Looking for fun, meaningful, and no prep Valentine’s Day Activities for the classroom? I’ve got you covered! Valentine’s Day is such a fun day in the classroom. But can also be a little chaotic! Between class celebrations, passing out Valentines, and keeping students engaged, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

My favorite way to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the classroom is by focusing on friendship and kindness. It makes the day so meaningful—and with the right activities, it can be low-prep and stress-free too!

In this post, I’m sharing fun, engaging, and NO-prep Valentine’s Day activities that will help you create a memorable Friendship Day in your classroom.

Whether you need literacy and math activities, a sweet kindness craft, or simple celebration ideas, I’ve got you covered. Let’s make Valentine’s Day easy, fun, and filled with friendship! ❤️

You can find all the activities I’m sharing about here!

Start the day with Valentine’s Day Morning Work

I love having a morning message pulled up on my Smart Board when students arrive in the morning! Students can read the message and see their morning work for the day! You can read more about our calm morning routine in 1st grade here! We always read and discuss our message of the day during our Morning Meeting time.

After students unpack, they can get to work on their morning work. I created a super simple Valentine’s Day or Friendship Day Morning work that students can work on independently while also reviewing skills! (The morning work and coloring page could be copied back to back to keep students busy for awhile! 😉)

Reading Valentine’s Day Activities: Smitten

One of my favorite read aloud’s for Valentine’s Day in the classroom is Smitten! This adorable story follows the unexpected friendship between a lost mitten and a stray sock as they search for where they belong. It’s all about kindness, friendship, and sticking together—perfect for celebrating the themes of Valentine’s Day!

We start by reading the book, or listening to the story on youtube. Then we have plenty of discussion about the story using our slides! I love having students turn and talk to share their thoughts.

Finally, students work independently or with a partner on some reading response pages that focus on retelling the story and making connections!

Friendship & Kindness Craft : Sprinkling Kindness

I love focusing on kindness with my 1st graders on Valentine’s Day. We have a class discussion and brainstorm ways to show kindness to others.

We talk about who we can show kindness to, where we can show kindness, and how to be kind. I have students discuss with partners and we make a list of ideas as a class!

After brainstorming ways to show kindness to others, students have the opportunity to write and illustrate two ways they plan to sprinkle kindness to others. I give each student 2 banner pages:

• Page 1 has space for students to write two ways to show kindness.
• Page 2 has space for students to illustrate their kind acts.

After writing and illustrating, I give students time to color and cut out their banner.

I like to staple the 2 pages together, then hang them up around the room or in the hallway to make a class banner!

Partner Pairing Cards

Use these cards to partner up your students to complete the activities. You might choose to have students keep their same partner throughout the day or switch up your partners for each activity.

How to Use:

• Show students the Partner Pair Slides to go over which pictures go together.
• Give each student a card.
• Give each student a card and have them quietly walk around the classroom looking for their partner match.
• Once they find their partner, they can sit down together and either begin the activity or wait for directions.

Valentine’s Day Activities: No Prep Partner Activities

We spend the rest of the morning working on simple, no prep Valentine’s Day activities in partners! This makes the day SO simple for me to plan and students have fun working together in their friendship pairs!

Phonics Valentine’s Day Activities: Vowel Teams

For phonics, we work on reviewing Vowel Teams! (Because vowel teams are letters that work together, just like friends do! 😉) Students play a Spin and Cover game with their partner, then complete the Vowel team matching activity!

Friendship Writing Valentine’s Day Activity

For writing, students can create a Recipe for a Great Friend! We brainstorm together first, and then students work on writing their recipes.

Valentine’s Day Activities Word Search and Color by Code

Our color by code and word search activities are always favorites for my 1st graders! Students work with their partners and I let them choose which activity they want to work on first. Students can grab their supplies and find a spot in the classroom to work together. Once they complete one activity, they can start the second!

Easy & Low-Prep Valentine’s Day Celebration Ideas

In the afternoon, we have our Valentine’s Day Party! I have found that the simplest way to run a classroom party is by using party stations! I use this slide to keep everything on track!

Tips:

• I like splitting my class into 3 groups. Our 3 party stations are Passing out Valentines, Craft, and Snack
• I ask for parent volunteers to plan and be in charge of each of these stations so that I can just supervise
• I included icons for each of these stations, but you can switch it up and use whatever works best in your classroom!
• Our stations last about 15 minutes so that our total party time is between 45-60 min with clean up!

Friendship Crown Valentine’s Day Activities

I also let my students color and cut out a Happy Friendship Day crown! I staple to a sentence strip for students to wear! They think anytime they get to wear a crown is the best day ever!

Make Valentine’s Day Stress-Free with These No Prep Activities!

I hope you loved these easy and no prep Valentine’s Day Activities for the classroom, you can find them all here!