Share The Love With Valentine’s Day Art Projects
Use Valentine’s Day as a reason to send cards to special people in the community or to the troops in Afghanistan.
By catneushul@yahoo.com
A great idea can spread like wildfire. It all started with a suggestion made at our weekly teacher’s meeting. One of my co-workers asked if we would like to make Valentine’s Day cards for the soldiers in Afghanistan. She had heard a radio announcer from the area asking for cards that would then be collected and sent to the troops. I loved the idea, and asked my children to help. Then, my daughter said she was going to see if her teacher would be interested in doing this as well. One good idea can lead to another, and another.
Valentine’s Day is often a time to focus on a special someone, or a family member, but it can be much more. It can be seen as a way to share the love with a wider group of people. This Valentine’s Day, your students can focus on a variety of ways to create art. They can also learn about the environment, community service, and the importance of appreciating those who perform service for our country.
Appreciating Those Who Serve
Many people know someone who is in the military. Some even have family members who are stationed abroad. This Valentine’s Day, teachers can lead a discussion about what it must feel like for the soldiers to be so far from home and their families. It is also beneficial to talk about what messages they would like to send to military personnel. Following this discussion, students can create Valentine’s cards using art materials and write a special message to a soldier.
Focus on the Environment
Some of the best art work can be designed using the materials found in nature. Instead of creating traditional Valentine’s cards using pens and paper, you can have your students create works of art using objects found in nature. Have students bring in flower petals, seeds, leaves, or other items for use in a card. Creative students can and dazzle the class with their ingenuity.
You could also have your students construct Valentine’s Day art using recycled objects. Students could make a heart or other Valentine’s-related object using something like cereal boxes.
Focus on Community Members
Since Valentine’s Day can be a time to share positive thoughts with people we don’t know, students could create a Valentine’s Day poem and card for a senior. It would be a good idea to show students a model of what you expect their poem to be like, and set up parameters, for example, how long it should be. Also, it would be a good idea to use language arts time to do a lesson on poetry writing. You can either have your students write free verse poems, or assign them a specific style. When they are done, and have created a finished product, you can send them to a senior center or make a special visit to have your students deliver them.
Valentine's Day Lesson Plans:
Student's will gain experience using the Internet to research the history of Valentine's Day. They will then compile a research report of their findings using a word processor on the computer.
Create valentines with your class using recycled supplies. Students will learn fun and creative ways to make Valentine's Day cards while helping the environment at the same time.
This is a fun lesson to have your class do during Valentine's Day. While the lesson calls for Lucky Charms, you can use red and pink M&M's instead, or another candy of your choice. Student's will learn how to sort and create graphs using candy pieces. They will also learn how to make predictions and interpret graphs.