Valentine’s Day Brain Break Ideas for Elementary Kids
I wanted to share some ideas and resources for teachers for heart-shaped “think outside the box” activities today. I love taking a simple shape and then looking at it and drawing out what it reminds me of. This exercise is fun and fosters creativity, and can be applied to just about any theme around the year:
Snowflake for winter, a circle (sun/beach ball) for summer, a football shape for sports or fall leaf, and as in my post today, hearts for Valentine’s day.
Short drawing activities incorporate well into classroom morning meetings, into language arts lessons, or you could use them as mindfulness activities or a brain break. They help students wake up, express their feelings, and gets them engaged in classroom activities.
I’ve created four drawing tutorials that take the shape of a heart and turn it into something else: a bow, a bird, a dog and even a singing frog. You can view the videos on YouTube by clicking on the images below:
The tutorials are easy and they go slowly step by step so it’s easy follow along. If you want to skip the video, and pass out step-by-step instructions on paper, you can download drawing tutorial PDF’s on my website here:
Ask Kids to make their own Outside of the Box Drawings
After completing guided drawings like the ones above, continue raising creativity by having kids draw a heart on a piece of paper and adding details to it to make it into something else. You can print out prompt pages, like this PDF, but I find it great just to have blank paper and have kids draw a shape in the center, turn the paper around and then draw in any direction they feel.
Outside the Box Drawing - Team Work
A second variation is to ask students to draw a random shape on a piece of paper, but instead of continuing drawing on it themselves, they pass it to another student and then continue drawing on a new paper that was just passed to them. For a team exercise, have students pass the drawings down to the next person every 1-2 minutes for 3-4 rounds and see what kinds of creative and fun things each person added to complete the drawing.
Things to note:
Emphasize the importance of being respectful of each other’s contributions.
After finishing, pin drawings on the wall, so everyone can see them. It’s fun for students to see how they worked together to finish a drawing.
Creative Drawing + Add Writing
After students have completed either their own or group creative drawings, they can pick either their own or a character off the wall, and write a story for it.
Benefits of Creative Drawing Exercises:
Doing outside the box thinking strengthens flexible thinking skills
Promotes creativity as students contribute their own ideas to drawings
They teach us to see and understand different perspectives and
To celebrate and appreciate the uniqueness of others, which all fosters social emotional learning.
Enhances classroom engagement as a fun and interactive element.
Teamwork builds up classroom spirit and sense of belonging
More ideas:
See more ideas and fun drawing tutorials on my channel and on my website at: https://www.mirkah.com/free-resources
https://www.mirkah.com/free-drawing-tutorials
Add a funny picture book about a cat twisting into shapes to avoid a bath for an extra lesson on shapes and creativity: https://www.mirkah.com/kittyandcatshapesbook
Shapes Games
Kitty & Cat: Bent Out of Shape also has shapes games that can be played in class and at home, including this pocket chart find-it game. Many of the free activities are on the book and freebie page, and some are in my subscriber vault (also free after signing up with email).
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to pin these resources to your board!
