Valentine's Day, February 14th

Overview

This is a self-paced "webquest" (guided exploration) activity on the topic of the holiday Valentine's Day, February 14. Work by yourself or with a friend or classmate. Click on any of the links below that interest you. Do the tasks and then answer the questions. Note that there is a list of additional informational resources at the bottom of this page.

Webquest Choices

• Games
  Valentine's Day Gameshttp://www.gamequarium.com/valentines.html, for kids from Gamequarium.
  More Valentine's Day Gameshttp://bogglesworld.com/valentines_day_worksheets.htm, for all ages from Mark's English School.
  Valentine Word Gamehttp://www.storyit.com/wgames/valworddrop.htm, for all ages, tetris-style from Story-It.
  Task: Play one or more of these games.
  Question: What new vocabulary did you learn?
• MadLibs (WebLibs) Fill-in-the-Blank Fiction
  Anti-Valentine's Dayhttp://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/games/white/0,9970,98844,00.html, for kids.
  Love Poem Generatorhttp://www.links2love.com/poem_generator.htm, for teens and adults.
  Task: Fill in the blanks with the parts of speech (noun, verb, etc.) and make a funny poem.
  Question: Do it a second time. Which one was funnier--the first or the second one?
• Send E-cards and Other Messages
  Blue Mountainhttp://www.bluemountain.com/ e-cards.
  Virtual Flowershttp://rose.virtualflowers.com/vc.asp? e-flowers.
  Virtual Candy Heartshttp://hicards.com/pages/candyh.shtml e-candy.
  Task: Send a message to someone you care about.
  Question: Did you get a reply? Which do you prefer, real or virtual cards and gifts?
• Valentine's Day Recipes
  Valentine Be Minehttp://www.techdirect.com/valentine/vrecipes.html, from Jeanne Losey.
  Valentine's Day Recipeshttp://www.homeschoolzone.com/m2m/valentine.htm, from Mom-to-Mom Recipe Library.
  Valentine Day Recipeshttp://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/valentines/index.htm, from Razzle Dazzle.
  Task: Pick a recipe and try it. Bring it to class or share it with friends on Valentine's Day.
  Question: How did it taste? Is it good enough to cook again?
• Quizzes
  Valentine's Day Quizhttp://a4esl.org/q/h/mc-lb-ValD.html, from Letitia Bradley, Internet TESL Journal.
  Valentine's Day Quizhttp://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/valentine.html, from Vera Mello, Internet TESL Journal.
  Task: Try one or more of the quizzes.
  Question: How did you score? If you did more than one, which one was easiest?
• Crossword Puzzles
  BlackDog's Valentine's Day Crossword Puzzlehttp://blackdog4kids.com/holiday/valentine/crossword.html.Valentine's Day Crossword Puzzlehttp://iteslj.org/cw/1/dt-valentine.html, from Donna Tatsuki, Internet TESL Journal.
  Valentine Crossword Puzzlehttp://familyinternet.about.com/library/game/blvalcrossword.htm, from Family Internet.
  Task: Try one or more of the puzzles. Make a puzzle of your own and share it with someone.
  Question: What other topics would make good puzzles?
• Crafts: Valentine Cards and Mailboxes
  Valentine Mailboxhttp://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10435, from Family Fun.
  Making Valentine's Day Cardshttp://familycrafts.about.com/od/valentinecards/, from Family Crafts.
  Paper Valentines for Everyonehttp://www.papervalentines.com/.
  Free Patternshttp://www.victorineoriginals.com/freepage3.html, from Victorine Originals.
  Task: Choose a pattern, make a card, and give it to someone you care about.
  Question: How about putting a Valentine's day mailbox in your English class?
• Valentine's Days Stories and Poemshttp://www.bethanyroberts.com/ValentineStoriesandPoems.htm, from Bethany Roberts.
  Task: Choose a story or poem and illustrate it (draw pictures for it), or put it in a card for someone.
  Question: What was the "message" in the story or poem? What would be a better ending for the story or a different way to tell it?

More Resources

The resources listed below offer additional information on Valentine's Day, other holidays, lesson plans, and web quests.

• Valentine's Day Linkshttp://iteslj.org/Lessons/Seasonal/Valentine.html, from Internet TESL Journal.
• Valentine's Day Worksheetshttp://bogglesworld.com/valentines_day_worksheets.htm, from Boggle's World.
• Valentine's Day Lesson Plans Pagehttp://www.lessonplanspage.com/Valentines.htm.
• Lesson Plans Web Guidehttp://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach_lessonplans.html, where you can search for holiday classroom ideas.
• Holidays Web Guidehttp://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach_holidays.html with holiday project ideas for the language classroom.
• WebQuest Page at San Diego State Universityhttp://webquest.sdsu.edu/ with an overview, examples, and training materials for web quests (also one word: "webquest/s").