4th Grade Valentines

Taking inspiration from high school 20 years ago, I had my 4th grade class write each other sweet little messages of kindness to celebrate a classroom version of Valentine’s Day. I created a page of little message cards that I printed out for each student on different color ASTROBRIGHT papers, and everyone in the classroom was included on it, even us teachers.

We first had a lesson on compliments and what it means to give someone a compliment. The kids then shared some compliments they thought of. Each kid got a handout of a certain bright color and wrote a compliment for each person on the page. They cut out the individual cards, and once everyone was ready to hand them out, that’s what we did. Every body in the room scurried around, weaving around desks “delivering the mail” into the little folded mailboxy things we created the day before. It was pure joy and excitement. My vision for this activity came to life in a way that exceeded my expectations.

After each person had dropped off their messages to the rightful recipient, everybody returned to their seats and spent a minute in silence reading through their compliment cards. See my twelve below:

My cup runneth over with these sweet bunch. It would be hard not to imagine implementing this activity every year moving forward to celebrate Valentine’s Day in my classroom. Thank you, Mr. Wrenson for this idea. It is my pleasure to pay it forward. Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody. xoxo

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