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5 Fun Valentine’s Day Literacy Activities

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A cheerful family gathered in a cozy bedroom, celebrating Valentine's Day with festive crafts and heartfelt moments. This image highlights family bonding and creative ways to enjoy Valentine's Day together.

Tired of the same old Valentine’s Day for your kids? Create magical memories for your children with these Valentine’s Day literacy activities that make hearts and minds grow!

Homemade Valentine’s

Instead of buying pre-made Valentine’s Day cards, have your children write their own. Encourage them to write a thoughtful Valentine to a parent or grandparent that uses more descriptive adjectives and complex words to explain why they love them. These also extend to their classmates, siblings, and friends! Even if the cards are a little messy, the effort and personal touch will mean the world to grandparents, siblings, and friends.

Writing Poetry for Valentine’s Day

The classic poem “roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you” can be easily adapted to teach kids about rhyming. The last two phrases can be re-written with just about anything that rhymes with blue. Try helping your kids write their own Valentine’s Day poetry to give to their friends and family.

Secret Message Decoder

Turn your little ones into detectives with this Valentine’s Day literacy activity that introduces them to entertaining secret messages! They’ll love cracking the code while learning new problem-solving skills!

Start by assigning each letter a unique symbol, such as a heart for “A,” an arrow for “B,” and so on. Write a secret Valentine’s Day message for your child to decode, like “You are loved!” or “Be my Valentine!” Hand them a “key” showing what each symbol stands for and let them crack the code.

Once they’ve mastered decoding, let them create their own secret messages for friends or family to decipher. This activity is perfect for sparking creativity while also practicing problem-solving and literacy skills.

Love-Themed Word Games

A close-up of a Scrabble game featuring Valentine’s Day words like "LOVE", "ME" and "YOU." The image emphasizes fun literacy activities for families during Valentine's Day.

Get creative with letter tiles: Grab some Scrabble tiles (or make your own!) and see who can spell the most heartfelt words before the timer runs out. Making up your own rules adds a personal twist and keeps the game lively for everyone. Set a timer and try to assemble 5 words that begin with the letter “L” for “love” or “V” for valentine within the allotted time. Or work together to use all of the letters to build a crossword of words that are all connected.

I “LOVE” the Alphabet

Begin with a word that begins with the letter “A.” For a Valentine’s Day theme you could start the game with the word “adore.” The next person chooses a Valentine’s Day word that starts with a “B” like “beautiful.” Then next  “cute,” “darling,” “envelope,” “friends,” etc. until you cover the entire alphabet.

If you need to get inventive and stretch the rules a bit, that’s okay! The letter “x” can be a difficult one, so use the symbol for hugs and kisses “xoxo,” which is perfect for Valentine’s Day! Want to level up the game? Challenge everyone to remember the full list of words—it’s a memory test with a Valentine’s twist!

Love Languages Dictionary

One of our favorite Valentine’s Day literacy activities will have your kids learning about the many ways to express love while boosting their vocabulary!

Build a “Love Languages Dictionary” that features words for love in different languages, such as “amour” (French), “amor” (Spanish), and “爱” (Chinese). For added fun, encourage your kids to draw pictures or use stickers to illustrate each word. Try this: Next to “amour,” they could draw a heart or a couple holding hands.

Your kids watch their dictionary come alive filled with love—and they’ll pick up a few new words along the way!

First Letter, Last Letter (Valentine’s Day-Themed)

Perfect for spontaneous fun and it does not require any props or pieces. The game starts when someone says a word related to Valentine’s Day. The next person has to say a love related word that begins with the last letter of that word. If the game begins with the word “kiss,” then next word could be “swoon” and then next word could be “nice” and so on. Perfect for kids in grade 3 and up, or who can read and are comfortable spelling words on their own.

Two children sitting at a desk, using paper, markers, and stickers to create personalized Valentine’s Day cards. The image showcases creative activities that encourage heartfelt expressions.

Beyond the candy and cards, Valentine’s Day opens doors to word play and vocabulary building. Ready to make learning an adventure?

Ready to spark your child’s love of learning? Connect with School is Easy today to discover more creative educational activities tailored to your child’s needs.

Kid’s Health: Helping Kids With Colour Blindness

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Helping Kids With Colour Blindness

As parents, we have to understand that there are a variety of hurdles children face in school, and one of these potential obstacles in the classroom is colour blindness. While it might not be as high-profile in the media as learning challenges such as autism or attention deficit disorder, colour blindness can be a problem that parents and teachers should be aware of. So today, we’ll discuss some ideas on how to help kids with colour blindness.

Why should we be concerned if our child is colour blind?

We often don’t notice it because we take it for granted, but colours are often a key tool used for learning in the classroom. Many images, notes and charts often have a colour key or use different shades of colour to demonstrate a lesson. For example, subjects such as biology can be quite reliant on using diagrams to communicate complex concepts. A task as simple as creating labels for a science project can become a daunting and complex exercise for someone who is colourblind. If children are following along with a set of colour-coded instructions, they can easily fall behind if they cannot differentiate between colours; that is why it is a good idea to lend an extra hand to kids with colour blindness.

It’s wise to receive training that will help you spot kids with colour blindness

That’s because you may be the only one on the lookout for this condition. According to colourblindawareness.org, most teachers do not receive any training to spot colour-blind children. In fact, the same article says it is probable at least one child per classroom in the United Kingdom is colourblind, averaging about 450,000 students in that country.

How to spot colour blindness in children

Try examining the areas in which your children might be struggling. For example, if you notice that one of your kids seems to always be behind in a class that is heavily reliant on visual learning, you may want to observe him or her more closely. As a quick side note, we’ve covered learning styles before in this blog, so you can check that out if you want to know exactly what we mean by visual learning.

Also, keep in mind that there are different types of colourblindness, which you should be familiar with. We suggest reading the above article to get familiar with the different ‘families’ of this condition which include — but may not be limited to — red-green colourblindness, blue-yellow colourblindness, and complete colourblindness. This knowledge will help you understand that depending on the colours being shown, your child may or may not exhibit signs of colourblindness.

There are also online tests which can help you figure what, if any, type of colourblindness your child may have. However, please keep in mind that these tools are not intended to replace professional advice from a family doctor or optometrist. If you suspect your child has this condition, do not diagnose him or her yourself. See a professional.

What are the next steps if your kids have colourblindness?

If you have children diagnosed with this condition, it would probably be best to consult with the school they are attending. For instance, on their website, the provincial government suggests asking teachers to seat students who are colourblind in glare-free spots in the classroom. Another idea suggested by the site is to use chalk that will ‘stand out’ better to a person with colour blindness. Perhaps most important is to realize that the difficulties that colourblind kids encounter can be alleviated by adapting their environments. For example, written instead of colour-coded labels would be of better use to a colourblind child.

6 Study Habits of Successful Students

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Successful Students Habits

Effective Study Habits for Academic Success

Students face several common study challenges for many reasons, including poor use of time, distractions, no motivation, or not engaging with the material. It is critical students adopt successful study habits to get the most out of their study sessions. These include time management skills, organization, reducing distractions, and using active learning techniques. [Read more…]

Our 5 Favorite Tips for Raising Critical Thinkers

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5 Favorite Tips for Raising Critical Thinkers - SIE

Unlocking Critical Thinking to Empower Your Child’s Future

Parents want the best for their children, and one of the things you can do to secure a bright future for your kids is to make critical thinkers out of them. A critical thinker is open-minded, curious, and can respect diverse perspectives. At School Is Easy, we’ve seen the difference critical thinking skills can make in a child’s life and learning process. [Read more…]