Bet You Didn't Know: Valentine's Day Video - History of Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the UK on February 14th. It is a celebration of love between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends and sometimes just friends together! We celebrate Valentine’s Day in a variety of ways, and it is often celebrated by people whether they have a boyfriend or girlfriend, or not! Here are some of the ways in which we celebrate Valentine’s Day in England. Cards Many people send and receive cards from their loved ones. Poems Often, you can find love poems written inside a Valentine’s card. you can buy cards with a poem already written inside, or some people make them up to describe the special love between them and their partner. by William Shakespeare, sonnet 18 In this poem, Shakespeare talks about how the woman he loves is more beautiful than a summer’s day - she is too lovely to use this metaphor. Even from a young age, children write poems for Valentine’s Day. Presents As well as cards, people often send and receive gifts from their loved ones.

Valentine's Day February 14th is traditionally a celebration of love, so how do people in the UK mark the occasion? Cards Sending a Valentine's card to a loved one is a custom that started more than a century ago. Couples give cards to each other, but it is also traditional to send an anonymous card to anyone you secretly love. Poems The card might also feature a poem. Roses are red, violets are blue, Honey is sweet, and so are you. There are some ironic variations on this poem such as: Roses are red, violets are blue, You look like a monkey and smell like one too! Mobile love Millions of people use digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, or printable greeting cards. WUBMV - will you be my Valentine xoxoxoxoxo - hugs and kisses LUWAM<3 - love you with all my heart ImRdy4Luv - I'm ready for love :'-) - I'm so happy, I'm crying ILUVU - I love you Flowers and chocolates As well as cards, February 14th is also a day for giving gifts. Unusual gifts Love it!

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy – a lesson It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, and although I don’t normally do anything for it, I thought that this year I would take the opportunity to share one of my favourite poems with my students. Here’s the plan in case you want to do it too. Ask your students what day it is, and whether anything special happens on this day in their country. What kind of gifts do people normally give for Valentine’s Day? Give each group the word cloud. Show them an onion. Ask the students to close their eyes and put their heads on the desk (but try not to fall asleep!). Ask them to discuss how similar the poem was to their ideas. You can then do some pronunciation/speaking work. They talk about why you pause in those places – it’s because of line/stanza breaks, and also phrases within the lines. They can chose whether to read Valentine, or an anti-Valentine poem. In groups with other students who have chosen the same poem, they practise reading it. Happy Valentine’s Day! Like this: Like Loading... Related

Valentine's Day This lesson explores a topic that can genuinely interest and hold the attention of children of a certain age. In this lesson, learners will play a vocabulary game with words associated with Valentine’s Day. They will then review language related to Valentine’s Day through a simple collocation activity, and read and learn a well-known Valentine’s Day poem, noticing the use of countable and uncountable nouns. They will then produce their own poem. There are also several suggestions for follow-up or homework activities. Aims To raise awareness of adjectives and nouns which go togetherTo introduce the idea of using ‘is’ and ‘are’ with different (countable and uncountable) nounsTo raise awareness of words which rhymeTo develop writing skills with a poem Age groupPrimary LevelCEFR level A1/A2 Time60 minutes MaterialsThe lesson plan can be downloaded in PDF format below.