FRIENDSHIP PARTY IDEAS
EASIEST CRAFT: DECORATE BAGS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY CARDS
The kids are going to bring in Valentines, so the easiest craft for this party is to buy a bunch of plain bags and have the kids decorate them! Bring in a bunch of stickers and markers and let them go wild. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can plan for them to make one of the cute bags pictured below. Or just give them some circles and hearts and googly eyes and print out these pictures for inspiration. NEED A HEART TEMPLATE? There’s a printable one here:
MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE TIME FOR THE KIDS TO GO AROUND THE ROOM AND DISTRIBUTE THEIR CARDS.
VALENTINE’S DAY THEMED GAMES
Balloon bump:Bring in a bunch of red, pink and white balloons. Turn on some music, start with one balloon and challenge the class to keep it up in the air. Keep adding balloons and see how many they can keep in the air at once.
Musical Hearts
Like musical chairs with hearts. Fun and easy!!
Cupid’s Arrow Game:
Give kids a straw and a fistful of q-tips (their bows and arrows). They load their straw with a Q-tip, you show them where to stand, and have them blow the Q-tips out of the straw, aiming for a bowl across the room. Get two colors and make teams!
Pin the lips on Mrs. Valentine!
You can print out the lips to cut out here:
The Partner Matching Game:
A blogger has a fun partner matching game that you can print out and play with the kids. Start by laying the cards face-down on kids’ desks. When you say go, they look to see who’s on their card. Then they hold it up in the air and look around to see if they can find their card’s partner. Give them a high five. Then play it a second way: Collect all the cards and hang them on the kids’ necks so they are backwards. The students behind them can see their card, but they can’t see what they are wearing. When you say go, send the kids around to look for their partner. They can ask questions to figure out who is on their back but they can’t just say “Who’s on my back?” Watch a video to find out how to play and download the game here:
Blinded by Love
Have three or four children go up to the chalkboard at once.Blindfold each child, and hand each a piece of chalk.Ask each child to draw a heart on the chalkboard.The children will have fun laughing with each other when they see the silly shapes they’ve actually drawn. Take more turns trying to draw other Valentine theme objects like a flower, a puppy, candy etc.
Heart Hop
Make a heart for each child with instruction written on one side. Instructions might include: Hop like a bunny, walk like a crab, zombie walk, skip, walk backwards, twirl etc. Each instruction should be written on two hearts, one for each team. Divide children into two teams. Put the hearts at the end of the room in two piles. On your mark the first child on each team runs to the pile, takes a heart and does what the heart says, while returning to their team, then sits down. The next team member then runs to the pile…etc. The first team to be sitting down wins. Originally from Kaboose.com {here}.
Mitten Candy Relay
What you will need: Two or three Pairs of Mittens or gloves and a bag of Wrapped Candy like Starbursts. Directions; Make two or three equal teams.Have the members of each team line up, one behind the other. It’s easiest if they are sitting.Give the first player in each line a pair of mittens to put on.Give every player a piece of wrapped candy.When you say, “Go,” the players with the mittens must try to unwrap their candy as fast as possible.Once a player has unwrapped his/her candy, he/she must eat it, and then pass the mittens to the next player in line.Play continues until every player in line has successfully unwrapped and eaten their candy.The first team to finish wins the game. Originally from BirthdayInABox.com {here}.
Teacher Heart Attack
Give your child’s teacher a “heart attack” by having all the kids write down what they love about their teacher on a heart. Then take each heart and tape them up on her door or onto a giant poster sized heart. He or she will LOVE it. Craft idea by Skip to My Lou. There’s a printable heart template here:
Candy Hearts & Chopsticks
A bunch of chopsticks and a bunch of candy hearts means some serious fine-motor work for elementary schoolers! Pour a few handfuls of candy hearts into a centralized bowl, and give each child a small paper plate or small paper cup. Then let ’em at it! The winner will be the person who moves the most candy hearts from the bowl to his or her plate in the set time. Give each kiddo a sandwich bag to save his or her winning candy!
MINUTE TO WIN IT VALENTIINES DAY GAMES
Heart Stack: Give each kid a bunch of conversation hearts and see who can stack the most in a minute.
Candy Corn Stick Up: Give each kid a pile of pink, red and white candy corns. Whoever had the most candy corns standing up at the end of a minute received a point for their team.
Candy Pick Up: There were two plates full of different shapes and sizes of Valentines candy and two empty plates. Each kid would use chopsticks to move as many candies to the empty plate as they could in one minute. Whoever had moved the most candies at the end of the minute received a point for their team.
Heart Relay: Start with two cups full of conversation hearts and place two empty cups a few feet away. Students have one minute to move as many hearts from the full cup to the empty cup using a spoon. At the end of the minute, the team that moved the most conversation hearts received a point.