By Laila Weir
When you’re raising a young reader, love and literacy are always in the air. This Valentine’s Day, bring both together with these three fun ways to support early reading and writing skills while you celebrate love in all its many forms (and even a little chocolate!). You’ll learn about wonderful picture books to explore—and expand—the concept of love with your child, play a sweet ABC matching game made from a chocolate box, and create words by crafting your own paper version of conversation hearts.
14 Sweet Picture Books about Love for Valentine’s Day
It’s the season of love, and Valentine’s Day presents us with the perfect opportunity to explore the concept of love with our little ones. These 14 children’s picture books about love reinforce early literacy and offer a wonderful starting point for conversations about love in all its forms. Whether it’s love for the planet, love for our friends, or even self-love—let these titles take you and your child on a reading journey that highlights what it’s really all about.
Try this Sweet Alphabet Game and Story Time Activity for Valentine’s Day
This activity begins with spending quality time reading a sweet picture book to your child. A part of Rachel Bright’s Love Monster series, Love Monster and the Last Chocolate is a delightful book that teaches children about friendship, generosity, and, of course, chocolate! After reading together, you’ll upcycle a chocolate box into a memory matching game that teaches children to pair uppercase letters to their lowercase counterparts. This easy activity leads your child from a read-aloud that engages them in conversation about love and friendship to an interactive game that takes their letter learning to the next level.
Conversation Hearts Activity: Teach Reading with this Fun Valentine’s Game
What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day and literacy than to weave together love, candy, and letters! This literacy activity lets children draw their own version of those ubiquitous candy conversation hearts and then try to create words with them. Children attempt to make as many words as they can with these hearts, practicing their reading skills. It’s a sweet, simple, and thematic way to teach the key skills of encoding and decoding.
