Sing it with me… 🎶 science and Valentine’s Day, sittin’ in a tree… k-i-s-s-i-n-g! 🎶

(Please tell me you know this reference or I am going to feel really old right now!)

Yes, science and Valentine’s Day are truly a match made in heaven. There are tons of connections you can make between Valentine’s Day and your middle school science content – everything from human hearts (anatomy) to habitat destruction (ecology).

Valentine’s Day Scrooge

So full disclosure – I’m not really a Valentine’s Day girl.  If my husband buys me flowers on Valentine’s Day, I’m probably saying, “Thanks… but you shouldn’t have spent the money”. I don’t mind Valentine’s Day, it’s just not my thing.   

My students, on the other hand, LOVE Valentine’s Day.  Maybe it’s because they always had Valentine’s parties in elementary school or maybe they just aren’t Valentine Scrooges likes me.  Either way, they seem to expect we’ll do something for Valentine’s Day.

But, like a lot of schools, I’ll get the side-eye from administration if I stray too far away from being “on content.” Everything I do has to be standards-based (we follow NGSS) or at the very least science-related. And, I don’t disagree. We have a lot to cover in 180 days, so I want to make every lesson count. (OK, most lessons count… mental health days are real!)

So, in my effort to do something fun AND keep my administration thinking I am on content 100% of the time, I’ve come up with a few ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day that are real science but still super fun for kids.

First, I’ve decided to unzip out of my Valentine’s Day Scrooge costume and give out some “Valentines” for the first time ever. I bought these science stickers, and I’m going to write a very quick note on the back for each student… like a not-card Valentine’s Day card.

And I’ve created a bunch of Valentine’s Day science lessons that check all my boxes – they’re fun, but they’re science-y.

All of these NO PREP middle school science Valentine’s Day activities require no work from the teacher.  Each only needs paper copies – or even easier – you can use the provided digital Google Slides versions.

And, NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE is required.  Each of these activities is a stand-alone lesson. You can do them regardless of what science topics your students have covered (or not covered yet).

Valentine’s Day Science Activities

Periodic Table Decoder Activity 

Students use the periodic table to decode Valentine’s Day words like flowers, be mine, balloons, candy, and cupid.  Students are given the atomic number of an element (simply tell them to find the top number) and find the associated symbol. For example, “KISS” is potassium (K), iodine (I), sulfur (S), sulfur (S). Kids loooooove this activity! I actually do one of these for every holiday because it’s an absolute favorite! Bonus points: this resource addresses NGSS MS-PS1-1.

Human Impact on the Environment: Is Chocolate At Risk!?

Students read about how human activities, such as habitat destruction and climate change, have put the natural resource of cacao trees at risk. As a result, chocolate supplies are in serious decline. After the reading, students answer text-dependent questions and make a quick educational poster about the problem. This resource addresses both NGSS-LS2-4 and NGSS MS-ESS3-4.

Graphing Practice

Practice making line, bar, and pie graphs with Valentine’s Day data. Fun holiday-themed data like gift types, rose growth, or Cupid’s speed make kids forget they are doing solid graphing practice! And, this graphing practice is differentiated. One version requires the kids to label the graph axes themselves and the other has pre-labeled graph axes.

Compare Weird Animal Hearts

Students read about the weirdest and wackiest hearts in the animal kingdom and compare their features to human hearts. The fun text and questions worksheet disguise a valuable anatomy lesson about the heart! You’ll have no problem explaining to admin that this lesson is a great addition to NGSS MS-LS1-3.

Students Get to Be a HEART Doctor 

Students learn about how heart disease risk is measured and then evaluate the heart disease risk for several pretend patients. This lesson enhances NGSS MS-LS1-3, as well as health standards.

Check out the Valentine’s Day section of my shop for even more science-y Valentine’s Day options!

Let’s Connect!

If you like these ideas, please follow me on Instagram where I offer science teacher tricks and tips! And you can follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, too!

And if you’d prefer not to buy on TPT, all of these activities are available in my web store, too!

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