Valentine's Day Math Ideas

February is approaching and Valentine’s Day is around the corner. Sometimes it can be challenging to incorporate fun, holiday themed activities into your lessons while sticking with the curriculum. When I taught 6th grade, I always felt this way. I have made it my mission to create some fun holiday-themed activities especially for the upper elementary grades. Since it is February, here is a list of some favorite Valentine’s Day math ideas for upper elementary grades:

Cracking the Classroom Code Escape Rooms

If you haven’t tried escape rooms with your students yet, what are you waiting for?! Besides being a wonderful team-building activity, class escape rooms during math are just plain FUN! Get your students up and moving, working together and watch the engagement and learning happen right before your eyes! These Valentine’s Day Escape Rooms are interactive escape rooms in which students are timed. Typically, I give students 45 minutes to play, but ultimately it is your discretion to decide as the teacher. You can project a timer for your class, or put one somewhere for all the students to see, so they can keep track of how much time they have left to complete their task.

Love bugs have started to infest the school. Students must solve a string of questions and clues, as well as decode different ciphers to rid the school of the bugs! If you don’t want to play as a whole class, there are enough materials provided to have 6 different groups play at once. Plus there are versions with and without QR codes depending on your needs! This is similar to a scavenger hunt where students will be moving around the room, looking for clues to unlock their envelopes (I have included riddles and suggestions on where to hide each clue). A paper is provided so students can write their work down. For many of the questions, students must have an answer that matches one on an envelope. If the answers do not match, they can’t open or “unlock” the envelope, and must rework the question.

*Everything is included, however teachers must provide their own envelopes. I give step by step instructions on how to set up the game, including pictures! These Valentine’s Day-themed escape rooms are sure to capture the attention of your upper elementary students! Oh and did I mention there are both digital and printable versions?! For the digital version, these escape rooms can be used with iPads, chrome books, laptops, and desktops as long as your students have access to Google Drive or Classroom on a device. Here are the Valentine’s Day Class Escape Rooms for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades:

Room Transformations

A room transformation is a fun way to review content. It does not need to be elaborate or expensive. This type of activity is meant for students to become involved in a story, and make them feel like they are on an adventure. During this time, students should have meaningful and educational learning experiences. Your classroom will be transformed with decor and activities to create an immersive learning environment.

During this room transformation, students will have the opportunity to complete up to 6 different stations. You can use all 6 or modify for what meets your needs. Each station typically takes about 15- 20 minutes to complete. This Valentine’s Day Room Transformation is 130 pages of Valentine’s Day FUN!

The stations include:

Lost Lovebirds: A fraction comparison game.
Bunting Banner: Students will create a Valentine’s Day themed banner to be hung in the classroom.
Code Breakers: These are math word problems with fun codes to crack within each question.
Fraction Action: Students will spin a spinner and shade in fractions.
Hidden Picture: Students complete and color the problems according to their grade level to show the hidden picture.
3 People I Love: This is a journal prompt.

Also Included in the Room Transformation:

A room transformation introduction PowerPoint to use with your students
2 different banners for your classroom in 2 different sizes (Print the size that works best for you!)
4 different Valentine themed posters
Table tent posters to decorate student desks
Award tags
Classroom transformation student job cards
Sticky badges (to be used as a classroom management tool during the room transformation)
Scorecards (to be used as a classroom management tool during the room transformation)
Scoring rubric

Check out these Valentine’s Day room transformation activities for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades:

Digital Valentine’s Day Math Activities

Students are loving digital activities, whether they are learning in-person for school or learning virtually. Something about technology always makes a lesson or activity that much more exciting. The following digital activities can be accessed on any device that uses Google Slides. If you are not a 1:1 device school, you can rent the laptop or ipad cart during your math block or use the following digital activities for math centers, if learning in-person. If your students are doing virtual learning, then you can assign to Seesaw or Google Classroom or whatever platform you are presenting materials in. The following products are the same 3 products each for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, with different skill levels depending on the grade level standards.

5th Grade: