The Many Languages of Love - Valentine's Day Classroom Door Decoration

February Valentine's Day Door Bulletin Board Idea — Photo Source: http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com

Make your Valentine's day decor pop this year with a festive door display - like the one we found at Webshots. Created for the middle school classroom, the board features Valentine's most popular candies (conversation hearts, of course!), several common candy phrases, and their translations in a host of foreign languages! With this design, you'll bring a bit of color and culture to your students this Valentine's Day!

The Culture of Valentine's Day

You might also consider tacking on a social studies lesson to compliment the display - having students research how Valentine's Day is celebrated in other countries (past and present day). For example, in Japan, gifts - usually chocolate - are only given by the woman and there are two types of chocolate gifts - those of 'obligation' (given to bosses, father-in-laws, etc.) and those of 'true love' (given to boyfriends and spouses). In Italy and Britain, it was believed that the first man an unmarried woman were to see on Valentine's Day (or a man that looks like him) would marry her within a year so it became tradition for unmarried women to be awakened before sunrise on February 14th in order to stand at their window and watch the men pass by.

Valentine's Day Door Display

Background: Yellow bulletin board paper.
Title: "The Many Languages of Love"
Border:Red sparkle glitter bulletin board trimmer or Valentine's Day themed border.
Decoration: 1) The Three-Dimensional Heart. Cut a large heart from red background paper. Line the edge of one side of the heart with a thin line of glue, attach it to the door, and hold. You might consider adding a few staples for added stability. Crumble pieces of recycled newspaper or purchase quilt/comforter batting from your local craft store, using it to stuff the heart cutout, then glue/staple the other side of the heart to the door display. The staples can then be covered by outlining the heart with red glitter. 2) The Conversation Hearts. Create a card stock template using it to trace and cut conversation hearts from various colors of construction paper. Use markers to script common candy phrases onto the hearts (i.e. "Be Mine", "You're Cool", "Love", etc.). Use an online translator to translate the phrases into several foreign languages and script these onto heart cutouts as well. The matches should be placed side by side on the board. [NOTE: You might also make this an interactive door display by mixing up the phrases and translations and inviting your students guess which go together as well as which language is presented!] 3) The Details. Create smaller heart cutouts (both solid and outline) in Valentine's day colors - red, pink, and white - to decorate any open spaces and accent the candy hearts.

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