Your Child Can Learn While Preparing Valentine's Day Cards for Classmates

This is Part One of a two part blogpost about how you can use the excitement of Valentine's Day to have s'more teachable moments with your child.  This post focuses on moments leading up to Valentine's Day.  Part Two will focus on using Valentine's Day cards your child receives from classmates.

Most elementary students wait until the last minute to prepare Valentine's Day cards to exchange with classmates.  

With a little planning, your child's Valentine's Day greetings can be so much more...more enjoyable, more creative, and...s'more teachable!  

You will recognize many more learning opportunities when you're not in a rush.  With time on your side, any activity shared between you and your child is more likely to have teachable moments.

There are so many options.  I'm listing just a few to help you and your child jumpstart your imaginations.

Perhaps you and your child prefer purchasing cards.  Many teachable moments can exist while your child is preparing Valentine's Day cards for classmates.  

Have your child write each classmate's name on the envelope or card. This not only provides practice with capitalization and handwriting, but also helps reinforce spelling patterns.  Don’t hesitate to draw a line with a ruler on the envelope if it will help set up your child for successful handwriting. 

Purchased cards are a short cut to preparing for a Valentine's Day card exchange with classmates, but it doesn't have to eliminate the opportunity for skill practice.  Have your child read the variety of purchased cards to decide which card is best fitted for each classmate.  That makes for some great practice in sight vocabulary and reading fluency.  Don't wait until the night before, spread the task over 4-5 daily sessions to get it done at a relaxing pace.  

Another option is handmade cards.  I know this can sound overwhelming, but hear me out.  A handmade Valentine can be as simple as a heart shape cut from a colored piece of printer paper.  

Do you realize that kids have very few opportunities to use scissors anymore?  Yet, it can be such a good activity for developing hand-eye coordination.

Your child can write a simple greeting like these on each heart:

"Happy Valentine's Day, Sally!"

"Billy, have a super Valentine's Day"

"Have a super cool Valentine's Day, Joanne!"

"Hi Keith, I hope your Valentine's Day is a blast!" 

Done.  Simple!  No glitter necessary.

Or, if you and your child have the time and energy to take it up a notch, consider a slight upgrade with one of these:

Challenge your child to come up with a different sentence for each classmate.  This provides an opportunity to practice capitalization, punctuation, spelling and writing the same message but with different words.

To step it up one notch, the cut-out heart can be glued to a notecard with the one-liner written on the reverse side. 

Allow your child to select supplies for adding decorations -stickers, glitter markers, or attach a pencil to each heart.

Plan a 'production calendar' to allow a relaxed work pace.  If you have enough days before Valentine's Day, have your child make one or two cards each day. 

Work side by side, your child making cards for classmates and you making cards for friends and family. Remember, working side-by-side on projects together creates much more enthusiasm towards any project.  But don't make your child wish you'd go away, just be present and enjoy watching your child create.  

Remember, if keeping it simple makes it approachable, then by all means, keep it simple.  If you have time and energy to take the decorating process up a notch...or two, and your child is interested, then go for it!  Just make sure you keep it fun for both of you!  

Use PowerPoint or Canva (or similar website/app) to create a Valentine's Day bookmark. 

If your child hasn't yet been introduced to PowerPoint or Canva, set some time aside for an introductory and fun exploration of the app.  Either of these apps can provide you and your child with hours of creative and teachable moments.  It's well worth your time to learn them together.

Your child could print bookmarks on cardstock for each classmate, rather than handing out cards.

The bookmark could include a catchy line connecting Valentine's Day to books or reading. 

Introduce your child to an brainstorming process that is extended over a couple days.  List ideas for catchy sayings and then revisit throughout the next couple days.  Add additional ideas as they come to mind. 

Generating ideas (brainstorming) over an extended period of time is fantastic for elementary children to experience.  How fun it can be to think about an idea in different ways for an extended time, experiencing how unrelated ideas can become connected in creative ways.  In addition to the creativity involved in such a process, patience and determination can be rewarded when something especially clever is the end result.

Another way to create a phrase worthy of a bookmark is by referring to your child's favorite books and book characters. For example, if your child is reading Charlotte's Web, the bookmark could include a greeting like:

"Charlotte and Wilbur wish you a Happy Valentine's Day." 

Consider inserting a picture of a book character (like Wilbur) to go along with the greeting.

Pets are always a big hit!  Take a picture of your child with the family pet to insert on the bookmark.  Your child can write a catchy greeting to accompany the photograph, connecting it to Valentine's Day.

My point is simply this, helping your child get an early start with Valentine's Day cards can open up opportunities for s'more teachable moments that might otherwise be lost. 

Learning how to plan, being engaged in a creative process and practicing skills are just a few benefits to getting an early start.  Making the plan and scheduling the time frame is such an important task for elementary students to begin experiencing. 

Don't overwhelm your child with the planning stage if , just keep it basic for starters.  Expand the degree of planning as you and your child encounter more projects in the future.  

Most importantly, make it a shared experience -do it together.  Work shoulder to shoulder.  While doing so, offer some guidance and suggestions but allow your child to make decisions and design choices.  Let them own it! 

Be sure to take pictures of your child while he or she is preparing Valentine's Day cards. 

If you normally share pictures of your child's activities with family and friends via text messages or social media, be sure to share such teachable moments as these!  Even if you simply hand your phone to someone to see the picture, it's important your child knows their efforts are valued enough to be shared with others.

May your child's preparations for Valentine's Day include s'more teachable moments!

Ron

PS.  Next week, Part Two will focus on teachable moments using Valentine's Day cards your child receives from classmates.  See you then!