7 Last Minute Ideas to Celebrate Valentine's Day in the Classroom (Includes a Freebie!)

Is it Valentine's Day already?? 

To be honest, Valentine's Day is not my favorite holiday (by far), but it is one that I truly enjoy celebrating with my students in the classroom.  

But what if you are not prepared for tomorrow? Not to worry! Here are 5 low and no-prep ideas that your students will love!

1. Decorate the Classroom (or door, or bulletin board) 

Cut out paper hearts large enough for students to write a word or or short phrase. Have students write on the hearts and decorate them. 

Students can write words:

• that describe a good friend
• that describe kindness
• of inspiration

Students can write short phrases 

• why they love their Spanish class
• why they love school
• a happy thought

2. Kindness Letters

This can be as simple as pulling out some paper and beginning to write, or as involved as making a card out of construction paper, decorating it, and writing inside.

Students can write about 

• why someone is special or important to them
• a thank you for a kind act that someone did for them
• a note to another Spanish student in a lower level class with advice and helpful tips
• a note to someone special just to make them smile!

Students can free-write in Spanish, or perhaps write an acrostic poem using vocabulary they know. You can also print out the simple cards on cardstock from this packet for students to fill out and color for their friends, family, and/or classmates.

3.  Love Songs (or Anti-Love Songs?)

What Spanish student does not enjoy learning through songs? My middle and high schoolers love practicing the imperative tense with a song called "Dejame" by Los Secretos. I have created activities including a lyric fill-in and different activities to learn vocabulary and reinforce the imperative tense. It's a hit every year!

You can find a fun list of songs 

Spanish Mama's blog

Hispanic Mama's blog

Spanish Playground Blog

Fun For Spanish Teacher's blog

Rock a Lingua's blog

4.  Classroom Kindness Word Swap!

In this activity, all students take out a sheet of paper and write their name in the center.

As a class, we brainstorm descriptive words that can describe people and write them on the board.

Next, the students move around the room, writing kind words and short phrases that describe their classmates.  I like to play cheesy Spanish love songs in the background, but you can also play more upbeat music to get the mood going!

After 10-15 minutes (or however long it takes for students to write on all of their classmates' papers), students can return to their seats and see what their classmates wrote about them.

5.  Read or Listen to a Story

I just love the story of "El Amor y la Locura" by Mario Benedetti for more advanced and bilingual students. There are several YouTube videos, but this one is nice and slow with a clear accent.

The story is about the beginning of time, when all of the different feelings are personified and play Hide and Seek.  It's entertaining and has great vocabulary.

I brainstorm a list of feelings with students and hand out the story as a text so they can refer to it as they watch the video. Most times, after discussing the story, the students want to listen to it a second time.

6.  Valentine's Day Themed Activities

I would be remiss to not mention the opportunity to review material with a Valentine's Day theme.  In my TpT store, I have several themed activities for Elementary students.

• Spanish Valentine's Day Writing, Cards, and Vocabulary
• Spanish Valentine's Day Main Idea Task Cards
• Valentine's Day Bilingual Word Book
• Spanish Valentine's Day Mixed Up Sentences

7. Valentine's Day Mini-book Freebie!!!

Click on the photo above for your own Spanish English bilingual Valentine's Day minibook. Students will love making these little books their own! Assembly directions are included.

Don't You Just Love It When Things Start Falling Into Place?

Our family has been working hard to incorporate more Spanish in our lives in 2022.  

This morning, we woke up to a beautiful snowfall which also meant that my little one's Spanish class was on zoom today.  He argued and tried to convince us to allow him to skip the class, but it was a short session and I was curious as to what they actually do in class (and how much my son actually participates!)

I was so pleasantly surprised that, after a slow start, he actively participated and even make some silly jokes in Spanish. He was one of few that answered questions about the cuento they read : El Muñeco de Nieve.  He even sang a song about invierno. I was proud of him.

This weekend, my boys helped me test out a few of my activities for the 100 Días del Colegio celebration. They completed a text prompt:

and a worksheet:

Freddie even indulged me with a mini photo session of him playing with the celebration bracelets:

Lunch this afternoon was in Spanish.

My older son just came back from the grocery store, speaking in Spanish with his dad.

Tonight, my youngest is looking forward to reading a cuento about yet another muñeco de nieve and my older two have asked to watch an episode of "Casa de Papel" with us!

I'm thrilled that with a little more effort, my boys are beginning to feel more confident again with their Spanish! 

While (if I'm being completely honest) it's not always easy or even always successful, encouraging my sons to use their target language is so important. I think it's also important for them to see that even if they take a break or even forget Spanish for a while, they can always come back to it again.

My New Year's Resolutions as a Spanish Speaking Teacher-Mom

I have to admit that New Year's Eve is just about my least favorite holiday. HOWEVER, I do love the clean slate a new year brings and I enjoy challenging myself to become a better version of myself through New Years Resolutions!

I will spare you the "I will exercise" and "I will get more sleep" resolutions, and instead share with you my resolutions to help my boys increase their Spanish proficiency this year. 

Even though we are primarily an OPOL household (with my husband as the native Spanish speaker), I find that I need to step up on the target language teaching as COVID has really put some roadblocks in their Spanish learning:  

** We have not been to Spain since summer of 2019.

** My older son has continued his Spanish learning through ALCE, but primarily through zoom since spring of 2020 due to COVID restrictions. This is not ideal.

** My middle son tried to study with ALCE, but since zoom school is not for him, he learned zip and is no longer taking a Spanish class...strike that! He is taking the mandatory "Intro to Spanish" in his middle school, but he needs more.

** My younger son really struggles to put his thoughts together in Spanish. He did not begin his immersion Spanish classes last year due to COVID. He is enrolled this year and enjoys the classes, but tells me it is only about 50% in Spanish and all of the kids struggle to speak in the target language.

So here we go, Sra Casado's New Year Resolutions with regards to Spanish learning at home:

FOR THE FAMILY

All in all, I want to encourage my boys to speak, read, and hear more Spanish in their daily lives. Since we have not been able to travel or take fun classes in Spanish, learning and using Spanish has become more of a chore. We need to turn that around, poco a poco.

1. Read more books: 

This resolution is especially focused on the little one who still loves for us to read to him. We have so many beautiful picture books in Spanish, but, at the end of the day, we often turn to old favorites in English. I propose working with my husband and son to create "Spanish book night" at least 3 times per week.

2. More songs / TV / movies: 

My older boys have begun to find expressing themselves more and more difficult as they have gotten older and the majority of their friends only speak English. We began watching Casa de Papel together as a family, first with subtitles in English, then with subtitles in Spanish, and their confidence has soared! We need to continue this, and add in Spanish music during family meal times or once per month Spanish movies to practice even more!

3. Play more games: 

What our non-disciplined family has found to be extremely helpful over the years is to have established routines when it comes to using Spanish. We know that we always play with Playmobil in Spanish. We know that bathtime is always in Spanish, etc. I think it would be fun to have certain games that we only play in Spanish.

3. Speak Spanish at dinner table: 

Again with the routines! We began doing this in December but we need to continue. It's been a bit of a challenge to (1) remember and (2) reinforce when we do remember, but we will get there!

Sometimes we may find it difficult to find topics of conversation. In another post, I will talk about some games that we play to facilitate conversation... here is a favorite....

4. Get my boys involved in helping with my TpT store: Before COVID hit, my boys would help here and there with my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It was fun for them to try out the activities, and useful for me. Now that two of them are teenagers (how did that happen?!), they are able to help with other aspects of the store such as product creation and business strategy. I'm hoping if they can find that Spanish is useful (and so many people are interested in learning Spanish), they will be inspired to learn even more!

FOR ME:

1. Read more books in Spanish: 

I feel like my days are so full as it is, but I want to make a concerted effort to read more this year, and especially to read more in Spanish. My son is reading En El Tiempo de las Mariposas by Julia Alvarez, and reading and discussing it with him will be my first read.

2. Read newspaper articles: 

In preparation for the AP test this year, my older son will be reading a newspaper article per week and discussing it with his dad. I would like to participate in this as well.

3. Organize my reference files (digital and hard copy): 

I am not looking forward to this one, but over the years, I have created, bought, and otherwise accumulated so many wonderful resources to teach and learn Spanish. However, they are in SO MANY different books, folders, boxes, notebooks, computers, files, external hard drives....I don't even know what I have anymore! (does this happen to anyone else?) I probably won't finish this project this year, but I do want to begin dedicating time to learning what I have and simplifying my Spanish materials to my favorites.

I know that this is a very ambitious list, and it's quite possible that we may not be able to do it all. However, it doesn't hurt to try, right? I can't wait to give it a go, see what works and what doesn't, and improve the family's Spanish in the meantime.

What are your 2022 New Years Resolutions for you and your family with regards to the target language?