Valentine's Day is February 14th and schools across St. Louis will celebrate by having children bring valentine cards and candy for a class party. If you are one of the parents who agreed to help with the school party, you may be struggling to come up with games for kids.
One simple idea is to have children build words relating to Valentine's Day. This game can be made with very inexpensive materials purchased at any St. Louis Dollar Tree or Dollar General store. All you'll need is colored paper, a pen or marker and scissors.
To prepare, make a list of words that pertain to Valentine's Day or the theme of love. Some examples might be love, friend, hug, sweet, family, memories, fun, care, heart, blessing or special. Once you have a list, write or type each word multiple times, leaving space between each letter. If typing, you'll want to use a large font size that can be easily seen when printed out. Print each word once for each student in the class. The words should be printed out on the colored paper that you've purchased.
After all the words are printed out, cut each word into individual letter squares, place them in a basket and mix them up. Keep one master list for yourself that isn't cut and also make a list of all the words for each student.
On the day of the party, pass out the master lists and ask the students to leave them face up on their desk. Then pass the basket of letters you've cut out and let each student choose 5-10 letters. If your master list contained 5 words or less, let the children pick fewer letters out of the basket. If your list contains more than 5 words, you may want to give them a head start by choosing more letters.
When the students have their letters, ask them to lay out the letters across their desks, spelling out any part of the words from the master list that they can. Then, as the game proceeds, you'll pass the basket around again, letting each child choose only 1-2 letters on each turn. The first student to be able to spell out all the words from the master list, in their entirety will win the game.
For extra incentive and to keep the game exciting, you might want to offer bonus letters. Kids could earn bonus letters for being the first to unscramble a word written on the chalkboard, being first to identify a song based on just one line of lyrics, being first to name a famous person with a particular first name and so on. Make sure the bonus rounds are easy enough that every child can participate.
If you want to make either your letter game pieces or your master lists more Valentine-themed, you can also visit any St. Louis area Michael's crafts or Hobby Lobby store or Archivers at St. Louis Mills Mall for Valentine's Day themed stickers and stationery.
Subscribe to the St. Louis Children's Recreation Examiner and "like" Jae's Jampacked Days for St. Louis Moms and Dads on Facebook! You'll receive ideas for activities for your kids, jam-packed with fun, not spam :)
Comments