7 Fun Valentine’s Day Activities for English Language Learners

History of Sweethearts Candy (designed as a sub plan!) (grades 6-12)

Give your ESL students a bit of Valentine's fun while you take the day off for whatever you need! This no-prep sub plan product includes 9 activities across 3 language domains that help ELLs practice seasonal vocabulary and build reading comprehension skills. All the activities are based around the theme of Valentine's Day. This product is designed for intermediate to low advanced ESL students. 

There are two different levels of readings (one about the history of Valentine's Day and the other about Valentine's candy), so that you can easily differentiate for your ESL students. Each reading is accompanied by vocabulary cards, a set of comprehension questions, and a summary writing activity. Also included are a set of anticipated responses for the summary activity so that the substitute (or you, when you return) can guide students through the writing. 

There is also a Valentine's word search so that ESL students can practice relevant seasonal vocabulary. Finally, there is a listening comprehension cloze activity so that students can practice this language domain as well. Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Valentine’s Bingo (any grade)

Help your beginner and Newcomer ESL students understand Valentine's Day vocabulary. As Valentine's day is somewhat of a big deal in the United States, it's important that students new to the country learn how to talk about all the things they are seeing around them. This product includes colorful vocabulary flashcards (which you can use as calling cards as well), 15 unique Bingo boards AND vocabulary practice worksheets. Anytime instructions appear on the included worksheets, they will have an English, Spanish, and Ukrainian version.

• 16 Valentine's Day vocabulary cards / Bingo calling cards

• What is it? vocabulary & writing practice worksheet

• Make your own Valentine activity with 6 Valentine templates

• 15 unique Bingo cards

I have used this with my Newcomer students and they loved it. It's very beginner-friendly and highly engaging! Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Newcomer Read Aloud: I Need a Hug (lower Elementary)

This adorable story (by Aaron Blabey) and reading comprehension activities are just the right size for ESL Newcomers and Beginners and is perfect for Valentine's Day. It's not too long and it has a really cute topic: a porcupine wants a hug, but due to his spikes, none of the animals want to cuddle with him. It has a very cute and happy ending.

• Here is the link to the Read Aloud on Youtube in case you don't have the book.

• Here is the link to the BILINGUAL (Eng./Span.) Read Aloud of the book.

This "I Need a Hug" product introduces ESL students to key words from the story. The worksheet asks students to write the vocabulary words in their native language. You can do this by showing them the included vocab cards with pictures before you actually listen to the book. This will help them comprehend more of the story. The worksheet then asks them comprehension questions about the book.

Some examples of the questions are the following:

• Who is the main character?

• What does the porcupine want?

• How does the porcupine feel?

• Why are the snake and the porcupine happy at the end of the story?

I recommend having your ESL students read all the questions together as a class before watching the video.

This product also comes with a writing prompt and coloring page that you can use for an additional activity. There are two versions of this activity: one with sentence frames and one that is blank. Easy differentiation for ESL students!

You could use this product for a Valentine's Day themed lesson or for a conversation about kindness and acceptance. Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Picture Prompts Writing Gallery Walk (grades 3-6)

This resource includes a variety of writing activities. I use the tasks as stations or centers in my classroom, but you can also use them one at a time. The activities begin with basic (seasonal) vocabulary and progressively become more difficult (thereby giving you an already-differentiated lesson plan! ).

The writing activities in this resource are the following:

1. Write the Room Valentine's Day Vocabulary (comes with response sheet and answer key)

2. Sentence Writing with Valentine's Day Words

3. Valentine's Vocab Crossword Puzzle

4. What am I? Read and Write Puzzle

5. 4 Valentine's themed Picture Prompts with sentence frames and key words (comes with a response sheet)

A great part of this resource is that it has both movement and stationary activities. The Write the Room task gets students up and moving around the room as they find and practice spelling the holiday words. Activities 2, 3 and 4 can be done at a desk (individually or with a partner). These are "quieter" tasks. Finally, the 4 Picture prompts can be placed around the room so students can work at stations for each one (I give them 3-4 minutes per prompt, depending on the age of the students). Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Pixel Art Valentine’s Grammar (upper elementary and up)

Are your students studying types of sentences? Are you teaching declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentence types but you want something fun and seasonal? Look no further!

This Valentine's Day themed pixel art resource is a fun and NO PREP way to assess your students' understanding of sentence types. As students read each sentence, they write in the answer box what type of sentence it is. If they are correct, the box will turn a color and a certain number of pixels appear in the mystery picture.

*Students must type the full word (example: declarative) and they must spell correctly.

You will assign this activity as you normally would for a digital resource using Google Classroom, Canvas, or whatever LMS you use. Students each need their own copy to submit to you. This resource works excellently as a sub plan or an independent activity because it is self checking! Teach your students an important language arts concept while having some holiday themed fun with this engaging activity. Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Handwriting Valentine’s Vocab (lower elementary or SLIFE students)

This Valentine's Day handwriting resource is for upper elementary and secondary SLIFE ESL students. SLIFE means Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education. As families continue to migrate, many students see a disruption to their education. This product helps your SLIFE ELLs practice their handwriting while also developing their English language skills.

Students will practice forming the letters while simultaneously building seasonal, Valentine's themed sentences that you can then practice orally. These activities are great for a variety of ages and are intentionally designed to be "age-neutral" (no baby-ish look) because some SLIFE students are well into their teen years and dislike being given materials that look like they are for a Kindergartener (because they are!). I created this resource for a few of my older SLIFE ESL students so that they could practice writing without the stigma.

The activity pages include practicing tracing very simple sentences and then writing the sentence independently. This way, you are developing their foundational skills (clear handwriting) while also building language proficiency. (Students are using a pronoun "it" and the verb "to be" and are learning English sentence structure).

Once students understand how to use these worksheets, you could also assign them as an independent work packet, homework task, or early finisher practice. My students loved the Valentine's Day theme because they could actually identify all the decorations and holiday items they were seeing around them.

Teaching tip! I select students to come up to the Smartboard (or whiteboard) and write the sentences in their very best handwriting. They LOVE this. It adds a little movement and increases engagement. Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Heads Up!  (any grade)

This Valentine’s Day-themed, seasonal card game is a modified version of Heads Up or HedBanz. My students LOVE this game because it's low stress and they can immediately put English sentences together. This speaking game is great practice for the WIDA ACCESS speaking domain OR can be used for a centers / small group activity to introduce seasonal vocabulary and some common holiday traditions in the United States.

HOW TO PLAY: Students sit in a circle. One student selects a card and holds it above his/her head. The other students in the circle use the sentence frames and vocabulary on the card to describe the object to the player holding the card. There is a vocabulary sheet with pictures in case you need a differentiated version. The game is designed to be appropriate for emerging English speakers (lower level ML / ESL students). Click HERE if you would like to purchase this product.

Explore all Limitless Language Valentine’s Day products! Click HERE!