A Valentine’s Day to Remember

This is my favorite Valentine’s inspired activity.  I have implemented variations of this Valentine’s Day activity every year in my fifth grade classroom.  The reason why I have continued to use this activity is because it is inspiring for my students and myself.   Parents have given positive feedback about this activity; It is a good “pick me up” for everyone. The basic sequence of events is:

1. In writing (about a week before Valentine’s Day), I give a mini-lesson on adjectives to spice up students’ vocabulary choices.  This lesson is similar to the “Dead Word” lessons like this one here.  I focus on positive personality adjectives like the ones I have compiled for your here. (←FREEBIE #1)
2. Next, students write specific compliments for each of their classmates (and teacher!) using the adjectives.  Assigning basic requirements for the compliments like “specific”, and “uses at least two adjectives” is very helpful.  The first time I did this activity I did not give guidelines for the compliments and many students wrote things like “You are nice” for most of their classmates.  I model example compliments for students.  For example, a compliment for a teacher friend might be “It was hilarious on that last field trip when that stranger thought we were sisters.  You are a considerate friend that I will always cherish.” You can find an example template for students here. (←FREEBIE #2)
3. Then, I type up all the students statements. Each student gets their own page with all the comments their classmates wrote about them on it.  Yes, this takes time but it is worth it.  In the past I had students cut out each of their handwritten statements and pass them out.  This worked moderately well but it is a lot of cutting and quite honestly, not as special.  When students know ahead of time that I will type up all the comments, they are more honest because their comment really are anonymous.  It also allows me to make sure everything that students are sharing is positive.  I am a proficient typist and it takes me about 3 hours to type up all the student comments.  I broke this up into two to three days of work.  A template for the typed up version can be found here. (←FREEBIE #3)  Note: The version you see will be different from the version I see unless you do this following step.  In Google Docs I added the font “Crafty Girls” by clicking on the drop down font box and selecting “Add Fonts”.  I changed “Show: All fonts” to “Show: Handwriting” and “Crafty Girls” was one of the top choices. I clicked on it and it added it to my list of font choices.
   
4. Last, I print out the typed pages to put into students Valentine’s Day bags (or to simply pass out to students).  I never had Valentine’s Day classroom celebrations, but I always felt this activity was a much better alternative.

Here are some REAL examples of the compliments students received from their classmates.

One fifth grade girl received the following list.  I purposefully typed each statement how each student wrote it, even if it contained a mistake.  I also added my own compliment for each student.  One of the my favorite (and unexpected) parts of this activity was students would try to guess, “Mrs. Harris, is this the one you wrote about me?” and their guess was usually incorrect.  All the compliments were well-written.

One fifth grade boy received this list:

Here is a REAL example of my own valentine’s day compliment list. This list is one of my favorite things .

Now that I teach high school and have over 70 students, I am considering revising this activity again using an online submission form so I don’t have to type up all the comments.  Any suggestions for high school modifications?

If you do this activity, I’d love to hear about it! Happy Valentine’s Day!