The RIGHT Way to Celebrate Valentine's Day in Elementary School

I see some problems with Valentine’s Day as it is currently taking place in some schools.  If the holdiay is going to be celebrated with class parties in elementary school (as opposed to students giving out their own valentines privately, without anything to do with the school), in my opinion, there is only ONE way to do it.

Having been an Elementary Teacher of many years, the ONLY way Valentine’s Day should be celebrated at school is for children to be required to make a card for every other child in the class. This prevents some children going home upset, deflated, egos damaged.

I taught for many years in an overseas American school in a country where Valentine’s were not sold in large packets, as they are in America.

Valentines in America are sold in easy, class-sized packages

I solved this problem by making heart shapes on a paper, writing “to” and “from” on the card, and photocopying the papers. I gave each child a packet to cut out the 25-30 necessary for the whole class, and kids sat with their friends in groups to color valentines and write simple messages on them.

Since we don’t commonly have shoeboxes easily available in this country, I made large envelopes for each child by folding and stapling at the sides an 18″ x 24″ piece of construction paper, and wrote each child’s name largely in fancy cursive on the envelope. That way we could have a Valentine’s party where everyone could go around distributing valentines to everyone else’s desk, and no one would feel left out.

We also had envelopes taped up around the room for other classes, in case someone wanted to send a card to a brother or sister, or friend in another grade. Of course they could make additional valentines “from your secret admirer,” and we always made a special one to take home to Moms and Dads.

This way, at the end of the day, everyone in the class has a whole packet of Valentines to take home, from the whole class, and is NOT LEFT OUT, while other, more popular children get ALL the valentines!

I was surprised to find how many high school children still  had their class valentines, saved from our elementary school parties.

–Mary Mimouna

[Via http://elementaryteacher.wordpress.com]