Celebrate the holiday of love with these fun activities for middle school classrooms. Bring the theme of love and hearts and cupid into the classroom to help engage students and get them excited for the holiday. Secondary students will enjoy these STEM challenges, writing prompts, and beautiful art pieces. These 28 activities are fun for Valentine’s Day for your middle school students.
1. Jar of Hearts
Print a jar for each student in your class. Label them with their names and have a bunch of hearts available. Allow students to write kind things about one another and fill each person’s jar with positive compliments. This is great for building community within your class.
Learn more: Creatively Teaching First
2. Self Love Posters
While these are examples of younger students, you can do this activity with middle school students as well. Have them create self-love posters. Decorate as they wish, add their photos, and see what they love about themselves.
Learn more: Nanny Meets Mommy
3. Figurative Language Valentine’s Day Cards
Figurative language can be a tough skill for students to pick up on. Let students use figurative language to create adorable and funny Valentine’s Day cards. This is a great way to pair the English classroom with an annual card exchange, but with a fun and creative writing exercise.
Learn more: The Daring English Teacher
4. Valentine’s Day Debate
Create a classroom debate! Focus on topics that will spark opinions relating to Valentine’s Day, famous couples in history, or even modern topics with them theme of love. Encourage students to research and come prepared to stay within their time limit.
Learn more: The Daring English Teacher
5. Anatomy Valentine’s Cards
Another unique spin on Valentine’s Day cards, bring this classroom activity into the science lessons! Using puns for anatomy, have students create funny Valentine’s Day cards to exchange with their friends or create a fun bulletin board.
Learn more: Science Lessons that Rock
6. Valentine’s Day Odes
Poetry is great for Valentine’s Day! Students can pick their topic or theme and write their own odes. This is a great way to incorporate creative writing into your middle school classroom. These templates will get your started!
Learn more: Mrs. Nelson Teaches
7. Break Up Letters
Take a different twist on writing letters by switching it up with a break up letter. Students will relate to the texting theme with this activity, but will be able to use the writing prompt to craft an essay. English teachers will have a fun time with students, as they write the perfect breakup letter.
Learn more: Secondary English Coffee Shop
8. Love Quote Advice
English teachers can explore teaching perspective and point of view with this activity. Secondary students can research to support their thoughts and writing. This is a perfect opportunity for students to explore other perspectives.
Learn more: Secondary English Coffee Shop
9. Cupid’s Grammar Cards
Even middle schoolers need practice with grammar. Written to look like social media posts, these Cupid themed grammar cards are excellent practice for the basics of fundamental mechanics in the English classroom for middle school or upper elementary school.
Learn more: Secondary English Coffee Shop
10. Borax Crystal Hearts
Hands on activities, like this one, are great for allowing students the chance to create colorful hearts. They will practice following directions. These could later be used in an art display or to decorate for a school dance.
Learn more: Science Lessons that Rocks
11. Science Experiment Secret Message
This cool science demonstration is tons of fun! Create secret messages and show students how to read them. The science component will get students interested in the how behind the fun!
Learn more: Science Lessons that Rocks
12. Bitmoji Valentine’s Cards
Bitmojis are super popular! Using them to create their own Valentine’s Day cards is a great way to personalize cards and allow creativity in expressing student thoughts and emotions to those who matter most to them.
Learn more: Sixth Grade Teachers
13. We Go Together Bulletin Board
Create posters or a class bulletin board to show things that go together. Have students think outside the box to find many things that go together. This can be used easily across the curriculum. This is also a good activity to use to review concepts in a creative way.
Learn more: Sixth Grade Teachers
14. Conversation Heart Writing Activity
Conversation hearts are perfect for this writing activity. Use these fun, little candies in a variety of writing activities, like character exploration and story elements. This will leave students with a sweet treat when they finish their writing.
Learn more: Sixth Grade Teachers
15. Valentine Escape Room
Escapes rooms are a big hit with middle schoolers! Let them work in teams to take clues and try to solve the mystery that awaits them, all while trying to beat their classmates on other teams.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
16. Cupid Bow and Arrow STEM Activity
This STEM challenge allows students hands on practice in building and designing for a specific purpose. This is a great opportunity to teach students about how to take a problem or goal and use backwards design to achieve it!
Learn more: The Carly and Adam
18. STEM Design a Candy Box
A fun STEM activity, this candy box design project is a fun way to get students thinking. Bring in conversation hearts and let their minds get to work about how to create a design that will hold their candy.
Learn more: The Carly and Adam
19. Agamographs
This fun art activity is a bit complex but will be a fun art project for middle school students. Let students add in colors and designs to personalize their art projects.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
20. Staff and Teacher Valentine Cards from Students
Help students create or write their own Valentine’s Day cards. Middle school students can write cards for former teachers or current teachers to show appreciation and love to those who have helped them in the past.
Learn more: Pinterest
21. Compare and Contrast Emotions
Create Venn diagrams, using heart shaped and love themes. Use emotions to explore character traits and events in a story. This is great for independent work time.
Learn more: Badger States Speeechy
22. Heart Marshmallow Building Activity
This STEM challenge is a great way to bring science into Valentine’s Day fun! Let students get creative and explore STEM with this marshmallow building challenge. Give all students the same supplies, a time limit, and creative freedom to construct their own structure.
Learn more: Science and Literacy
23. Valentine’s Day Karaoke
Classroom karaoke could be a lot of fun! Set up your own karaoke event featuring love songs, or a creative writing opportunity for students to write their own lyrics. English teachers could even turn this into an assignment, complete with fun!
Learn more: Science And Literacy
24. Figurative Language Activity
Another love themed figurative language activity. This will be a good way to allow students the chance to read figurative language, find an example, and decide on the meaning.
Learn more: The Hungry Teacher Blog
25. Fact Hunt
Fact hunts, like scavenger hunts, are tons of fun! Students can use class time to find these fun facts hidden around the room. They can use them to answer comprehension questions or complete informational writing.
Learn more: Brain Waves Instruction
26. Valentine’s Day Around the World
Bring the digital classroom alive as students search for Valentine’s Day traditions around the world. Let students use class time to research about this holiday in other countries and present their findings to their classmates.
Learn more: Twinkl
27. Doodle Posters
Doodle posters are fun and full of learning. These are templates that will help students learn more about the holiday of Valentine’s Day. It includes space for facts about the holiday and allows for some cute and creative art ideas.
Learn more: Brain Waves Instruction
28. Broken Heart Vocabulary Review
Print or cut hearts on bright pieces of paper. These are great for reviewing vocabulary words and definitions. These can even be for 8th grade math or any other middle school content area.
Learn more: Brain Waves Instruction
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