You, and more importantly, your children, will love this Valentine’s Day rebus Pop Art activity. I’m guessing if the idea of a rebus puzzle for Valentine’s day got your attention, then you probably like games and scavenger hunts. Or at least I hope you do.
Today’s blog post has two really fun (and free) activities you can use with your students for Valentine’s Day. However, to get all the parts, you’ll have to go on a little scavenger hunt—but don’t worry—this will be the easiest scavenger hunt you ever did—I’ll point you exactly where you need to go!
Valentine’s Day Rebus Pop Art Activity
In this blog post, I explain how these two free resources can be combined to make either a display of students’ work or an extra large valentine’s day card that children can gift to each other or bring home to a loved one.
In this blog post, I explain how these two free resources can be combined to make either a display of students’ work or an extra large valentine’s day card that children can gift to each other or bring home to a loved one.
Art + English Language Arts: Perfect Pairing!
When the right two things are combined, magic is created. Think peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, Batman and Robyn. Then think about Art with Jenny K. and Brain Waves Instruction. (Too much?!? )
This Valentine’s Day Rebus activity is one of those perfect pairings. It’s English Language Arts, and Art combined for an engaging, creative and fun activity for your students. That’s what Brain Waves Instruction and I do—we put the Art in Language Arts. We’ll talk another day about who Batman is and who Robyn is in our dynamic duo Today, let’s talk about our Valentine’s Day rebus activity.
**Please watch THIS VIDEO to see how this lesson works, and then you can go to TPT and download the supporting document that will give you all the pieces you need for this *easy* scavenger hunt. Download the supporting document HERE. ***
Pop Art Heart
My interactive coloring pages are popular with teachers because students use their creativity to make unique patterns and designs. No two pages will be designed or colored the same. This showcases students’ individuality.
For this lesson, you have two options for the Pop Art heart portion of the activity. You can use my handout (more details on that below), or students can make their own. To see more of my coloring pages on TPT, click HERE.
Option #1: Print My Handout
If you are using my handout, students will choose the patterns to fill in the different areas of the page. There are suggested patterns at the bottom of the page, or students can come up with their own. I like to encourage my students to use a black marker to outline the patterns so that they will stand out.
Next, students will color in their patterns. Then, they will cut around the border of the image.
The final image can be set aside to use in conjunction with the rebus activity. There are two ways to download my Pop Art heart coloring page. The first is by downloading it from TPT. The second is by signing up for my email list below. Email list subscribers have access to a library of free resources that I’ve built to save time for you. Once you get your initial free resource, then you’ll be able to go into my subscriber library and get this free handout. “Out of the Box” Art Ideas Straight to Your Inbox
I love to spoil my email subscribers by sending exclusive freebies, tips, and tricks, as well as special announcements of sales. Not to mention, you’ll get invited to my “Subscribers Library” of freebies after you join. When you join today, I’ll email you a free sample of my Pop Art Heart Coloring Page for you to start using right away for this Valentine’s Day rebus activity.
Option #2: Students Draw The Heart
Students who are older or more comfortable with their materials might want to draw their own Pop Art heart directly onto a page.
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- To do this, they will first draw a large heart in the center of the page.
- Then they can take a ruler or straight edge to make sections that go all the way across the image.
- Within each section, students can draw patterns and designs.
- Once their designs are drawn in, then they can color their artwork.
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Valentine’s Day Rebus
This Valentine’s Day Rebus activity is a fun, no-prep activity that will get students thinking creatively about language. So what is a rebus? A rebus is a representation of words or phrases made of images, letters, and symbols. They’re like visual riddles. Kids find them really fun to make and solve, and you will be impressed by the imaginative things they come up with.
Brain Waves Instruction has included everything you need to teach this mini-lesson, including answer keys.
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- On the first worksheet page, kids will learn what a rebus is and practice solving them.
- On the next page, they will brainstorm ways to represent different words as a rebus.
- Then they will have a page to draft a Valentine’s message and plan what symbols they will use before they draw their final rebus valentine.
- By the end of the lesson, each student will have written a Valentine’s Day rebus message they can’t wait to share.
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***You can download this FREE rebus Valentine resource from Brain Waves Instruction on TPT.***
Display For All To See (and Read!)
Once your Pop Art heart and a rebus valentine are complete, you’ll want to pair them. To do this, all you’ll need is some construction paper and glue. They’ll look great, all hanging together as a colorful and interactive bulletin board display. Seeing them all on display will be fun for kids because it gives each student a chance to solve the other rebus messages.
Make a Card
Another way to combine these two activities is by making them into Valentine’s Day cards. This is easily done by using the Pop Art heart as the cover and the rebus as the inside message.
Students can glue the individual activities into an extra large-sized card OR get extra creative and add embellishments to their cards with washi tape, stickers, or whatever else you have on hand. For this example, we used a 12″ x 18″ piece of paper and folded it in half.
Some students who feel comfortable making pop art hearts might choose to draw their design directly onto the outside of a card (instead of the printable heart page).
For that matter, the rebus can also be drawn directly inside the card.
These cards are a unique Valentine to send home. They could even give these to each other as part of any other Valentine’s Day celebrations you are doing in your classroom.
Easy Art Integration Resources
The idea I’ve shared with you in this blog post is but one way you can integrate art into your teaching. I’m always looking to help support my students with their reading, writing, math, and more. Years ago, I created unique Pop Art coloring pages where children couldn’t “guess” the answer to the problem because of the clues given by the art—they had to do the work!
This collection has grown over the years, largely due to teachers requesting that I make more and more of them. Since their inception, I have paired with Brain Waves Instruction, and together we have created a large collection of resources that help you easily (and quickly) review reading skills, math facts, place value, homophones, and parts of speech with your students, AND celebrate Valentine’s Day. You can add these as a center and let kids create and practice their skills.
I would love to see your students’ work if you decide to create this Valentine’s Day project with them. Feel free to tag me (@artwithjennyk or #artwithjennyk) on social media so I can see what they make! You’ll find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
Thank you for reading and making art with your students (and letting me help!)
Jenny K.
