valentine’s day

Getting Ready for Valentine’s Day!

love

I didn’t know it until I started teaching, but Valentine’s Day is actually my favorite holiday! I had no idea. The thing is growing up, I always had amazing experiences involving the day of love. Every year I got a Valentine in the mail from my grandparents with a two dollar bill inside (yep, back when those existed), and I got to go to Chuck-E-Cheeses.  This involved eating pizza and playing in the balls while my mom and other home-schooling moms put together goodie bags of candy and dispersed the Valentines we had written for our friends into our awesomely decorated boxes (I spent DAYS decorating my box). I couldn’t wait to open up all of the love-notes from my friends and eat my candy. I mean, chocolate = love… right?

We had an extra long weekend due to the Lunar New Year (I am leaning toward a three-day work week, every week). So, very last-minute, I am prepping my classroom for the holiday.

I found an amazing site, with a ton of links to Valentine’s Day Joy, it’s a crazy link party!

I found a page with free alphabet bunting, and I am in the process of making a cute sign to string up.

bunting

Want some cute coloring pages for your students (in case they whip out their finished Valentines faster than the other students perhaps?). Check out these free coloring pages.

valentines_day_coloring_pages_free

I also plan on playing BINGO with my students on V-Day because I found this really cute free printable.

bingo

What do you plan on doing with your students?

signature for real

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Simple Valentine’s Day Cards

It’s February, which means Valentine’s day is around the corner. I always like to make something for my students. However, living in Korea, you can’t find the cute Valentine’s day card sets that I could easily pick up at Duane Reade or CVS back home. Therefore, it can become a time consuming DIY project for the already busy teacher! So, in an effort to keep things cheap and time efficient, I found a few great Valentine’s day card downloadable templates, and they are free!

All you need to do is download the template onto your computer. Then, you can print them out on white card stock or the thicker printer paper. You can find that type of paper easily in Homeplus, E-Mart, Alpha or other stationary stores here in Korea.

Here are the links to a few of the different blogs that you can download the free printable.

Blogs with free Valentine’s day card templates

Valentine’s Day Card Templates from Bunny Cakes – LOVE these templates!

Boy Valentines from One Charming Party – Valentine’s your boys would be happy to receive.

Other Valentine’s day craft ideas for the classroom:

Martha Stewart always has a lot of creative craft and card ideas.

101 Handmade Valentine’s Day Ideas. A lot of different fun DIY ideas if you are feeling ambitious!

My  Pinterest Valentine’s day page. Just a bunch of random cute valentine’s day ideas. Some of them could be used in the classroom.

I’m still trying to decide which card template I will use for my students.  I’ve also been watching Cupcake Wars on TV, and I’m considering making cupcakes as well. However,  we’ll see how much energy I have on Monday night!

I hope you have a happy Valentine’s day!

Papercutter, envelope sets & cardstock paper

Printed card templates on cardstock.

Valentine's day cards are done!

Valentine’s Day: For the Younger Elementary Class

Valentine’s Day is one of my absolute FAVORITE holidays, and I didn’t even have this revelation until last year. I was thinking about what my class could do to celebrate the holiday, and in doing so began to re-live my childhood. I discovered that I have the best memories of Valentine’s Day. I was home-schooled (yes, hard to believe if you actually know me) and every year my mom would take me and my siblings to Chuck-E-Cheeses (a.k.a. The Greatest Pizza Place on Earth), where we would meet up with a bunch of other home-schooled kids and exchange valentines, eat pizza, and get a goody bag (this is probably where my addiction to candy first began).

Before we went to The Greatest Pizza Place on Earth we had to decorate some type of container/bag to hold all of our valentines from our friends. My mom would save tissue boxes for us to paint/cover in paper/make beautiful.

This is exactly what I have my students do! I have saved all of our tissue boxes since the beginning of the year and will have them decorate them tomorrow (Friday). Over the weekend their homework will be to make a valentine for each of their classmates (in Korea, they don’t sell the cute and easy valentine’s they have in the states) . I will give them paper and materials if they need them.

It’s simple, it’s easy, and the kiddies love it! Though… I probably love it more.

Happy *almost* Valentine’s Day!

Here is a picture of the box I decorated last year (it’s falling apart a bit, I just had to tape it), I used a small tissue box because I didn’t have enough big ones, but I would recommend a big box for younger students. My grade teaching partner uses shoe boxes, which is another great option. I like the tissue box because it already has a hole on the top for the valentines to go in.

*Stay tuned for a post from Jee Young tomorrow about how to find free printables for Valentine’s cards on the web!*