Hi fellow teachers! Here’s a fun Valentine’s Day poem for you to use in your Grades K-2 (ELL, grade 3; ESL, elementary) classrooms. I put some teaching ideas below to inspire you. Let me know if you use the poem – I’d love to hear how it goes.
Watch a video of the “Valentine’s Day” poem here:
I made a heart just for you
Painted it red, with eyes of blue
Sprinkled glitter all over the glue
Gave it a mouth, a nose, a shoe
Taped a treat and left a clue
It’s on your bed, from you know who
Ooops! The treat is gone!
Good thing I made two
(Poem by Kim T. Harrison)
Download a PDF, black & white, printable version of the poem:
Download a PPT slide version of the poem:
Teaching Ideas and Curriculum Tie-Ins
Inference
- Read the plain-text version of the poem and ask students to guess: Who made the heart? Why do you think that? What kind of treat might be taped on the heart? Why is the treat gone?
- Then show the video to see if the guesses were correct. (You can pause the video before the final screen too to see if students spotted any visual clues that it was a cat who made the heart.)
Visual Arts
- Students make their own version of the heart inspired by the poem. They can draw or make a “treat” to tape on.
- Variation of the above: Students make a heart or card from a different animal to another animal. A dog to a cat, for example, or a zebra to a chipmunk! Have fun generating different animal matches.
English Language Arts
- Use the poem to explore rhyme. What other words rhyme with “you”? Students create their own rhyming couplets.
- Use the poem to explore syllables. How many syllables are there in each line? Students create their own lines with a set number of syllables.
Download a PDF of the poem with teaching ideas:
Happy Teaching and Happy Valentine’s Day! Kim x
Kim T. Harrison 