haiku · holiday · mentor texts · poetry

Valentine’s Day Writing + a Book Giveaway

Stacey Shubitz

Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching.  When I was a classroom teacher, I did whatever I could not to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day.  I bought heart-covered pencils for my students, created a special morning message about Valentine’s Day, and I believe that was it.  How boring of me!

Truth be told, I didn’t want to lose a day of class time to special activities.  However, there is a way to make Valentine’s Day fun and educational.  For instance, one can take a day off from writing workshop (If you’re on-track with the unit you’re in and principal doesn’t mind!) to do some Valentine’s Day writing.  You can do a read aloud or two to inspire your students to write poems, comic books, short stories, and artwork. Then your students can give share their pieces with their family or friends after school.

Interested?  May I suggest a few mentor texts?  I know time is short, but hopefully you can get to your local library or a bookstore this week to pick up one or more of these to help your students get inspired to do some lovely writing. (Pun intended!)

NEW BOOKS
Hearts♥♥♥ Hearts by Thereza Rowe (TOON Books) — There’s something so appealing about comic books for many young readers. Often the text in comic books isn’t as easily understood as the pictures.  Not the case for TOON Books‘ books, which are easy to read comic books.   ♥♥♥ Hearts is about Penelope Fox who drops her heart into the city and goes on a journey through the land, in the air, and on the sea to retrieve it.  This book was written for emerging readers, which means even the youngest writers can emulate the style of this book. Therefore, if you want to inspire your students to write comics for someone special on Valentine’s Day, this book is a sure-to-please mentor text.
 
love monsterLove Monster by Rachel Bright (Farrar Straus Giroux) — This book is ripe with teaching points about the qualities of good writing. This book screams “TEACH VOICE WITH ME!”  It’s full of points of ellipses, parenthetical references, and words joined together by hyphens (e.g., I-suppose-a-bit-googly-eyed and moping-around-sort).  There’s a very conversational tone to the writing, which makes it — yet again — a great choice for a mentor text when talking about voice with young writers.
PTCVDICPete the Cat: Valentine’s Day Is Cool by Kimberly and James Dean (Harperfestival) — Sometimes kids don’t know what to write on each other’s valentines. If you have some kiddos who aren’t sure what to say, share this book with them and encourage them after read aloud by reminding them what Pete the Cat’s mom told him when he wasn’t sure what to write on his friend’s valentine. “Just tell Larry why he is cool. There is something cool about every cat.” Pete uses his mom’s advice to create valentines for his friends, his bus driver, and the school crossing guard by drawing about what makes each cool. Pete the Cat Valentine’s Day Is Cool  is a nod to using drawing as a way to communicate since sometimes we have more than words to tell people what makes them special.
SLIGHTLY OLDER BOOKS
 
DIZZY IN YOUR EYESDizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love by Pat Mora (Knopf) — If you teach middle or high school, perhaps you’re feeling brave enough to encourage your students to write love poems on Valentine’s Day.  If you are, consider picking up a copy of Dizzy in Your Eyes so your students can mentor themselves after one of the many poetic forms Mora uses in this book. I reviewed this book almost four years ago on TWT. Click here to read more about it now.
 
I HAIKU YOUI Haiku You by Betsy Snyder (Random House) — Hoping to inspire your students to write some poetry on Valentine’s Day? Seek out a copy of this text, which will inspire them to craft some sweet haikus.  Last year I hosted a stop on Betsy Snyder’s I Haiku You Blog Tour.  Click here to learn more about I Haiku You and to take a behind the scenes tour from Betsy herself!

What are your favorite books and writing-related activities to do with your students on Valentine’s Day? Please share them by leaving a comment.

Giveaway Information:

  • This giveaway is a copy of Love Monster by Rachel Bright. Many thanks to MacMillan for sponsoring this giveaway.
  • To enter for a chance to win a copy of Love Monster leave a comment on this post.  All comments left on or before Monday, February 17th at 11:59 p.m. EST will be entered into a random drawing using a random number generator on Tuesday, February 18th.  I will announce the winner’s name at the bottom of this post later that day.
  • Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win.  From there, my contact at Macmillan will ship the book out to you.  (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field.)

Comments are now closed.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on this post. Cathy Hink’s commenter number was drawn and therefore she’ll receive a copy of Love Monster. Here’s what she wrote:

Pete the Cat is always a winner in Kindergarten, what a great connection this story makes with those writers who get stick on what to write. It was fun to have Pete’s mom echo what we have been learning all year – write from your heart!

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

38 thoughts on “Valentine’s Day Writing + a Book Giveaway”

  2. Wye aren’t holidays written unto our language arts domains/modules??? These great books teach just as wonderfully as their scripted works! I can come up with my inferential ? And close reading is perfect! Love to be a winner. Thank you for exciting Valentine’s Day!

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  6. I love Valentine’s Day! The sad part though is that I live and teach in MA, and we have been snowed in for two days. School is closed and our Valentine’s Day celebration will be delayed until we go back to school after our week of vacation.

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  7. I would love to win Love Monster. When you teach writing with mentor texts, students writing is amazing! Thank you for sharing book recommendations, next year Valentine’s Day in my classroom will be all about mentor texts.

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  8. Pete the Cat is always a winner in Kindergarten, what a great connection this story makes with those writers who get stick on what to write. It was fun to have Pete’s mom echo what we have been learning all year – write from your heart!

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  9. As a middle school ELA teacher, I LOVE all of these! I just started following and will continue. Thanks for the great ideas. An Awesome Book of Love by Dallas Clayton is also a fun mentor text that I am going to do. It gives the students a great format to follow (using opposites to compare). Great illustrations too!

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  10. I’ve read Dizzy in your eyes and enjoyed that title! Glad to see it here. I’ve been seeing I Haiku You around as well. I’m hoping to find it in our public library this weekend. I do hope you can do a quickie Valentine celebration despite the busy and packed curriculum that I’m sure most teachers have. 🙂 Have a great reading week.

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  11. These are wonderful book suggestions! I like that they represent a few different genres, such as poetry and comics – it’s always fun to involve students in writing beyond narratives and essays.

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  12. I would love to use this book in my classes. I teach junior high and a book that teaches voice sounds wonderful after this week of testing! Thank you!

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  16. I have a gift card that’s been in my wallet for two weeks now. I collect poetry books and don’t have DIZZY IN LOVE or I HAIKU YOU. Headed out to a bookstore today!

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  18. When I was in the classroom, we all wrote love poems. I taught a mixed age group, so while some felt a bit of “why do I have to talk about love? they did write beautiful poems, about love for all kinds of things. I don’t have one special book, but shared a lot of individual poems. These books look fun, Stacey! Thank you!

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  19. It would be lovely to win a copy of LoveMonster to share with my students as a mentor text! I love the idea of using this “holiday” to teach upon, as a jumping off point for some workshopish creativity!

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  26. Last year I bought “I Haiku You,” and can’t wait to use it again this year. Thanks for offering a book give away. I saw that Friday is International Give a Book Day. We are taking a break for some fun writing.

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  30. Thank you for the recommendations. I am always looking for new mentor text titles. what a great way to celebrate the day in a productive way!

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  31. My kindergartners love Pete the Cat! Thank you for these suggestions on mentor texts; with the right book you can incorporate learning and excitement into Valentine’s Day. The illustrations in Love Monster look great.

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  32. Okay, okay, you convinced this grumpy teacher to turn the day into a little more fun, and a writing opportunity- thanks! I love the list of books, can’t wait to try a few. Planning on how I can JUST HAPPEN TO BE NEAR A BOOKSTORE this week.

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  36. Love these ideas, Stacey. I wish I had a public library nearby. I’d run out right now, well maybe not right now since it’s 6:00 am, to get those books! All of them sound great. But, alas! There are no public libraries in Quito. I can only hope some if these titles are in my school’s library. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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  37. Any book that SCREAMS – voice or anything else – is a definite need to motivate our students. While having “core” texts is the “thing” these days, having a POWERFUL NEW picture book can motivate our students to try new craft! PS LOVE THE “it’s ok to take a day “off” for “fun writing”….Graves is smiling 🙂

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