1. The Valentine Bears – Eve Bunting tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bear waking up early from their long winter’s nap, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Incorporate classroom discussions on animal hibernation.
2. The Biggest Valentine Ever – Two mice work together to create a valentine for their teacher, but not before running into trouble! The characters learn the importance of team work and collaboration. This follows the same mouse characters as The Biggest Pumpkin Ever. With this book, reinforce the importance to teamwork and collaboration with your students.
3. The Day It Rained Hearts– Author Felicia Bond, author of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, wrote a sweet story of Cornelia Augusta who creates valentines from the hearts that fall from the sky. This book is a great introduction to creating classroom valentines.
4. The Ballad of Valentine– Set to the rhythm of “Clementine”, Clementine receives many different forms of communication/ messages from her secret admirer. I use this book to incorporate long ago vs. now social studies standards.
5. A Crankenstein Valentine– This silly story tells the tale of a regular kid who turns into a crank on Valentine’s Day! This is an awesome book to use to discuss appropriate and inappropriate ways to express feelings and emotions.
When it comes to book companion resources for my favorite books, I like to have one resource that I can use with multiple books from year to year depending on where I am in my curriculum pacing. I use the Flip Book Valentine with each of the books above.
