Celebrate Valentines Day 9 Activities for Jammin’ in the Music Classroom
Are you looking to celebrate valentines day with activities in the music classroom that will last throughout February? Here is enough to cover all your classes and ways to expand these music activities for the month of February! I love this holiday because it’s my wedding anniversary. Yes me and maybe you along with thousands of others because Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular days to get married. It’s also a day that makes student’s giggle and gush. Another day that puts a smile on their face! But why stop there? There’s enough love here for the whole month! Let me show you how to use these valentine’s Day activities for school all month long.
Before we get into all the love, do you wish for more free time to enjoy with friends and family? Are you looking for lesson plans on music with rich content so you can plan less and get more? I know the nights and weekends you have invested in being the energetic, creative, fun loving music teacher. I’ve put in the time too, and now I want to give back what worked for me. I’ll show you how to stay energized, plan effectively, get organized and have lesson plans that are engaging with little plan time. To get started today, I’m sharing my go to music games. Click here to get started today!
Valentine’s Day activities for elementary students
Let’s get back to celebrate Valentines Day with music activities for elementary students. First keep everyone engaged as they take a Music Walk. To create a music walk set up the room with a pathway of hearts on the floor. Make sure the pathway is connected so students can walk continuously. Then print a different music symbol Inside each heart. Laminated hearts will be best since students will be walking on them. To save time printing and cutting. Create 4 hearts per page and cut out the rectangles 4 quadrants instead of the heart shape. Use colored paper to print on, laminate and cut the paper in half and then half again.
Start the Valentine’s Day Game
The game starts when the music plays. Pick out some favorite music to play. Students walk from heart to heart with the beat of the music. When the music stops, your students stop on a music symbol. Next draw a random music symbol from a cute valentine container. You show the symbol and say the name of the symbol. The students check on the symbol they are standing on to see if they are on the match. The student who is standing on the matching symbol is the winner for that round. This process will reinforce recognition of music symbols and the symbol name.
Winner of the Music Walk
The winner then chooses a special instrument to play during the next round. Students always remember the time they were chosen to play the triangle, guiro, or tic-tock. Find all the fun auxiliary instruments that students would really love and set up an area on a table or in the middle of the room. You could ask follow up questions to go with the symbol. “Show me with your fingers how many beats does a quarter note get?” This is a great game, and can easily be played again and again. Introduce the game on Valentine’s Day but share the love of this game for much longer.
Valentine’s day classroom activities last through February
Speaking of love of music, celebrate valentines day classroom activities can last through February by create a love music theme. Decorate with room decor heart themed anchor charts, music symbols and even your composer of the month loves music! Hearts are a great way to represent beats any time of the year. I teach kindergarteners steady beats at the beginning of the year using the heart symbol to show music has a steady beat. So February is a great time to reinforce prior knowledge. Subdividing a heart can represent note values and work great for helping upper elementary understand a compound time signature like 6/8. The love of music is more than one day!
Valentine day poems for music composition
Another great idea is valentine day poems for music composition. Have you ever read all the funny “Roses are Red, Violets are blue poems? Okay some are crude but others are sweet and funny. This is a great way to introduce ABAB form and spark creative ideas for learning to compose music. Set up a chart for brainstorming rhyme words for red and blue. Try it as a class, individually or use TPS (think, pair, share).
Think, pair, share is when students get together with one other person to show their ideas. Then the person picks one idea they liked to share with the whole class. After hearing ideas, students decided on 2 words they will use. They then write one line to rhyme with each word. The word that rhymes with red is the A line, and the word that rhymes with blue is the B line. Move things along by giving them a time limit. Two or three minutes is enough time per line.
Valentines Day activities poem
When it is time for valentine’s Day poem sharing, create a percussion transition (Section C) for in between poems. The feel will be like a rap with a back beat accompaniment. The form will look like this: ABAB (poem) C (percussion) ABAB C and so on. This would also make for a great performance piece if you are creating a love music program!
Valentine’s day activities for families
Besides inviting families to a performance, Lyric analysis is great for students to process or a take home valentine’s day activities for families. “My Funny Valentine” is a gem. The words and tune are unexpected, and the tune starts in a minor key. This oldie but goodie was written by the dynamic team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart in 1937. They wrote the song for the musical Babes in Arms. Since then it has become a standard jazz song performed by over 600 artists and still counting. My favorite is Frank Sinatra 1954.
Students read the lyrics, then answer a few thought provoking questions of what the lyrics might mean. After hearing the song, reflect on what changed. “Your looks are laughable, unphotographable.” Not exactly what you want to hear! Lyric analysis reveals you don’t have to change anything because you are lovable just as you are. “Aw!”
Celebrate Valentines day activities include movement
After sitting and reading or writing, make sure to have Valentine’s day children’s activities include movement too. I have always loved “Lavender’s blue.” Maybe it’s the sweet tune, the reminder of lavender flower and scent, but I think the silly “dilly, dilly” part is always fun to sing. It’s also a great way to incorporate a ¾ time signature piece. The first verse is all you need to have a royal dance reminiscent of kings and queen, Pride and Prejudice type moves but in a circle for the music classroom.
Repetition for Valentine’s Day school activities is Key to Movement
When creating movement, keep in mind that you are also teaching form and patterns. But repetition is key to getting the bang for your buck. “Buck” is the time you spend lesson planning. I like to create movements that will allow students to switch partners each time so it lends to repeating the song. Also teach one movement at a time, so students can practice and become successful before receiving the next direction. Keeping it simple. It is more enjoyable for students, and they can catch on quickly. Which will make them feel successful. Create only 2 simple movements that each last 4 measures. Each movement can be repeated by going in an opposite direction. So very quickly you have movement for 16 measures. To break down Lavender’s Blue, each line can be thought of as ABA. The “dilly, dilly” becomes the B part.
Lavender’s blue, “dilly, dilly” Lavender’s green = ABA and is 4 measures long. The second time you practice, add some body percussion (stomp, clap, pat or snap) for the “dilly, dilly” part. This can be extended to a third practice with a simple bass xylophone chord accompaniment, and an auxiliary instrument for the “dilly, dilly.” Another awesome Love music performance piece.
Valentine day games for all grade levels
Valentine cards can turn into exciting Valentine day games for all grade levels. I use the cards to create a question answer song. Each student gets a Valentine’s card and the class sings the question “Tell me what your Valentine Say insert name.” The class repeats the question line. When you sing the inserted name use solfege pitches mi -do for the first time. Then use sol-mi the second time. For the response each student sings their Valentine card using sol-do. The form is AAB. “Boom” just like that they have practiced all the solfege pitches for the one chord!
Valentine’s Day Response Cards
To prepare for this song you will need easy one line Valentine’s Day response cards. The best way to get what you want Is to make a sheet of Valentines Cards you can easily print. I made a classroom set with a heart and animal clip art. In each heart is the response word: bear hug, tweet me, puppy love, or love bug. They all get the giggles and gushes as they sing through and students also have a valentine keepsake from you.
Valentine day Coloring Pages and More
Finally, it’s always great to have some go to printables that you can use in a sub plan or just give yourself a break. Coloring pages are fun and also an easy assessment. If you are working on note value, the coloring key could be pink = 1 beat. Then place a quarter note in the picture where they color pink. Valentine word search is always enjoyable. Brainstorm 8-12 words and make a word search puzzel. I love mixing music and math to make music worksheets. Students can add note and rest values, insert bar lines to match a given time signature, or insert a time signature that goes with each line of music. Those earlier anchor charts come in handy to help students assess prior knowledge.
To put that knowledge to use students love to use body percussion paired with words to clap, stomp, pat, snap their way through music rhythm patterns. Some great keywords to use all month are cu-tie (eighth notes), hugs (quarter note), lo-ve (half note), hea-a-a-art (whole note), Val-en-tine’s Day (snap those sixteenths).
Valentine’s Day Activities Summed Up!
- Music Walk
- Roses are Red Composition
- My Funny Valentine Lyric Analysis
- Lavender’s Blue movement to music
- Valentine’s Card Question/Answer Song
- Valentine’s Day Coloring Page
- Valentine’s Day Word Search
- Love math and music Worksheets
- Valentines Rhythm Practice
Now you will be jammin’ in the music room sharing the love of music. If you would like to enjoy more free time with friends and family, I did the planning for you and put this all in a Celebrate Valentines Day Bundle for you. Check it out here.
Teaching students to read music note names successfully can be a challenge! So how do we encourage and engage students to learn and transfer music note names into their long term memory bank , so they can enjoy this life long skill?
Valentine’s Day in the Music room
https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-my-funny-valentine-by-rodgers-hart/
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