Valentine’s day, the day of love. What better opportunity to play a few games with your class that brings them together and helps them learn valuable lessons along the way?
This is a really interactive way to engage your students but also bring them together and get them team-building without even realizing it.
These party games are a great laugh and they will ensure everybody is having a lot of fun, but they also help to promote learning and skills in some way or another.
It allows the class to spend time together and cooperate with each other too.
So, this Valentine’s don’t go for the typical activity of writing out cards for friends or family, and instead, turn the day’s learning into a party that your students are not going to forget for a very long time!
This valentines day twist on the popular game Minute To Win It is so much fun.
You’ll be sure to get the adrenaline pumping and have laughter filling the room, as the kids battle through a variety of different exercises where they must race against the clock.
And what’s great is that all of these games can be adjusted so that they are appropriate for any age group.
For each task that is completed correctly, a student will receive 3 points, those who are unsuccessful will get 0 points. Whoever has the most points by the end of the rounds is the winner.
Pinatas are always great fun and they’re the perfect option for kids to get out some of their excess energy. And we all know they have that in bucket loads.
What we also know is that teacher budgets can also be quite restraining, and this is a great game to play that is fairly low budget too.
Who knew a pinata could be made from duck tape?
You can fill the pinata with the standard candy should you wish, or you could also think outside the box if you want there to be a more poignant message to the game.
I like to put compliments written on paper inside and each time a child knocks one out of the pinata they give it to any student in the class.
You can also make a rule that once one student has received one they can’t receive a second to ensure that everyone gets one.
This game is a lot of fun and it keeps kids excited and engaged throughout, but it also teaches them about the different kinds of relationships and how partners can come in all different shapes and sizes.
Each child will have their own specific character and they must move around the classroom and speak to other students to solve the mystery of who their partner is.
This may be a best friend, a family member, or a romantic partner.
For younger students this valentines day inspired hopscotch game will be so much fun to play, plus it can help to teach them many things such as coordination and numeracy.
You can ask the children to say the numbers as they land on them or you can ask them to throw plastic lids or something similar and then they must not touch the space where it has landed.
Then once they are finished they turn over the number and find a challenge that they must complete.
Honestly, there is no end to the ways you can use heart hopscotch to be educational as well as entertaining.
With a little imagination this game can really become whatever you’d like it to be.
Bingo is always a great game to play in classrooms, it’s the kind of game that kids always get super excited to play, but they also require minimal supplies, equipment, or planning so it’s just as teacher-friendly too.
Simply print out bingo sheets with valentines day inspired pictures on them in different orders. Then print out the individual images used. Pick them out of the hat and the first person to get a line and shout bingo wins!
This can also help to promote listening skills, attention to detail, observation skills and even more. So, while the kids think they’re simply having fun, they are also learning important and valuable life skills too. It’s a win-win.
This game will ensure a whole afternoon of fun, and considering it requires minimal supplies it’s the perfect classroom game. Your students will try to land Cupid’s arrows on numbered paper plates.
This helps with a variety of developmental skills too depending on how you play the game.
Obviously, children will improve their motor skills as they try to aim, pull back, step and release, as well as follow through.
It can also help with number recognition by asking them to aim for certain numbered plates or to call out the number that the arrow lands on.
Of course, you could always add more to this game if you wanted.
Each plate could have a specific activity, challenge, or question taped to the underneath that the student must do or answer once they land on it.
This game is so wholesome that it hurts my heart. It is the perfect game to play in the classroom that allows the students to express themselves and think and talk about the things, places, and people that they love.
Each student has a box of Sweethearts and a card with topics color coordinated to the sweets.
Each student must take a turn picking out a sweet and then answering the question that matches with their sweet color.
This game could also be adapted so that you speak about parts of speech or different nouns for example if you want to make it more educational.
However, I love the original purpose of this game as it allows children to express what is important to them and learn a little more about their classmates too.
This game is so much fun and helps children to get out their energy, go a little crazy, and get excited.
And for teachers, it involves a little bit of music and some cut out hearts with writing on them. So it’s a win for both parties.
Large hearts will be placed in a circle, you’ll need one for each member of the class.
Then the music will start and students will jump from heart to heart. As you would in the musical chairs game, you’ll eliminate one heart each round.
The child who has no heart to stand on must complete the challenge written on the last heart to be removed.
The challenges can be literally anything you’d like too.
They could be questions and answers to class topics, they could be activities that promote motor skills such as jump as high as you can etc, or it could be a challenge.
Each child that is out can even select the next heart to be removed to still feel included.
This game is a lot of fun, but it’s actually really mentally stimulating for your students too. Each student gets a headband with a picture that they cannot see attached to it.
They then have a specific amount of time to ask as many questions as possible to figure out what their image is.
This means that students have to think about the questions they are going to ask as well as the answers they receive.
They’ll have to think quickly on their feet and use communication and deduction skills to win.
So, while this may seem like a quick and exciting game for the little ones, they are actually developing many crucial social skills too.
Final Thoughts
Playing games is actually one of the best ways to activate young minds.
The children are simply engaging and having fun so they don’t even realize that they are improving a variety of necessary skills.
They will almost subconsciously pick up the lessons that you are trying to teach.
As you can see from this article, there are plenty of really fun options out there that will help improve communication skills, motor skills, observational skills, decision making, and much more.
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
