Fun Valentine’s Day Lessons For Middle School Students

Valentine’s Day lessons can be found for middle school students!

Valentine’s Day is usually only celebrated in the elementary years. In middle school, you may use the holiday as a reason to have a dance as a fundraiser, but that is usually the extent of the “fun” around Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day Background Information

What is Valentine’s Day, and Where Did it Start?

Today we see Valentine’s Day as a day to show your love to others, usually in the form of chocolates and paper valentines. But it actually originated hundreds of years ago, starting as Saint Valentine’s Day and honouring the Catholic patron saint of love, Saint Valentine.

There is a legend about a priest who was martyred by the Roman Empire, who literally died for love. The story is about Saint Valentine, who ignored the ban against soldiers marrying and would perform marriages for the soldiers and their would-be wives. When he was caught, he was sentenced to death as a punishment.

Sounds romantic, right? But one small detail that is a possible part of the story is that Saint Valentine sent a note to a girl before he was executed, thus starting the tradition of sending valentines.

Valentine’s Day was recognized as a holiday starting in the late 5th century and may have been a reflection of the martyrdom and sacrifice of Saint Valentine. The tradition continues today, and over 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent every year.

Middle School Valentine’s Day Lessons

I have fond memories of making my Valentine’s Day card holder in school and wanted to bring some of that magic into the school grades. I created a mini unit to help middle school teachers bring back that Valentine’s Day magic into their classroom, but with a focus on curriculum and rigour.

Start your lesson by having students watch one or two videos about this holiday. This video, How Did Valentine’s Day Start? by COLOSSAL QUESTIONS, is a great video to start with. Then have students work on the lessons found in this engaging Valentine’s Day Unit for middle school contains 5 different activities that will help reinforce your students’ reading, writing, speaking, listening, and creativity skills.

Lessons are scaffolded to help all learners achieve success. Students will learn about the historical background of Valentine’s Day traditions, prepare for a Valentine’s Day discussion about current customs and create 1 of 2 final creative projects. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Valentine’s Day Lessons Unit Overview

Lesson 1: History of Valentine’s Day Video & Reading – Students watch a brief video about the history of Valentine’s Day, then read a non-fiction article to help solidify this new learning. Comprehension questions for the article are included.
Lesson 2: Valentine’s Day Opinion Writing – Students are given several Valentine’s Day-related opinion questions to answer. They will use their opinions and ideas in this lesson to assist with their fishbowl discussion and paragraph writing assignment.
Lesson 3: Valentine’s Day Opinion Fishbowl Discussion & Paragraph Assignment – Students use their prepared opinion ideas from Lesson 2 to participate in a class discussion and then a paragraph writing activity.
Lesson 4: Valentine’s Day Creative Choice Board Assignment
Lesson 5: Valentine’s Day Creative Writing Assignment – Both Lessons 4 and 5 are creative assignments. Select which lesson you would like your students to complete. This is great for split grade/multi-age classrooms where you can assign Lessons 4 and 5 to different grades.