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Valentine’s Day Tips For Kindergarten Teachers By Kindergarten Teachers

These teacher-proven tips can help you plan the best Valentine’s Day celebration for your students! Keep reading below to get great tips and tricks for a stress-free fun-filled Valentine’s Day in your classroom!

We LOVE Valentine’s Day in kindergarten but we know that it can be exhausting. So we asked in our Teacher Facebook Group the DAY AFTER Valentine’s Day for teachers’ top tips and so here are our Valentine tips for kindergarten teachers by kindergarten teachers. (There are some really good ones at the end, so be sure to read them all).

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Ms. Rosenberry says: Keep routines but add more fun!”

Ms. Kane says: Let the kids help! I surprised them with red streamers and then one little guy was like but there are no hearts!! So instead of morning legos, I gave them each a piece of pink paper for them to cut out hearts to tape up

Ms. Pena-Handley says: Over plan but doesn’t stress if you don’t get to everything. The point of the day is for the kids to have fun. Before the treats I made all of the kids put their gram bags in their backpacks so dismissal was a breeze.

Ms. Slade says: I do an old school kindergarten day. Yesterday we made patterned valentine hats, made our party bags, passed out valentines (reading right?), ate did candy heart math and science, then we played the day away! It was perfection. #embracethechaos

Ms. Horn says: I keep my schedule as normal as possible. We didn’t do anything until the last hour of the day.

Ms. Stacy says: Have the students bring in their Valentine cards throughout the week and “deliver” them on the day they bring them. No mass chaos with a few deliveries each day.

Ms. Torres says This year I blocked off 20 minutes for free play before and after the party. They needed it

Ms. Schnieder says: We pass out valentines before the party. Also, in the past, I have had volunteers from an older grade come down to help pass out.

Ms. Custer says: have the students write only THEIR name on the valentine, so that way it is easier to pass them all out

Ms. Hunter says: I should have collected valentines even for the absent kiddos. They arrived after lunch and I was all done passing out!

Ms. Campbell says: I also try to get a few big kid helpers in the room to walk around and read the cards to kids. And I always ask in my letter to families to please send in any extra, unused valentines from their child’s packs. That way I can give them to students who didn’t bring any.

Ms. Bridges says: Set out all of the bags/boxes around the perimeter of the rug, I usually put them on 3 sides of the rug so there’s a start and endpoint. Have kids doing an independent activity or centers. Call the kids up one at a time to put their cards in every box. It usually takes 20 minutes for it all to get done. Easy and calm! Make the due date for Valentines and/or boxes a day or 2 before Valentine’s Day to avoid the chaos of bringing all of the things on party day. Send reminders! I put bright reminders on their backpacks. (half a sheet, hot dog style) I had all of my boxes and cards the day before… Even the ones who forget! It was amazing!

Ms. Haynes says: My team did a Valentines read around, and we did do some math work just to keep order to the day, but we had an awesome day! I agree with passing our valentines as they come in it would make for less chaos during the day!

Ms. Dewey says: Do not pass out valentines during the party…we do it in the morning and bags are stapled and ready to go home so after the party kids take them and go.

Ms. Raker says: We have bags for the kids to decorate. We give each child a large paper doily heart with a picture of themselves in the center to glue on the bag. Then they can go to town with stickers and markers to decorate, but “mailing” is waaaay easier with pictures of the kids on the bags!

Ms. Ward says: I do the valentines pass out the day before so I do not feel rushed to pass them out when we have a party. I am unlike lots of teachers where if a day is going to be crazy I embrace the crazy. I try to plan crafts and art in the morning and then at the party do games and snacks. Ido art and fun activities a lot and my kids know they have to be following directions etc or they may miss out on participating and I think that helps that the expectation is always there so it’s nothing new.

Ms. Amico says: After they pass out their valentines I staple the bags shut so they can’t open them until they get home!

Ms. Butts says: I put a Star on the back of the valentine bags. The star was to touch the table so pieces would be on the right side.

Ms. Joshi says: I added one dollar table covers and heart bouquet to my tables. kids made their own grilled cheese sandwiches and I set up a yogurt station with strawberries and sprinkles…… the best party ever.

Ms. Timmons says: We pack up early in the day. We pass out was Valentine’s the day before and the morning of. I cover tables with white butcher paper. Students color with makers on their tables and wait to be called up to get their ice cream sundae. Students eat. We sing a Happy Valentine’s Day song to the tune of Happy Birthday. Students get their Valentine bags and go to their table or their “special spot” (spread out spaces on the floor) and open their Valentine’s. When they are done, they clean up and then they go back to their table and color while parents leave. Then we get backpacks and prep to go home.

Ms. Hammons says:  I have a station to pass out cards in the bags! 3 kids at a time. So much less chaos! I also have a parent come to be a Valentine Slime making station this year. It was SO much fun! Everything was fun and ran smoothly. At the end of the day, I let them sit around the room by no one else and check their stash out, then re-pack it! They could have a juice box and cookie from their stash! It was so fun!

Ms. Dee says: We have our Valentine’s party first thing in the morning. It calms the buzz.

Ms. Carmack says: After that, we talked about love and how to be good friends. I had parents bring ingredients in to make a “friendship mix”. We talk about what each ingredient represents. (They lead the conversation.) Then, I passed out sandwich bags, and went around and gave a handful of each ingredient to mix in the bag. They shook it up and ate it. 

Ms. Vosburgh says: Someone in this wonderful group suggested adding a number to the child’s name. My 4 table groups each have 5-6 students (21!) my valentine name list had a name and number (Amanda 1, Joey 2…). Their valentine bags matched. It worked great. Some of the kids wrote their classmates’ names and numbers and some only wrote the number. All my kids can recognize numbers even if they can’t read names. As they were passing out their cards, I monitored that they made it to the correct place. Worked beautifully. All bags were stapled closed for home!

Ms. James says: We did the “disco limbo” several times—— gets lots of wiggles out if needed for about 15-20 minutes—- I hold a yardstick out and they go under — they loved it.

Ms. Giglio says:  I read a tip here I think years ago, where the teacher had the kids keep their valentines and she choose one person at a time to come sit in the middle on a chair then everyone brought their valentines up to them Instead of all the kids roaming around the room trying to match and find names This way they only have to find one person at a time and the person sitting in the middle got a little special time.

Ms. Gray says: I wrote a really personal note to each child (about one thing I love so much about them) in Valentine’s card. It really helped me focus on how wonderful my babies are and got me out of the rut I’ve been in recently.

Ms. Niera says: EMBRACE Chaos!!!!! If you’re flexible and happy, the excitement won’t bother you.

Lots of tips were shared in that post and we could not include all of them here and so click here to keep reading.

At Simply Kinder we work together to bring you ready-to-use resources to partner with great teaching for any curriculum, a Facebook community where teachers talk all things Kindergarten, and low-prep learning ideas that your students will love. Be sure to stay up to date with all things kindergarten on InstagramFacebookPinterest, and through email. Simply Kinder: where teaching Kinder is definitely better together!

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