Friendship love is in the air and my students could not possibly be any more excited for Valentine’s Day. There is something so wonderfully thrilling about receiving a card from each of your friends at school. Such simple things hold so much magic for my kindergarten students. I am so excited to join forces with American Greetings to share a giveaway to add a little magic into your Valentine’s day too! We are giving away a $250 Staples gift card that you can use to purchase classroom supplies. So exciting, right?
Next week, my students have so much Valentine excitement, they just might burst. We are meeting with our 7th grade buddies early in the week to decorate Valentine mailboxes. My students love a chance to spend time with the older students they admire so much and I am always so grateful to have support from the “big kids” for more involved classroom projects. All that I do is ask each child to bring a shoebox to school and collect any art supply donations. I cut a hole in each shoebox to be the mail slot ahead of time and lay out the donated supplies. The 7th graders all bring a roll of tape. They use the tape and glue to completely transform the Valentine mailboxes. As you can see from these photos of last year’s event, the day is pure fun and creativity abounds!
When the boxes are decorated, we will line them up and eagerly wait for a chance to fill the mailboxes with Valentine cards at the end of the week.
I have decided to capitalize on my students’ holiday enthusiasm and use opportunity to work on their writing skills. Writing is way more fun when there is an authentic purpose for doing it. Especially if that authentic purpose is to write a note to your good friend.
I hopped onto AmericanGreetings.com and printed some of their Valentines for kids. I created a little writing station in my classroom by placing some of the freshly printed Valentines and a few pencils. The students loved visiting the writing center when they had free time and making cards for their friends and family members. This was the place to be in my classroom. These cards were cute, kid-friendly and FREE to print! How awesome is that?
I didn’t want to purchase traditional Valentine cards from the store for this little activity because I wanted to preserve the novelty of Valentine’s day. Earlier this week, we made traditional construction paper Valentines for our 7th grade buddies, I know that the children will be writing store-bought Valentines with their parents at home, and we did this different type of Valentine card in the classroom. By using different types and sizes of cards and papers, each activity felt unique and special to my kindergarteners and they didn’t have an opportunity to get tired of “doing the same thing again.”
It’s fun to make Valentines like this for a friend, but eventually the novelty wears off. Using an assortment of different Valentine cards and activities, the fun stays fresh. American Greetings’ free printable Valentine cards for kids were the perfect addition to our classroom Valentine activities.
$250 Staples Gift Card Valentine Giveaway
I know your students are going to have a blast on Valentine’s Day, but don’t you deserve a little Valentine magic too? American Greetings cares tremendously about the work that educators do in the classroom, which is why they are giving one lucky teacher a $250 Staples gift card to spend on Classroom Supplies. Are you ready for a chance to win? Use the Rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway and best of luck!
Thank you so much to American Greetings for sponsoring this blog post and supporting classroom teachers!
This is a sponsored post. I received payment, trade and/or products from American Greetings in exchange for promoting.
However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.
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