Valentine's Day Fun for Your Elementary Science Classes

I can tell from watching my own kids get ready for this week - Valentine's Day in the elementary classroom hits a little different than it does for the older students! 😂 I've been thinking of ways to connect that excitement with science this week. Here we go...

💘 Create a Valentine's dichotomous key: I've made a collection of nine silly science Valentine's cards you can have for free, here! Print a set for each student so they can practice their ability to recognize patterns (a prominent crosscutting concept in NGSS). After they're cut apart, students start separating them into groups based on characteristics. They can ask questions like, "Does the card have a heart on it?" If they're ready, take them further and make dichotomous keys!  Bonus - if you let them keep their card sets, they all have cards to share with each other later.

💘 Candy heart chemistry: grab a bag of those classic Valentine candy hearts so your learners can make predictions and qualitative observations! Set up different clear containers of water. Introduce a variable to those containers (ex: using different temperatures, adding vinegar, using seltzer water). Have students drop candy hearts into the container and observe what happens. Students could create labeled drawings to capture what they see and make a written claim describing why they think the hearts react differently based on the liquid. They can make predictions about what would happen if the materials were doubled, too. If you have time, test those out, too!

💘 Heart rate activity: how about a little graphing practice with the cardiovascular system? Give your students an overview on how to count their heartbeats by measuring their pulse (using two fingers on the carotid artery in the neck might be the easiest way). Have them count their heartbeats at rest for 30 seconds and record their number. Then have them do 10 seconds of activity like jogging in place. Immediately have them count their heart rate again for 30 seconds. This will make a great "before and after exercise" bar graph!

💘 Love potion: This is messy, but fun! You'll need a plate or Petri dish filled with milk or cream for each student. Add a drop of red food coloring to the plate, then give them each a cotton-tipped swab with dish soap on the end. When they touch the plate, your students will love the beautiful designs that appear. If they're up for it, do some observations and predictions about changing the variables - more food coloring, more dish soap, etc.

Hope you and your classes "love" these!

If you enjoyed the awesome teaching strategies shared here, join the Kesler Science mailing list below! We also send out fun phenomenon, graphs, sale notices, and product highlights throughout the year. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we never sell your info. We hate spam, too!