How To Rock a Valentine Party

When I was a school kid in the '60s, the classroom valentine party was something I looked forward to so much that I could hardly finish the day's installment of Dick and Jane. Like the stories, the parties were simple then, usually hosted by two "room mothers" that I considered equal to royalty.

About a week before the party, we would bring from home shoe boxes we had covered with construction paper and hearts (crepe paper and doilies when I was older and learned what those were). We would cut a slit into the top or side for the simple paper valentines our classmates would bring for us sometime the week prior. Only occasionally would someone's mom splurge and give us all an actual cardboard valentine with a juicy, red sucker affixed.

I don't remember making anything or playing anything, only getting to skip geography or some end-of-the-day stretch of boredom to open our valentines and eat mouth-watering heart-shaped, iced, decorated sugar cookies that the moms made. We usually got a paper nut cup of those little conversation hearts as well, along with a cup of red Kool-aid mixed right there in the classroom.

When my own children were in school and I had somehow myself risen to the ranks of royalty, the treats were pretty much the same (read: many opportunities to stay up past midnight spreading icing and tossing sprinkles). The decorated boxes, though, had been elevated to major art projects, and we had added a game or two and maybe a small take-home treat bag.

Since then, however, things have changed. Sadly, for safety reasons, treats from the royal kitchen have given way to pre-packaged, store-bought snacks. In the interest of equality among children (which I can understand and take no issue with), the valentine receptacles are decorated paper bags, all the same size, designed to hold cards and candy from those children whose families choose to participate. In addition, the parties are likely to feature take-away craft activities and games.

This information is all new to me. This Valentine's Day, I got to attend a kindergarten class party as Beenie's guest. In spite of the changes these parties have undergone over some fifty years (over three generations) or more, I found the event to be delightful. Following are a few suggestions in case you ever find yourself in the position of king or queen in charge of an elementary classroom valentine party.

1. Plan a couple simple "make-and-take" crafts. Of course, in the age of Pinterest and subject-specific blogs, these are easy to find with a google search and a few quick link clicks (try saying that three times). I got to assist Beenie with two well-chosen crafts that made use of supplies I recognized from Hobby Lobby. One was a hanging ornament, which demonstrates Beenie's tendency to "think outside the heart."

 
The other was a very cute "love bug," or butterfly.

My perusal of valentine party websites after the fact led me to the blog onecreativemommy.com which, in an article titled "25+ Fantastic Valentine Class Party Ideas" (posted 01/23/16), even shows a craft designed similarly to Beenie's bug.

2. Plan a couple easy team games. Unfortunately, I got to see only one of the games because I was helping a couple kids glue their love bugs while the other one was going on. But Beenie and his classmates loved a "Minute to Win It" game that involved teams of four or five moving around a table to build a stack of conversation hearts as high as possible in a minute's time. As each child reached the stack, he or she added another heart. If the stack fell, the next child would begin a new one. The team with the highest number of stacked hearts (in this case, five) at the end of a minute received a valentine pencil as a prize.

Here, Beenie is adding his heart to his team's stack. (They are using the small hearts, but I think the larger ones might work better, especially for younger children.) I found references to this game and lots of other good ones under the heading "15 Valentine's Day Party Games for Kids" on the site thebalance.com by Stacy Fisher and also on makoodle.com.

In surfing these websites, I found another one to be very good in its inclusion of both game and craft ideas and other suggestions for a successful party. "35 Valentine's Day Classroom Party Ideas" on makeandtakes.com (posted 02/09/12) was especially helpful in its grouping of activities into age-appropriate categories from grades 1-8; its recommendation to set up activities in classroom "stations" for the children to rotate through; and its diverse suggestions for crafts, card-making, snacks, and stories appropriate for Valentine's Day.

3. Offer some uncomplicated pre-packaged snacks. In Beenie's case these consisted a Capri-Sun-style drink and an individually packaged bag of mini-brownies.

4. Climb a tree on the way to the car after the party (optional). 

Of course, Beenie and I are likely the only ones who finished our valentine party off in this manner. But you can tell from his smile that this was a fitting activity to end our celebration.

As it turns out, though, this wasn't quite the end. There was a paper bag, decorated like an owl, that had to be emptied on the kitchen table and foraged through the minute we got home. Beenie received lots of good treats from his classroom friends, and--shhh! don't tell him--even I got a chance to sneak a miniature Hershey's dark chocolate bar!