Whether you’re a room parent or a teacher, putting together a Valentine’s Day class party doesn’t have to be complicated!
Since kids love to deliver and open valentines, that can be one of the party’s main events. Add a few simple snacks and some games, and you’re ready to go!
After teaching for quite a few years, I can tell you that I’ve seen LOTS of class parties, and my favorite way to organize most party games is to create small groups of 6 – 8 students and have them rotate through stations.
Ten minutes is usually a nice amount of time for each station because it’s not too long (it’s always good to keep things moving), but it’s long enough for everyone to get a turn or two.
You can also include food and valentines as stations, but I prefer doing these as a whole class.
Here are some of my favorite class party games. I included lots of variations because I like to use whatever I have on hand when possible!
For this game, a pair of well-known friends (like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet) is printed or written on a card and is taped to each child’s back or forehead.
Each child tries to figure out which set of best friends is listed on the card by asking other students for clues.
As soon as a child figures out the identity of the friendship pair, he/she can get another card (if time allows and there are enough cards left) or can continue to play by giving other kids clues.
Materials Needed:
- Friendship pairs on index cards or slips of paper
- Tape
Virtual version: Each slide has a set of 3 clues. Students try to guess the friendship pair. A “magic circle” can be used to reveal the answer.
Want a FREE Guess Who: Friendship Card Game in print and digital for Valentine’s Day? ENTER YOUR EMAIL BELOW and we’ll email it straight to you!
Kids work individually or with a partner to build the tallest tower they can in a set amount of time. Besides being a fun game, this is also a great STEM activity!
Items to stack/use:
Food: Wrapped Starburst (the red and pink only mix is extra festive!), Gumdrops and toothpicks, Conversation Hearts, Oreos, Mother’s Animal Cookies (the pink and white sprinkled ones), crispy sugar wafer cookies (Keebler makes these in strawberry pink too).
Non-food: pink or red party cups, Valentine’s Day Playing Cards or “red” playing cards (see the Dollar Store for these), red or pink construction paper with a stapler or tape
Kids LOVE making and flying airplanes! This activity works really well if you’re able to go outside for a short period of time.
For this game, kids will be making their own paper airplanes! Some kids will already know exactly how to do this while others will need a step-by-step tutorial.
You’ll want to make sure that the parent who leads this station has a basic knowledge of paper plane making!
An alternative is to have the whole class practice with you the day before in preparation for this activity. If you’re not sure yourself, there are lots of YouTube videos that can help!
At the party, kids can decorate their planes quickly, but you’ll want to make sure that much of the time at this station is devoted to flying them.
Once outside, kids can either fly them for fun or you can have a competition to see whose plane will fly the farthest/highest, etc.
Materials Needed:
- White or colored copy paper (use the whole page or cut a large heart shape from it and use the heart shape to make the plane)
- Scissors (optional)
- Crayons or markers
Virtual version: Students can create their own paper airplane at home using a piece of copy or binder paper and can share their paper airplanes virtually.
Optional extension – Some kids might enjoy measuring how far their paper airplane flew, and they can share-out that information too!
To prepare for this game, you’ll want to tape large construction paper hearts to the floor. The hearts should be scattered but close enough for kids to jump from one heart to the next.
This game is similar to the classic “hot lava” game but is valentine themed! Start the game by turning on some music.
Kids start in different places and need to jump from heart to heart without touching the “frozen lake” which is the rest of the floor.
When the music stops, kids need to freeze where they are and pose like a statue. Once the music begins again, kids can continue moving.
Optional: If a child accidentally lands in the frozen lake (off of the paper hearts) or moves when he/she should be a statue, he/she can be “out” for that round of the game but can rejoin when the music starts again.
Virtual version: You can play this game as a regular Freeze Dance with or without the addition of the statue pose.
Materials Needed:
- Red or pink large pieces of construction paper
- Masking Tape and scissors
- Music
My students have always LOVED any kind of relay race!
To start, you’ll want to divide the group into smaller teams. The object of the game is for each team to be the first to move all of the items from their team’s container to another container without spilling any items.
Kids will stand in a line and watch as the first person takes his/her spoon and scoops a spoonful of the item and walks quickly to dump it into their other container.
Once the item is dropped off, he/she can run, tiptoe, speedwalk, or hop (tell the kids whichever movement you’d like them to do ahead of time) with their spoon-in-hand back to the line.
Then it’s the next person in line’s turn. Kids continue until the team’s home container is empty.
Optional: If a child spills an item from the spoon, he/she must pick it up, put it back on the spoon, and start over.
Materials Needed:
- A container (boxes, baskets, buckets, plastic tubs…) for each team at the start of their line with small objects inside. This is where kids will scoop the objects to transport to the other container
- Another container for kids to walk to and dump the items into
- Plastic spoons
- Small items to be transported: M & M’s (pink, red, and white are fun), Hershey Kisses, red hots, Jelly beans (red/pink mix), any holiday-themed candy, red Jolly Ranchers, small paper hearts (hole-punch or paper-punch these)
- Alternate items to be transported using a spoon or by hand: hacky sacks (see Oriental Trading Company or the Dollar Store for cute emoji ones), bean bags, small stuffed animals, small stuffed hearts
If you’re looking for Valentine’s Day ELA resources, I love using this one for 4th and 5th grades!
Click here to see this print and digital unit that hits standards but is totally fun!
This unit includes:
- 7 Reading Passages & Comprehension Questions
- A Reading Skills Figurative Language Page
- 2 Paragraph Writing Activities
- 3 Poetry Activities with Examples and Directions Pages
- A Piggy Heart Craftivity
- Easy to Assign Digital Activities
- Print versions for In Classroom Teaching
Here’s What Teachers Are Saying:
- “Great resource for practicing ELA standards and still fitting the Valentine’s Day theme. The articles in this resource are interesting and address multiple genres and a variety of standards. I am looking forward to using it again this year.” – Tanya S.
- “The kids enjoyed this fun activity for Valentine’s Day. Had a lot of meaning and incorporated the skills we’ve hit on all year! Thanks!” – India H.
- “This is a fantastic packet! There is so much to do…and so many rigorous readings! LOVE it!” – Christan O.
Click here to grab the Valentine’s Literacy Set for your classroom!
