It’s February, which means it’s time to prep your Valentine’s Day Activities. I love having themed centers for literacy and math. Here are a few of the activities in my centers this month. This post does include some Amazon affiliate links to help you find some of the materials I use in my classroom with these centers. 
We are working on reading and building CVC words, so I added this game to my Valentine’s Day Activities bundle. My students did great building these words! I always like to use age appropriate clipart, so students will know what word they need to spell without having to ask adults what the image is. I use letter tiles, but you could use magnets, dry-erase markers, alphabet beads, etc.
To work on reading simple CVC words more, we played Sort the Mail which works on real and nonsense words. After we sorted the cards, we worked on the middle sound they heard in the word, put the real words into sentences, and came up with rhyming words. When I create a game, I like to find multiple ways to play it. We were able to work on many skills during small group with this 1 game.
To continue to work on words, we played this Valentine Friends Word Family game which comes with 30 word families so you can differentiate the game depending on your student’s skill level. Included are short vowel and long vowel word families. The students simply sort the words to the correct word family, then record their answer on the worksheet provided.
This new Counting Cupcakes game is one I added to the Valentine’s Day Activities bundle this year. It works on number sense skills including numbers, number words, ten frames, dice, tally marks, and 1-1- correspondence to 10. The students say what number they have on their card, spin the spinner, and move around the game board. My students are competitive so they love anything with a game board.
I’m sure you’ve seen me post about these worksheets to work on missing numbers and comparing numbers. We use them to help us practice for mClass math assessments. This product comes with colored versions to use in sheet protectors for centers or black & white versions to use as worksheets.
This game below is part of my Sweet Subtraction game that has 2 games and a set of worksheets to work on subtraction. I put this paper into a sheet protector so students can use dry-erase markers and use this over and over. They simply had to use both spinners, then subtract those numbers and find the answer.
Finally, I always like to throw in an ABC order activity into literacy centers. The recording sheets gives students a bit of writing practice too. I let students use these erasable Pilot Frixion markers so they add some fun, but let student still have the ability to erase as well. They LOVE them! Grab all of these games and more in my Valentine’s Day Activities Literacy & Math bundle!
February is also when I get to do one of my favorite bulletin boards! When we discuss Valentine’s Day, we talk about how everyone is special. It’s a great way to get in some more of those friendship building activities and show that we are truly a classroom community that cares about each other. Read more about the bulletin board “The Best Part of Me” and get a FREE writing Prompt to go with it!
Well managed group activities will leave the participants satisfied and recharged with the experience. For those leading teams, a few tips on planning such activities can be instrumental to the success of the team.