During the month of February, there are so many holidays and events to squeeze in. One of those is Valentine’s Day. I have gathered up some Valentine’s Day reading activities. In this blog post, you’ll find 7 Valentine’s Day read alouds and 3 Valentine’s Day reading resources to use. All of these will help keep your students on task during February, but in a festive mood! Each of the fictional read alouds are adorable texts that teach above love, acceptance, and friendship.
#1- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
Groggle’s Monster Valentine by Diana Murray
Things I love about this book: illustrations and colors,
Synopsis: Groggle is preparing the most perfect Valentine’s Day card for Snarlina. However, he got quite distracted by his monster appetite and ate the leaf he made the card out of. This continues throughout the story, where Groggle makes perfect cards then eats them. He problem solves in two ways. First, he tries eating ants on a log to fill his belly. Then, he makes extra cards just in case he gets hungry again. Unfortunately, he still got hungry. When Snarlina showed up, Groggle gave her the small amount of card that was left. To his surprise, Snarlina gobbled it up and loved her treat!
#2- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
A Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger
Things I love about this book: part of a series, humor
Synopsis: Crankenstein’s mom is trying to convince him that Valentine’s Day is not so bad. Crankenstein is not loving it at all. He just keeps saying “Yechhhhh” to everything! After an entire day of Valentines activities and misery, Crankenstein realizes having a best friend who understands exactly how he feels is the perfect gift he needed on Valentine’s Day.
#3- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
You Loves Ewe! by Cece Bell
Things I love about this book: new illustrations, funny word play, speech bubbles
Synopsis: We start our story out with a donkey, a yam, and a ewe. The entire story is told in speech bubbles, which is a hit with students. When Yam tells Donkey that “This is Ewe”, Donkey doesn’t quite understand. Donkey thinks that Ewe is him (you) and explains how fluffy and cute he is. Yam tries to explain that Ewe is fluffy, he is not. Then, the word play of Yam and ‘I am’ come into play. They dive into a big conversation about how ewe and you are homonyms. When Yam tries expressing his love for Ewe and Ram’s love for Ewe, Donkey believes that everyone loves him. It’s a silly book about confusing words!
#4- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! by Doreen Cronin
Things I love about this book: part of a series that students are familiar with, glittery pages for students to touch and feel, silly illustrations
Synopsis: We start our story with Farmer Brown preparing the farm for the big Valentine’s Day dance. We also see Little Duck working hard in the barn setting up the party. While the party is going on, a little fox hears the party and wants to join. She follows the streamers and finds the party. While most of the farm animals are a little scared at first, Duck welcomes Fox in with a valentine card and lets her join the party.
#5- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
Love Is by Diane Adams
Things I love about this book: beautiful illustrations, city life setting, rhyming
Synopsis: This is another fictional text that is very heavy with illustrations telling a big part of the story. We start the book with a description of what love is. However, the students must use the images to find out characters, setting, and events. The main character raises a tiny duckling into an adult duck, but when she releases it back to the wild, she learns how much she misses it. However, the book helps to explain that love is realizing that even though she may miss her little duckling, it is best for the duck. And when she visits the duck at the end, she learns she never forgot about her.
#6- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
Here Comes Valentine Cat by Deborah Underwood
Things I love about this book: heavy illustrations that provide lots of detail to the story, narrator having conversation with Cat
Synopsis: The text in this story acts as the reader’s voice. It feels like you’re having a conversation with the cat. If you’re reading this aloud to students, the kiddos will love hearing your conversation with Valentine Cat. We start this story with Cat telling us he doesn’t like Valentine’s Day. We (the narrator) try to convince Cat that Valentine’s isn’t all that bad. When we learn about Cat’s new neighbor dog, we try to convince Cat to meet him and be kind to him. Cat thinks of all the ways to get rid of the dog instead. At the end of the story, we end up learning that the new dog is quite nice and they can be pals.
#7- Valentine’s Day Read Aloud
Valensteins by Ethan Long
Things I love about this book: illustrations, speech bubbles, humor
Synopsis: The story starts off with Fran cutting out a pink heart. No one can figure out what he’s cutting out (maybe it’s fangs or maybe it’s a bat). But, when Bunny comes in and shares that he’s cut out a heart… This gets everyone curious about if Fran is in love. The spooky crew have a big conversation about what love is, which is quite funny for kiddos to read. Fran was fed up with listening to his friends talk about how gross love is. So, he went outside for some fresh air. There, he realizes what love really is.
More Valentine’s Day reading activities ideas…
If you’re looking for other Valentine’s Day reading activities to use in your classroom, I offer three resources in my TPT store. These 3 resources introduce Valentine’s themes to your students. They also have follow up comprehension activities. The paired passages and fictional comprehension sets are for 2nd/3rd grade students. The flip book is for higher 1st/2nd grade students. Links are below!
Valentine’s Fictional Reading Passages
Valentine’s Day Reading Flip Book
February Themed Paired Passages (with a Valentine’s Day set)
Thanks for reading this blog post all about Valentine’s Day reading suggestions. Good luck implementing these read alouds and reading activities in your classroom!
