Purpose: Many learners are unfamiliar with some of the holidays observed in the U.S. Learners who have children in elementary school may be asked to provide valentines for their children’s classrooms.  This activity has a cultural objective, as well as a language one.

Preparation Time:  10-15 minutes

Materials:  one or a set of picture dictionaries that have a section on holidays that includes Valentine’s Day; assorted valentines (some with poems), paper for making valentines.

Preparation:  Depending on your learners’ level, decide on the vocabulary needed to talk about Valentine’s Day, by looking at the picture dictionary and the valentines.  The list could include: February 14, love, poems, red, pink, heart, flowers, candy, cards, gifts, exchange, admiration, and friendship.  Try to have visuals and/or examples to illustrate the new vocabulary.

Procedure:

1. Find out what learners know about Valentine’s Day, both from their own experience and by looking at the

      picture dictionary.  Ask them if they have similar holidays in their home cultures, i.e. holidays that honor friendship or celebrate romantic love.  Ask them to share something about those holidays.

2. Introduce the new vocabulary by asking learners what symbols they see in the assorted valentines.  What messages do they see?

3. Share some to the short verses in the valentines provided or share the familiar one:

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet

And so are you.

4. Elicit words that rhyme with blue and do several poems together as a class, based on the model.  Stress that Valentine’s Day isn’t just for sweethearts.  It’s a day to let people you love – family and friends – know that you care about them and like them a lot.  Have fun and do some silly ones, too. For example:

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

I love pizza

And ice cream, too. 

OR

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

I love English

And my teacher, too!

5.  Have students create their own valentines.

Variations:

• For higher level, talk about expressions that use the word “heart” in them, like “Have a heart”, “Her heart is in the right place”, “the heart of the matter”, “to wear your heart on your sleeve”.