Every day is a great day to fill your students with comprehensible input, and Valentine’s Day is no different! There are many ways that you can experience “all the feels” surrounding this holiday with your students using comprehension based activities and strategies to keep the language flowing.
Instead of creating a new Valentine’s Day activity for you to use this year (I am visiting family in NY!), I have done something even better: compiled a list of comprehension based Valentine’s Day activities from around the web!
These activities are pretty Spanish-heavy, but you should be able to adapt at least a few of them if you teach a language other than Spanish.
Note: This list was last updated in February 2019.
WISHING HEARTS
In this activity from Cynthia Hitz–which is a fun twist on Card Talk–students practice the subjunctive by writing notes to their ‘love’ telling them what they want them to do. She used them to make a bulletin board, which is an often-overlooked form of program advocacy through the simple visual reminder that language classes are available and appear to be fun and student-centered.
THE JANITOR STORY
Want to work with Valentine’s Day vocabulary without talking about love and romance? The Janitor Story will allow you to do just that–while sharing a valuable lesson in accountability! Get resources in Spanish here (free) to use this as a MovieTalk on Valentine’s Day or anytime!
#AUTHRES AND MORE
This Pinterest board contains all kinds of V-Day ideas (some that I love, and some that I don’t… but at least they’re there for you to decide for yourselves!) and authentic resources. Follow the board to see new ones that I find around the web!
ERES TÚ
One of the most iconic Spanish love songs of all time, this 1973 Spain entry in the Eurovision song contest is perfect for novices. Use these resources to learn about Eurovision and to dig into a modern version of the song, performed by Morat!
If you prefer the icier side of things, use Amor con hielo – my favorite breakup song!
OCCUPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Bryce Hedstrom shared a brilliant twist on “Eres tú” – a format for writing a “Love stinks!” poem! This is great for all the students that DON’T have a special someone in their lives on this day.
GIRL POWER LOGIC PUZZLE
Along the same lines, affirm to your students that they don’t need romantic love in their life right now and that a woman’s worth doesn’t come from the man she is dating! Get the Girl Power logic puzzle here!
EL SOLTERO MOVIETALK
Elizabeth Dentlinger put together these activities and shared them on her blog!
POEM SEQUENCE
Find a love poem (or anti-love poem) in your target language and use the activity that Michele Whaley describes at the beginning of this post.
DATING CUSTOMS
Research dating customs in your target culture(s) and share them with your students! For Spanish speaking cultures, check out my complete unit on El cortejo (here), or get just the dating customs overview reading (here), or tell the TPRS story (in Spanish and English here).
LOVE RECIPE MOVIETALK
In this short film, a husband and wife prepare for a big date. Get accompanying materials in Spanish here and in French here.
ANIMATED VALENTINE’S DAY MOVIETALK
In this post, Michele shares another cute video that could work for a MovieTalk today.Resources from Sharon Birch: There are a LOT.
UNGRATEFUL BOYFRIEND TPRS STORY
Use this TPRS script to ask a story today about an ungrateful boyfriend or girlfriend that is never happy with the gift they are given!
ROMEO [THE FROG] AND JULIET
We featured this TRUE story in El mundo en tus manos, and Maris wrote this complete set of resources for it! No matter what language you teach, students can connect with Romeo’s heartbreaking-to-hopeful tale of love when you tell it to them in your language of instruction!
CELEBRATE FRIENDSHIP!
Forget the romantic love, focus on BROmantic love! This is one of my favorite friendship songs, and I’ve got great resources for you to use it in class right here.
ROMANTIC WORLD RECORDS
Allison Lewis offers a few ideas here on her blog and offers us this fantastic FREE guessing activity!
MOVIETALKS FOR DAYS
Elisabeth Alvarado shares a TON of short films and commercials for MovieTalk (in addition to many other resources) in this Valentine’s Day roundup! (See another resource round up from Allison Wienhold here).
INFOGRAPHS & TOOTHPASTE
See how La maestra loca brings these two things together in her epic Valentine’s Day plans, available here!
LEGENDS
There are SO many classic legends about lovers that you can tell to your students such that they understand. Popo and Ixta, Romeo and Juliet, The Lovers of Teruel…the world is full of tales to be told!
Thanks for these resources Martina! Our department has also used this movie talk for Valentine’s Day:
http://youtu.be/WTGUjRJiqik
Great ideas! Thank you for helping teachers. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his deed.” Lately, as a teacher, I’ve felt “poor,” but generous teachers like you help me. I am truly thankful.
Thank you Martina for sharing great, quick ideas that I can easily incorporate into my lessons