Whoa- February is half over already which means Valentine’s day is just around the corner. Sometimes it can be awkward coming up with another activity about love, but it really doesn’t have to be that difficult, especially when it comes to music. Seriously, just pick a song, any song. . . here are some of my favorite musical Valentine’s activities! Pick a Song This is the easiest and cheesiest no-prep way to enjoy Valentine’s Day in your music class. Pick a song- one of my go-to’s is “Love Song” by Selena Gomez. The best thing I’ve found to use for this activity are movement scarves, but you can seriously use anything! Each time you hear the word love, throw the scarf up into the air! It looks so pretty with 30 scarves flying around the room as your dancing and listening. Count by 5’s I do this one with my grade 2’s and 3’s. I like to do a mini-lesson for context, but it works great on it’s own as well. Using the song “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles, give your students something to write with and write on. As they are listening, have them tally each time they hear the word ‘love’. I like to do it twice- once on their own and once with them seeing me tally on the whiteboard. It will BLOW their mind. It opens up space to discuss things like layering, call-and-response, and even harmony. Count all of the tallies in groups of 5, it’s strangely their favorite part. By the way, love is mentioned over 100 times, depending on which recording you use. I use this one. Will You Be My Valentine? This one requires a little pre-teaching if you haven’t used a parachute in your class before. Decide the conduct in which you prefer to use the parachute. My rules include using only indoor or singing voices, keeping the parachute at waist level unless cued, and gentle hands when doing movements. The lyrics to the song: “Will you be my valentine? My valentine, my valentine? Will you be my valentine, my valentine today?” This song is excellent for highlighting high/low notes or ascending/descending lines. While the students sing, gently shake the parachute up and down- make sure you have a firm grip with both hands. After the question, one student sings a solo “Will you be my valentine?” and the student being asked will sing “yes I can” or “yes I will”. After the response, the parachute is lifted up and the two studens run underneath to switch spots. Valentine’s Centers We love themed centers! I defintely make sure to have a variety of activities. At one station, I will have a color-by-rhythm page. Grab this freebie for your stations! At my teacher table, I have a center called “Secret Rhythm”. One student will write down a secret rhythm and the other students will try to figure out the rhythm together by asking yes/no questions. I have four hearts on the table with a handful of flashcards with rhythms so they can physically see and manipulate the rhythms. This is great for assessments! Another station activity we enjoy is heart-matching for note names. Find my favorite sets here. Cut the hearts, laminate for durability. Have students time each other for note recognition. Finally, a theory station. This theory pack has several pages with hearts that are just cute and fit our theme! Other stations I include are reading and iPads (right now we are enjoying Rhythm Cat, Incredibox and Staff Wars!). I have enough students in most of my classes to have four students at six different stations. We usually do three stations a class so one centers rotation will consist of two time slots. Conclusion Valentine’s Day can be the easiest to plan for or as technical as you need it to be. These activities work with all grade levels at my school (k-4) with slight modifications as per the curriculum. I hope you found something new that you’d like to try. Happy Hearts Day! 💖
