Valentine's Day Reading Literacy Activities, Themes, and Ideas for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

This Valentine's Day consider including some special reading comprehension and additional literacy activities in your classroom curriculum. You'll keep your students engaged and motivated with productive work, which will keep their minds off their Valentine's cards and candy (for a few minutes anyway). Are you looking for options to use with your preschooler or kindergartener at home? All of these ideas are applicable to that setting as well. Happy Valentine's Day!

Simply cut out paper hearts, write a letter on each heart, and have the students spell out words with the heart letters. Depending on the skill level of the students, you may opt to have them do the cutting and writing themselves. You can keep it as basic as spelling first names or can make it more challenging, such as spelling out words from an academic unit (i.e. vocabulary words from a science unit about frogs). You can also stick to spelling Valentine's Day related vocabulary. There are a number of ideas in this article for writing that you can combine with this concept such as building a word wall and writing poems. It works perfectly on its own, too.

Students will have so much fun hunting all over the classroom (or even all over the school if you decide to expand the hunt a little further) that they won't even realize that they're learning. Matching letters and numbers is a great method for building 1:1 correspondence. You can also take this game one step further by creating clues for finding the candy kisses. Don't forget to eat at least a few pieces of candy when you've finished with the hunt.

There are a wide variety of Valentine's Day poems and rhymes available online. If you're able to find some books as well, include them in your free reading selections so that students can check them out on their own throughout the day. If you have students who are able to read independently, give them the option of choosing a poem to read out loud to the class. Alternatively, consider working together as a class to memorize a short poem or rhyme.

Don't stress about creating entire word lists filled with Valentine's Day words. Simply pick a Valentine's Day word such as "love" and then brainstorm rhyming words. If you are interested in modifying this activity for older students, consider the ideas listed on the right. Don't be afraid to expand the concept for additional grammatical skills that your students are currently studying.

If you are writing poems with preschoolers or kindergartens, you will most likely want to keep it simple, which is why I've limited the poem suggestions on the right. Of course if you are working with older students or are looking for something more challenging, don't feel limited to this. Alternatively, leave out the words to popular poems and have students try to fill in the correct words or let them have fun making up their own silly versions instead.

There is no limit to the kids book available for most holidays, and Valentine's Day is no exception. Don't forget to visit the library or swap a few titles with a fellow teacher to mix up the selection available for your students. Consider group read alouds, partner and small group reads, and silent reading throughout the day.

Cultivate your young students' interest in music and songs by introducing a few new songs on a regular basis throughout the school year. If you're hesitant to sing by yourself in front of your students, sing along with a recording or team up with a fellow teacher and sing together.

Put on a little Valentine's Day play. You can choose a favorite Valentine's Day story or have kids make up their own stories. Story dictation is a wonderful pre-reading activity for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Have students tell stories to you individually and write them down or work as a class to write a story. Get creative with your costumes, scenery, and props. Consider acting out your play for another class in the school.

While you may not want to take the time to have students create enough Valentine's Day cards to hand out to their entire class, it is easy enough to have students pick a single person as a card recipient. Consider someone who is not in the class (i.e. mom, grandma) to avoid hurt feelings. Have students dictate or copy messages and then personalize the rest of their cards.

If you have a handwriting font on your computer, you can create digital templates to print out for your students. If you don't, it's simple enough to create a master copy with tracing paper. Don't forget to save it for next year!

Do you have a word wall going in your classroom? Take a few minutes today to add some special Valentine's Day words. Your students will be able to use them for their cards, poems, and stories today and for additional writing activities later. If you don't already have a word wall, consider creating a small one for Valentine's Day.

Writing an entire story from scratch is an overwhelming task for many students, particularly students as young as preschool and kindergarten. Offer writing prompts to get students started. At age four or five, "stories" do not have to consist of more than a few sentences. Again, story dictation or having students choose to copy sentences that they brainstormed is fine. Give students the option of adding illustrations to their stories after they have finished their writing.