Valentine's Day Activities for Older Students

Valentine's day, activities, older students, middle school, February

updated 2/2026

Looking for ways to merge a Valentine’s day theme into therapy with your older students? Read on! I’ve got activity ideas and freebies for hassle-free planning!

Valentine’s Day Activities – Compare and Contrast Emotions and Character Traits!

A great vocabulary activity for Valentine’s day. Here’s a list of emotions and character traits you can compare (beyond the typical “happy, mad, sad)” on or around Valentine’s day. Students may find it easier to first compare and contrast two distinctly different emotions (thankful/ungrateful) and then move on to comparing and contrasting two similar emotions such as sadness and grief.

Emotions:

Motivated,

jealousy.

Fear,

Insecurity,

Anxious,

Guilty,

Indifferent,

Thankful,

Proud,

Annoyed, and

Loving.

Character Traits:

Sportsmanship,

Cooperation,

Effort,

Empathy,

Integrity,

Tolerance,

Rebellious,

Honesty,

Forgiveness, and

Fairness.

In the picture below, students compare and contrast “jealousy” and “loving” using a heart-shaped Valentine’s day Venn diagram. This item is free in my subscriber’s library! Not a subscriber? Click on the subscriber’s link at the end of this post.

Valentine's day, activities, older students, compare contrast, emotions

Have students compare and contrast how they celebrated Valentine’s Day when they were younger compared to now. Or, compare and contrast characters from a movie, from literature, or compare and contrast what makes a “good” and “bad” friend or a “good” and “bad” boyfriend/girlfriend.

Valentine’s Day Story Mapping

Pull from a book your students are reading or from their textbooks and have them complete a Valentine’s Day themed story map. They answer five wh questions (who, what, where, when, why) about the reading material.

Do you have students that seem interested in dating? This set of BOOM™ cards on teen dating provides teaching and practice activities on the social communication skills involved in dating. It answers these questions (and more):

How do I know if someone likes me?
How do I ask someone out?
What makes someone a good choice for a date?
How do I maintain a 50/50 conversation?
Who pays?
How do I ask for another date?

valentine's day, teens, dating, high school, how ask for a date

Valentine’s Day Activities: Emotional IDIOMS!

Valentine's day, older students, idioms, social emotional, February

There are so many types of idioms and February is a great time for social-emotional idioms in your social skills or language group. The feelings idioms packet has tiers of activities that are teletherapy-friendly and incorporate idioms related to a variety of emotions. It’s fun to play a charades game where one person acts out an idiom! You might also want to explore the meaning of some of idioms related to love and dating!

Valentine's day, idioms, social emotional, activities, older students, February

Valentine's day, older students, February, idioms

Looking for other February or Valentine’s Day activities for your older students?

Check out my blog post on givingandreceivingcompliments!

Check out some of my other blog posts to get February activity ideas for your students:

Identifying emotions

Icebreakers

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