Best Blog for Kids Who Hate to Read: MORE Literacy Ideas for a Fun Valentine's Day

This week’s Valentine’s Day post has lots of literacy-boosting activities to try at home: coloring pages, songs, finger plays word searches, writing ideas and more.

Word Searches – You can find Valentine’s Day word searches online but creating your own is a better literacy idea.

Brainstorm a list of Valentine’s Day words.
Give each family member a piece of graph paper to create his own puzzle.
On the graph paper, write the letters of each word in the squares.
Fill in the unused squares with random letters.
Exchange searches.

V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E Words

Using the letters in Valentine, create other words. Examples: lend, tin, live… If you want, you can make it a contest to see who gets the most words. You can also give extra credit for longer words.

Writing

Simple writing prompts for Valentine's Day from Reading Rockets, plus a few of my own

Coupon Book Create a Valentine's Day coupon book for a family member or friend, full of simple things you will do to show your love and friendship.
Letter Write a letter to your Mom, Dad, grandparent, brother, or sister telling them why you love them.
Personal Memory Describe a time when you felt especially loved.
Acrostic Poems Write an acrostic poem using a word like MOM, FRIEND, LOVE, or VALENTINE. Try this interactive acrostic learning tool from ReadWriteThink [very cool].
Conversation Heart Poems Choose the heart(s) you want to use (or pick randomly, without looking). Glue down the hearts, leaving space for your own lines in between.
Conversation Heart Stories Start with one or more conversation hearts. Let them be the dialogue in a story.
Want to know more about conversation hearts? All about Conversation Hearts