How do you keep your students engaged in math on Valentine's Day? Valentine's Day is always a celebrated holiday in my classroom. We focus on support for one another and our relationships in the classroom. Being an upper elementary teacher means we do not have "class parties" for Valentine's Day. Instead, I make sure to provide engaging, Valentine's Day activities for my students. This way they are focused on the content but are able to celebrate the day with their classmates as well.
I wanted to share with you FOUR of my favorite activities that are big hits in my classroom. These include math cards for students, CSI Valentine Transformation/Centers, Multiplication Code Breakers, Mixed Review Code Breakers, and Menu Math with whole numbers or decimals.
In the morning, when students come in, they have cards on their desk and some ring pops, from me. These cards have messages on them that students must use multiplication facts to solve. On the board, I project the key for students to use to solve the code cards. There is a variety of messages so students are not trying to see their classmate's card to solve their own. Along with the cards, I usually give them the ring pops because I have found they are the least messy. I also allow them to eat it during snack, lunch, or at recess. You can grab these Valentine's Day cards here!
This classroom transformation is perfect if you enjoy movement and organized
chaos on holidays! You can set it up as extreme or as simple as you would like. Personally, this has been the class favorite as they can get that energy and excitement out, while working on math. Students will move around the classroom solving word problem clues that will allow them to solve the case of Who Stole the Valentine Box. There are 20 clues to solve that reviews Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction, Division (with remainders), and Two Step word problems.
These code breakers are my number one selling activities during the holidays! Students have to use their skills to solve the answer to Valentine's Day themed jokes. They are similar to the cards above, however, there are more problems and usually used digitally. If you have not used my code breakers before, I have a multiplication FREEBIE you can try out as well! There is one code breaker included, which is part of my full set. I also have a mixed review code breaker set covering 4th grade standards, if you are looking for something other than multiplication.
This menu math set has two sets for differentiation in your classroom. They are formatted exactly the same so all students appear to be working on the same assignment. However, you can easily differentiate based on your students’ needs of review with whole numbers or decimals. These worksheets include all four operations for review. Some of the problems are multi-step.
Valentine BUNDLE?
Do you want to have math centers for the month of February ready to go? Check out our Valentine's Day Math Bundle for 4th-5th Grade! I have my students rotate in centers in two week rotations for math, so this bundle is perfect to get us through the month of February. (I do add in some non-themed centers as well!)
