text and literacy in science activities for English Language Arts or science class or both. Thoroughly researched, highly visual, creative and fun ELA connections, extension activities, vocabulary building, a song to sing along to (a song I LOVED as a kid whenever teachers would show us the video), fascinating informational text all about how our circulatory system works.

6) The History of Valentine’s Day: As simple of a concept that Valentine’s Day is, it turns out the history is ancient, not fully documented (and full of hearsay), yet is quite interesting (like how greeting cards came about) and even contends that Valentine’s Day was meant to replace a festival we would call “inappropriate” these days. I wrote the text for grades 6 and up to explore these concepts. They’re not really well suited to younger elementary kids.

You know what else students LOVE? So, that’s why I created these high-interest informational texts and tasks. I went out of my way to make the articles super interesting to middle schoolers by writing about things that interest them. And, guess what? It worked. I keep hearing from teachers how kids get so into these passages. They actually want to answer the questions. They even want to discuss the articles as a group. 

Volume I was so popular with students in grades 6-8 that I just HAD to create Volume II. Kids love them both!

ALMOST DONE! 4th GRADE WORKBOOK COMING JANUARY 31, 2021

AND 5th GRADERS ARE LOVING THIS NEW ONE IN 2021!

Check out these GRADE-SPECIFIC test prep books with practice tests that target EVERY GRADE-SPECIFIC READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARD, one by one. An added bonus is that students LOVE the texts! In Easy-Print or Self-Grading Online Versions.

4th Grade Passages & Practice Tests

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10 Free Back-to-School Writing Ideas (Grades 4-9) for Regular and Distance Learning

As students come back to school (ELA in particular), you have three wishes: 1) You want them to like your class and look forward to the year with you. 2) You want them to get acquainted with you and each other respectfully. 3) You want them to be ready to read & write without whining! These 10 writing ideas are going to help your three wishes to come true.

1. Two Truths and a Lie Ice Breaker: This is just a quick writing activity and it's more about easing them into a new class than the writing itself. But, they write two truths and one lie about themselves. For example, "I can play guitar," "I have been skydiving," "I have four dogs and a cat," etc. When it's their turn, in no particular order, they say their two truths and a lie. (They should actually mix up the order). Then, you go around the room and either 1) have everyone say their guess for which one is the lie, or 2) only have volunteers say which one is a lie, or 3) take a poll. After that, the student reveals which ones were true and which ones were lies. In a distance learning situation, have them post these for their classmates to see. Instruct the students to comment on each other's 2/3-true biographical statements by saying which one they think is the lie. Also, instruct them that, after receiving at least three comments from classmates, the student will make a comment revealing which one is the lie. 

2. Compare-and-Contrast This Past Summer to the Last: It occurred to me that this summer was probably a lot different than last summer for most students. And who knows how many vacays got cancelled! Anyway, it was a lightbulb moment for me thinking how they could write a compare-and-contrast essay about this past summer compared to the year before! So, I wrote up a free guided step-by-step printable (& made Google Slides) that holds their hand from coming up with ideas, to filling out a choice of graphic organizers that are included, to the finished product. I mean you don't technically need it, but it will really help you and them a lot! Get yours here.

3. Write a Limerick About Yourself: This is a great way to have students introduce themselves in a very lighthearted, silly way while practicing rhyme, meter, and rhythm! Again, I made a guided printable (& Google Slides) that takes them from how to do it, samples, brainstorming, and then writing. It's free so get yours today. Again, you don't need it, but it will make life easier.

Here's one I made up this morning:

There was a sweet woman named Katie
She was a most beautiful lady
But her moods were unreal
We were like, "What is her deal?"
But then she chilled out at age eighty.

4. Write a 5 Senses Concrete Imagery Poem: This gets them to write about a summer memory, a topic they enjoy, and gets them to practice using concrete imagery by having them think in sensory terms. In the past, I had them use stationary I provided just to jazz them up and add some flair, so I included some stationary papers, samples of poems done, and step-by-step guidance in my free lesson made in PDF and Google Slides. Here's a sample:

5. An Autobiography Block: Recently, I made a biography block lesson for students to present what they learned about someone they read about. There are six sides to display information and then a small symbolic item can go inside. So, this is similar except the students present themselves. I made a free lesson for them to create it (template and rubric included) to create: Side 1) Stats about your age, birthday, birth place, etc. and portrait, Side 2) Some info about and a picture of your family, 3) Your hobbies, 4) Clothing that represents you, 5) A house or dwelling that represents you, 6) Your favorite things or a map of where you've lived. And a small symbolic item goes inside. Get your free lesson with template and rubric.

6. Fingerprint Writing: This one is not my lesson, but I saw it and wanted to share it. It looks really good! Students write about themselves on a large fingerprint with lines on it that looks really cool. I want to display it, but I don't think that's allowed.

7. Writing About Me Sym-bol-i-cal-ly: This is a free writing and art combo lesson, though you could leave out the art portion of it and call it a day. Below is a sample, and then you can look at a bunch more student samples on my blog post "Writing Figuratively About Yourself Using Similes and Symbols at Home or Distance Learning." (Is this a cry for help showing I need to figure out how to shorten my blog post titles? Help!) Go check out the free lesson.

8. Writing About Me With Hy-per-bo-le: This is a free writing explanatory, informative text about yourself but adding hyperbole to it to make it really funny and obviously exaggerated.  Here is a sample I wrote, or just get the free lesson that has the step-by-step guided writing printable and access to Google Slides. It is a quick, fun writing activity that gets students acquainted in a silly, non-scary way. And it requires writing skills, so there you go! Go get yours.

Katie the Incredible Rollerblader

       I am so good at rollerblading. When I rollerblade, crowds of people gather around just to see my impressive skills. You can hear people getting on their cell phones to say, “Dude, you gotta get over here and see the most amazing rollerblader I have ever seen!” People beg me for my autograph like I am a movie star or something. I am so fast, it is as if there are engines in each one of my rollerblades. I am like a jet. I even had a race with a sports car one time and I won - easily. Not only am I fast, but I can do awesome tricks. I can jump over just about any obstacle: cars, mailboxes, people, you name it. I once jumped over a tree! And flips are no problem. I make flips look so easy, it is like I am coin being tossed in the air during a coin toss. I jump up so high and do about 15 flips on the way down. And don’t even get me started on how many laps I can do at the roller rink. I can do about 1,000 laps around the roller rink in one minute. I truly am the best rollerblader on the entire planet!

9. Create-a-Critter Explanatory Writing Activity: Again, I will refer you to the free lesson and the blog post that has samples, but in a nutshell, students think of an animal that doesn't exist such as a hybrid like the jaccoon" I made up jaguar and raccoon Combo) and draw a picture of it. Then they describe what it looks like using their best descriptive writing skills . Then someone takes the description and tries to draw it based on that. Then, they do a comparison. You can do it, or just get my free lesson in PDF or Google Slides that does most of the work for you. To the left are samples: a jaccoon, a mooda, and a durtle. 

By the way, there is an alternate version "Create a Dog" which is the same but is all about dogs.

10. What's In My Head: I've used this head template for so many lessons such as having students examine a character's thoughts and feelings, or saying what they learned at the end of the school year, and now they can use it for back to school writing to examine their thoughts and feelings, and let others see them to get to know each other. Here is a sample of one Anne Frank and a teen, but you would have them fill it in based on their own heads! Check out the blog post with ideas and template.

 WANT ENGAGING INFORMATIONAL TEXT READING PASSAGES WITH TASKS FOR YOUR STUDENTS? WANT TO HAVE THEM PRACTICE ALL 10 READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARDS SKILLS? STUDENTS KEEP REPORTING HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THE TEXTS!!! TEACHERS SAY THEY SAVE THEM TONS OF TIME! TRY BOTH VOLUMES: