Valentine’s Day party planning has begun, and with the holiday just around the corner, it’s time to plan some fun party games. Here are a few student-approved Valentine’s Day classroom games to help you celebrate love, friendship, and kindness with your students.
Hunting for Hearts
For this party game, have students cut out hearts of all different sizes and colors. Then have one group of students scatter them all around the room while another group waits outside of the classroom. On your go, students who were waiting in the hall must come into the classroom and find as many hearts as they can in the time allotted. The person who finds the most hearts wins. If you want to make this game more advanced, you can assign each heart a different amount of points for the size or color.
Heart Stack
Heart Stack is a minute-to-win-it-themed game that is quite popular on Pinterest. All you need for this Valentine’s Day game is a lot of candy hearts. To play, divide students into teams. Each team has one minute to stack the candy hearts as high as they can without them falling over. Teams can work together, or you can assign one team member from each group to go for their team. The giant candy hearts work the best for this game.
Candy Heart Relay
Candy Heart Relay is another one of those minute-to-win-it games where students must work fast to win. To play, you will need conversation candy hearts, plastic cups, and plastic spoons. Fill two cups with the candy and a spoon and place the other two cups across the room from where the students will be standing. Then, divide students into two teams and have them stand in a relay race line. The goal is for students to take turns carrying a spoon full of hearts to fill the empty cup across the room. The first team to transfer all of their candy hearts into their empty cup wins.
Musical Hearts
Musical hearts is a fun game to get students up and moving, but it will take a little prep work to put the game together. However, you can enlist the help of students if you don’t want to do it yourself. For this game, you will need large paper hearts (or you can buy foam hearts from the store). On one side of each heart, write a challenge for students to do. Together as a class, you can brainstorm ideas, such as hop on one foot, do five pushups, make a silly face, etc.
Once you have completed the hearts, place all of them on the floor in a circle face down so you cannot see the writing. Next, turn on music and have students walk in a circle on the hearts (they will need to take their shoes off). When the music stops, whatever heart the students are standing on, they must flip it over and do the challenge. The game continues until you say it’s over.
Heart-Stopping Fun
This game is a variation of the game Hot Potato, but instead of a potato, you use heart cut-outs. To prepare for the game, you must cut out a class supply of paper hearts in a variety of colors. Begin the game by giving students hearts randomly, then starting the music. Students have to pass their heart to the person on their right until the music stops. Once the music stops, the teacher calls out a color. If a student has that color, they have to spell one of their spelling words. If they do not spell it correctly, they are out. If they spell it correctly, they are still in the game. You can also use math equations, vocabulary words, or any other concept students need to review.
Valentine’s Day games for kids are a fun diversion from the monotony of your everyday routine. By choosing interactive games, like the Heart Stopping Fun game, you’re reinforcing learning concepts while still having fun and celebrating the holiday. It’s a win-win for everyone.
