Keep Valentine’s Day low-prep and stress-free with these Valentine’s Day figurative language activities!
Don’t know about you, but Valentine’s Day tends to be a mixture of feelings of joy and dread for many of us here at The Sparkly Notebook.
In the years that you have a special someone or a group of friends to celebrate with, it can be one of the most fun days of the year.
But then there are the years when you don’t have a special someone.
Those years are no fun!
Your middle school students may ALSO have mixed thoughts about Valentine’s Day, and as teachers, we want to make sure Valentine’s Day is fun for all students!
You have many options for celebrating Valentine’s Day in middle school ELA.
You could read about St. Valentine. You could use candy hearts as Bingo chips as you play a game, or you could try one of these unexpected Valentine’s Day games.
Personally, we love love love teaching and playing around with figurative language during Valentine’s Day because it is a lively, engaging subject matter to work with.
We can compare candy hearts to love letters using a combination of similes and metaphors. We can personify our love or hyperbolize our feelings about the holiday in general.
So many possibilities!
Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Activities
Since Valentine’s Day, like many holidays, can come with some unknowns at school as classes are interrupted with candy deliveries, flower fundraisers, or maybe even an assembly, we don’t like to plan activities that have too much prep time or can’t be completed on another day.
Digital Sorting Activity
This Figurative Language DIGITAL Sort Activity Set is an excellent, grab-n-go figurative language activity that you can pull out for Valentine’s Day.
Although it is not specifically themed for Valentine’s Day, you can do some Valentine’s Day add-ons to align it with the day’s theme.
Add-On: Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Sorting Activity
- As students finish the digital sort and have had a little figurative language practice, ask them to pair up.
- Pass out two index cards to each pair.
- Assign each group two types of figurative language.
- They will create two Valentine’s Day-themed examples. One for each figurative language type they are given.
- The next day, list the figurative language types on the board, mix up the cards, and give each pair 1 minute to sort out the cards the best they can.
- The pair with the most cards sorted in a minute will win the Valentine’s Day Figurative Language prize.
Check out this blog post for prize ideas that will motivate your students to play this game.
Figurative Language Term List Challenge
This is not an activity that has to be Valentine’s Day specific, but it is a fun figurative language activity no matter what the holiday.
- Start by breaking students into small groups of 3-4 students.
- Give each group a list of Valentine’s Day words.
- Next, provide them with a list of the figurative language types you’ve been studying in class.
- The goal: each group needs to create at least one figurative language example for each item on the list, and they must cover all of the types of figurative language your class has been studying.
- At the end of the period, collect all the examples and share some of your favorites with the class as they attempt to guess what type of figurative language is being used.
Here is a list of words you can use to get started with this activity:
- Valentine
- Hearts
- Flowers
- Candy
- Candy-Hearts
- Be Mine
- Valentine’s Box
- Letter
- St. Valentine
- Admirer
- Greeting Card
- Love
- Holiday
- Gift
- Chocolates
The Importance of Figurative Language
Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday for practicing figurative language, but all fun aside, understanding and identifying different types of figurative language is a staple of middle school ELA standards, so they do need to be practiced and taught regularly.
If you want some additional ideas for practicing figurative language with your students in a way that helps them master the standards, you’ll love the resources below!
Figurative Language Nuance & Word Relationships 8th Grade CCSS 8.L.5
Figurative Language, Word Relationships, Nuances 7th Grade 7L5
Valentine’s Day Reading Comprehension Escape Room
Although not specific to figurative language, this Valentine’s Day Escape Room covers some additional ELA topics using topics and themes appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
It is also no-prep, and you can easily pull out just one or two activities from the escape room to add to one of the activities above or to use instead if time is running low.
We can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than with a couple of fun Valentine’s Day figurative language activities. These activities will help your students have a little fun with a holiday that, in middle school, can be a little tricky to navigate.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
