Carolla....i was surprised to see a friend post that her daughters who are 2 received valentine's day cards from other kids at the daycare.  who knew?

I wasn't there today, but yesterday I saw someone dressed up as a great big heart by a bake sale on campus.  Not sure if that really counts as what kids are up to for valentines parties at school :)

So two replies so far - one of very little kids, one of  an older vintage!   I dunno - the 2 year olds at daycare seems a bit too early to me. 

I'm remembering the elementary school class activities of making little personalized  'mailboxes'; deliberating at the kitchen table over which card to give to which classmate; making 'special' cards for parents, teachers ...

I talked to kids from 8 different elementary schools around here today and they all seemed to be having parties today. They sounded very much like the ones I had when I was a kid - they shared treats and handed out Valentines to all the kids in their classes. It seems like the rule of thumb for Valentines was to give one to every kid or none at all - although I know of one class where they could choose to just give them out to all of the kids of the same gender as them. It sounded like they all had fun - and lots of yummy treats!

My mom's kindergarden classes are doing parties. She did one today and has another tomorrow (she's the all day ever other day system this year). She's been helping kids hand out valentines all week (takes a good 10min per kid she said) so tomorrow they will open them all, read them and then get special snacks and drinks before heading home. She's never done too much more with them but they get really excited for even that!

Yes all over the school division I work for were Valentine parties. The Elemenatry schools, and middle schools had cupcakes cookies etc, in their classrooms. The high schools could send a single rose to their frienda for a small cost.

One school, K-6 did Valentine activities in stations yeserday-the 13th. One station everyone made a valentine card but did not sign it. Today on the 14th each class received a box of these cards, and everyone in the class got one.

The grade 4 class I was in theis morning-eeryone had a decorated paper bag taped to their desks and first thing students placed Valentine's in each one. Seemd if you brought them they were for everyone.

The Middle school where my office is is working on a Pay it forward theme. Today 3 roses were being circulated, separately. Each had a note invintng you to keep the rose or pay it forward by passing it on. I passed one on!

I haven't heard about valentine activities at my grandchildren's schools; but I don't think the high school does one (they spend very little time in homeroom in Granddaughter's school.  I would imagine some kids give special valentines to special friends, and perhaps take their dates out for dinner or have a house party with a valentine theme.   I would imagine my daughter helped Grandson to print up valentines for every kid in his class (his printing skills are poor, even in grade 2).   Probably some parents sent in cookies or cupcakes and others provided pop - or the school had a fundraiser and sold these things (its a poor school).  

I really don't like the commercial aspects of valentine's day.   In many ways it seems to be being taken over by adults - flowers, jewellry, candles, dinners, dances, romantic weekends away at a resort.   

But kids love it.  With a little encouragement from home and school they can get quite creative decorating the windows and doors with hearts and doilies, decorating their valentine boxes or bags.   I would like to see more encouragement for homemade valentines.  Cut and paste with paper doilies, construction paper hearts, bits of lace and buttons.  Perhaps a creative writing class where they write rhyming cuplets to print on their cards.  

At Sunday School one year we looked in the Bible for verses about love, made some cards that said "Love one another."   "Love your neighbour as your self."  "God is love."    They were delivered to shut-ins along with little treat bags.  

we have a lot of kids on our street, so we took the kids for a walk last night and handed out valentines.  my daughter is in jk and my son in grade 2 and they celebrate friendship week and yesterday they had a dance for haiti where all the kids donated a toonie to participate.  they sold water and goodies for a dollar which was also part of the fundraiser. they also did a cookie gram fundraiser for the school itself, which my son participated in.   the kids brought home valentine's in bags that they had decorated at school filled with little valentine's from classmates.  my kids took their hello kitty and scooby doo valentines to school to share with friends.  my husband gave the girls flowers (2&4) and we got them little gifts.  we got my littlest daughter a kids cd of music by jewel, my daughter a small bottle of perfume and my son a game, all reflective of the things they love (music/fashion/games).  we also ordered in the kids favourite, swiss chalet.  not my favourite, but at least i didn't have to cook :)

Seeler, does the high school not have a dance?  Valentine's day was always a big holiday for dances when I was in high school.

My personal opinion is that Valentines Day has no place in a school setting.  To me, school is for educational activities and there really doesn't seem to be any meaningful education around this day.  I also think that pop and sweet treats like cupcakes should be saved for outside of school at the discretion of individual parents.  Some parents make an effort to feed healthier items to there children - some children have allergies that can be set off by random feedings. 

Didn't hear about any at Little M's school (he's in grade 7 in a K-8 school) the other day. I know they had a Valentine's themed dance for the grade 7 and 8 kids last Friday, but he didn't go.

Mendalla

chemgal - if they had a highschool dance I didn't hear Grandaughter mention it - but I don't see her everyday to know what is going on in her life.   She's in grade 9 at a large 9 to 12  school.  Possibly most of the grade 9s don't participate too much in activities organized for or by the upper-grades.   When I went to school grade 9 was junior high.   It changed in NB a few years ago.  

kay - education is social as well as the 3Rs.  A good and creative teacher will use special days (Mardi Gras, Chinese new year, Easter, Halloween) to teach culture, to explore creativity, to encourage kindness and acceptance, to teach the skills needed to plan and organize a party, and to make the classroom an enjoyable place for kids to be.   For the younger kids there is also lots of room for teaching the 3Rs - counting the hearts, counting the kids and the sweets to see if there are enough to go around, discussion of what happens if someone takes two.   Printing - a practical use of those printing skills as they copy their friend's names from a list onto the cards.  Reading - all those jokes and funny sayings on the cards, as well as their friend's names.   

I guess a poor teacher could try to use it as an afternoon away from teaching - but overseeing a class of excited kids (especially if there was little thought put into activities) would be a poor trade-off.   

Perhaps if parents are concerned about unhealthy treats they could try to organize something else:   a punch made of fruit juices rather than pop - sandwiches cut like hearts - fruit, nuts, vegie sticks - maybe a jelled dessert made from real juice.    Or admit, kids (like adults) are going to run into times when cake and candy are all around them.   

I presume that if there is a child in the class who has serious allergies, certain foods won't be permitted.   

What we decided to do at work was to send the kids home with a chocolate. We have three kids with food allergies and concerns in our group - one has a severe nut allergy, another is allergic to dairy and the third has problems with preservatives - so I took those all into account when picking out the chocolates. I found an assorted bag of nut-free chocolates, some of which were dark that we gave to the kids. Additionally I served them a healthy snack (corn chips and salsa) and told them that they would not be able to eat anything sweet unless they had eaten the snack (even then, I limited them to one sweet treat that they had brought from school or home).

Seeler - I am aware of all the points you raised.  I am also aware after having  my own kids go through the school system that they don't appear to have learned anything worthwhile from 'celebrating' fake holday-like events such as Valentines.  Printing practise can be arranged in a zillion ways.

We did have repeated problems though - sometimes resulting in a trip to ER - because unsuitable ingredients were in the food offered at school sanctioned events. Should one of my children have needed to eat between breakfast and lunch or lunch and home time I could easily have sent suitable, nourishing  food.  The required money for 'parties' was an additional difficulty for some students - I know of a couple of kids who played truant because there parents didn't have/wouldn't spend the money for cards or a special purchased meal like pizza. 

If it is actually necessary to mark these events at school it would be far better to do it with a variety of field activities and games in the fresh air.

I'm with seeler. In the right hands with the right approach, it works. A big part of it, esp. for older grades, would be to get the kids involved in organizing it, which is really where the learning is going to happen.

A good example: Little M's class actually organized a surprise birthday party for their teacher (no, I don't know how they got the date) a few weeks ago. Ice cream cake and the whole nine yards. I'd say that they probably learned more from doing that than they do from some of the so-called teaching.

Mendalla

How neat Mendalla! They would have learned how to use skills like budgeting and time management - and from his or her reaction I'm guessing they would have learned how their actions can have a positive effect on other people! I'll bet he or she was really touched by their gesture.

I think there is a time and a place for celebrations, and if they are done right, they can really enhance a learning environment. I also think that it is up to the parents to ensure that the teacher is aware of any food concerns or allergies that their child might have - and that planning for parties should be done accordingly.

Where I work, occasionally a family will bring in treats to share with the group (for example, on their birthday). In that situation, I insist that all the children eat a healthy snack (which we provide every day) before indulging in the treat. I also check the ingredients and if there are nuts in it, I say "Thanks, but no thanks. We have a child who is severly allergic to nuts and we simply cannot take the risk." If there is dairy, I simply offer the child who has a dairy allergy an alternate treat (we keep a few on hand, just in case). The reason for the difference is that the child with the nut allergy could have a life-threatening reaction from simply touching a table where a crumb has fallen before we've cleaned it - whereas the child with the dairy allergy would have to actually eat the food (and even then it wouldn't be life threatening).

My son was at naramata centre for his birhday last year-age 16. I brought cupcakes, (candles matches)  and  a container of gummy worms. I gave them to his leader the night before.

That combination worked- there was a treat for everyone!