VALENTINE'S DAY
Start off by asking what the next holiday is. Most likely, they’ll say when their next break from school is.
If time permits, go on a tangent of comparing UK and USA (also gives me a chance to break out my British accent):
UK: Holiday, USA: vacation
USA: Holiday= Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, etc.
Then after a few responses including Easter or Mardi Gras, I finally have someone shout out “Valentine’s Day!”
Ask what people do for Valentine’s Day in France. You’ll get answers like: go out to eat, go to the movies, buy flowers/chocolate/lingerie/jewelry for girlfriend, I even got “watch 50 Shades of Grey” HAHA. Basically emphasize that Valentine’s Day in France is more for couples, so if you’re single, just an ordinary day.
Then ask if they know anything about Valentine’s Day in the USA. Keep in mind, most of what they know comes from watching The Simpsons. Explain that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in schools by everyone exchanging valentines, eating candy, and some families that exchange gifts (like mine), so I showed a few things to the class from my care package my mom sent me:
Start off by asking what the next holiday is. Most likely, they’ll say when their next break from school is.
If time permits, go on a tangent of comparing UK and USA (also gives me a chance to break out my British accent):
UK: Holiday, USA: vacation
USA: Holiday= Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, etc.
Then after a few responses including Easter or Mardi Gras, I finally have someone shout out “Valentine’s Day!”
Ask what people do for Valentine’s Day in France. You’ll get answers like: go out to eat, go to the movies, buy flowers/chocolate/lingerie/jewelry for girlfriend, I even got “watch 50 Shades of Grey” HAHA. Basically emphasize that Valentine’s Day in France is more for couples, so if you’re single, just an ordinary day.
Then ask if they know anything about Valentine’s Day in the USA. Keep in mind, most of what they know comes from watching The Simpsons. Explain that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in schools by everyone exchanging valentines, eating candy, and some families that exchange gifts (like mine), so I showed a few things to the class from my care package my mom sent me:
Then, go on and explain how Valentine’s Day is celebrated in high schools in the USA. They get REALLY interested in it, so I explain all about candy grams, flower grams, and I make up this whole story about me in high school on Valentine’s Day, and literally when I tell this story, no matter if I have 7 or 35 kids at a time, no matter if the chattiest people are in the room, EVERYONE is fixated on my every word, and everyone pays attention! It’s awesome, it’s hilarious, and the kids love it. Anyway, it's basically a story about how I was a super nerd in high school, and my sister was a "pom pom girl," and how every valentine's day, I wouldn't get any flower grams or candy grams, but my sister would get so many, and the last Valentine's Day, I finally got a flower gram, and I ask the class who they think sent it, and NOBODY says me, but it was me! So I said I paid $1 to send a flower to myself so other kids would think I was popular. Kids are in tears laughing at the end! HAHA.
After that, I say that we are going to have a Valentine’s Day party in class! The class gets excited, and we move on to the first activity, making valentines for each other, an idea I stole from when I was in high school health class.
Start off by asking the class what compliments are, have them give examples: “you are pretty” “you are funny” “you are a good dancer” “I like your hair,” etc. Write all of the answers on the board to have a base.
Then, pass out the valentines and have each person write their names in big letters in the middle. Then tell the class that they are to write a compliment about each person in the class, passing the valentines around the room so each person writes something nice about each person.
Explain the “NO’s” (all of which have come from other class mistakes LOL)
1. NO writing in French (I literally had kids who wrote in French…shakes head)
2. No bad words (“gros mots,” they are not allowed to say F***, etc. Not appropriate.)
3. No mean things: “you are strange” “you are ugly” “you are fat” “Who are you?”
4. No marriage proposals (if I get another one, I’m going to go crazy! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE, PEOPLE).
5. NO repetitions (if someone writes “Chloe is nice” the next person who gets Chloe’s valentine can’t write “She’s nice”…it forces creativity)
Have each student spend about a minute with each valentine. Make sure everyone passes at the same time. Also, play too! See what your kids think of you and write something nice about each student!
After the activity is over, before each person gets their valentine back, collect them all and hand them out right before the class is over. Otherwise they’ll be distracted and not pay any attention to what you’ll say for the rest of the class.
After that, I say that we are going to have a Valentine’s Day party in class! The class gets excited, and we move on to the first activity, making valentines for each other, an idea I stole from when I was in high school health class.
Start off by asking the class what compliments are, have them give examples: “you are pretty” “you are funny” “you are a good dancer” “I like your hair,” etc. Write all of the answers on the board to have a base.
Then, pass out the valentines and have each person write their names in big letters in the middle. Then tell the class that they are to write a compliment about each person in the class, passing the valentines around the room so each person writes something nice about each person.
Explain the “NO’s” (all of which have come from other class mistakes LOL)
1. NO writing in French (I literally had kids who wrote in French…shakes head)
2. No bad words (“gros mots,” they are not allowed to say F***, etc. Not appropriate.)
3. No mean things: “you are strange” “you are ugly” “you are fat” “Who are you?”
4. No marriage proposals (if I get another one, I’m going to go crazy! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE, PEOPLE).
5. NO repetitions (if someone writes “Chloe is nice” the next person who gets Chloe’s valentine can’t write “She’s nice”…it forces creativity)
Have each student spend about a minute with each valentine. Make sure everyone passes at the same time. Also, play too! See what your kids think of you and write something nice about each student!
After the activity is over, before each person gets their valentine back, collect them all and hand them out right before the class is over. Otherwise they’ll be distracted and not pay any attention to what you’ll say for the rest of the class.
Next activity: Corny Valentines
Print out a bunch of corny valentine’s and hand them out so each student has a different one. Explain that these are examples of valentines that kids give each other at school. Go around the class and have each student read their corny valentine and have them explain why it’s funny. Here are some that I used:
Print out a bunch of corny valentine’s and hand them out so each student has a different one. Explain that these are examples of valentines that kids give each other at school. Go around the class and have each student read their corny valentine and have them explain why it’s funny. Here are some that I used:
Next activity: Conversation Hearts
I stashed a bag of conversation hearts away after I came back from Christmas vacation, so I thought it would be cool to have everyone pull a heart candy out of the bag and read it to the class (of course they get to eat them after, even though they’re NASTY candies). With this activity we learn love words, such as “Cutie Pie” “Love Bug” “Sweet Stuff,” and other things like “U R Cute” “Luv 2 Dance” etc.
I stashed a bag of conversation hearts away after I came back from Christmas vacation, so I thought it would be cool to have everyone pull a heart candy out of the bag and read it to the class (of course they get to eat them after, even though they’re NASTY candies). With this activity we learn love words, such as “Cutie Pie” “Love Bug” “Sweet Stuff,” and other things like “U R Cute” “Luv 2 Dance” etc.