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February is the beginning of the end of the cold, dark months of winter. It is also when the “busy days” of the spring semester really start to begin. So while February is like a light at the end of the tunnel, there’s a lot to do to make it to the end of this short month. Engage your students with the fun of February and these February reading activities designed for the upper elementary classroom.
These February themed non-fiction passages hit on all of the month’s holidays while engaging your students in some important skills. Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, President’s Day, and the less known International Polar Bear Day will all be touched on in these fun reads.
Each of these high interest passages includes reading comprehension questions to work on a variety of important comprehension skills. Through these reading passages and related questions, students will work on vocabulary, reading for details, summarization skills, descriptive short answer responses, supporting answers with text evidence, and much more! The passages are great for close-reads, independent practice, centers, or even whole class instruction.
Non-fiction isn’t the only thing on the February reading menu. Poetry is included as well! This month’s Poetry Corner focuses on Valentine’s Day. It is a great idea to sprinkle poetry throughout the year whenever you can. Poetry is usually one of the more difficult skills to teach and understand, so combining it with a fun holiday theme is a win win!
These February activities will help your students focus on more reading and language arts skills. These games and activities are great for reading centers or independent practice. But, they are also great for engaging students in small group instruction. This month’s center activities include a focus on:
These February activities can be used in so many different ways. Whether you need a whole class activity or a center, you can find something that will help you out. Using activities such as these in intervention groups is a favorite because the students become so engaged they usually don’t have time to get frustrated on a skill they may otherwise be struggling with.
Determining the genre of a text can help a student to identify the author’s purpose. Understanding different types of genres can help a student when writing on their own as well.
Through this Valentine matching activity, students will work on identifying the following genres:
Your students will be genre pros in no time with this February themed matching game. This matching activity is perfect for independent practice, but also wonderful to play in small group or with partners. You could spice it up for Valentine’s Day by using candy hearts for the “matching”.
With the increased amount of indoor recess you could also turn this into a whole class movement activity called 4 Corners. Make each of the 4 corners of the classroom represent a different genre. Then read the book excerpt and have the students move to the corner that matches the genre they think it represented. A chance to move around while learning is good for everyone and your students will love it. And . . . you can adjust the 4 Corners game to review almost anything! However you choose to implement this activity in the classroom, fun is sure to be had by all!
An important part of writing instruction is revising and editing. This is the place where students take all those individual writing and grammar skills and put them all together. Students get an opportunity to reflect on a writing and edit it to make it better.
In this activity, students will read through Mandy’s paragraph of many mistakes. Students are guided to use the provided editing marks and proofread the paragraph. After finding and correcting the mistakes, they will rewrite the paragraph correctly on the lines provided.
Your students will love working with a partner, or on their own to revise and edit this sweet passage.
Just like genre helps students identify the purpose of a text, being able to identify the text structure is also very valuable. In this cut and past activity, your student’s will love reading these short paragraphs with a Valentine’s Day theme. After reading, they will cut each paragraph and glue it onto the appropriate text structure category. Students will work on identifying the following text structures:
Students can complete this work independently, or they can work together to match the paragraphs with the correct category. The activity will work great like a matching style game or you can even use a timer to see who can match all the pairs the quickest.
This is also a great activity to complete whole group using a pocket chart. After students have correctly matched each example, give them a 3×5 index card and have them write a 2-3 sentence text that matches one of the text structures. Have them write the text structure on the back. This is a great way to see if students are able to apply what they have been learning. You can then add this to a pocket chart center and add the cards written by the class for an added challenge.
Your class will be so excited to complete this ‘How to’ writing assignment about their favorite sweet treat. The writing prompt, prewriting organizer, and publishing page are all included.
A great extension to this activity would be for students to make the treat they wrote about and share it with the class. Sounds like a Valentine’s Day party with an academic connection.
If homemade treats aren’t allowed, you could compile the students’ writing to create a class recipe book. This could be given as a Valentine’s Day gift for the parents or you could save it to share as a Mother’s Day gift in May.
Your students will love engaging in all of these fun February reading activities. There is something for everyone. The best part for you is that you can fill your February reading and language arts lesson plans and know your students will be working on some important skills! Once you get planned, spend a little time to indulge in a sweet treat, or two, of your own.
You can find all of these February Reading Activities in this one resource pack.
Check out these other February activities for more fun and learning activities!
If you’re not quite ready for these February reading and writing activities, then pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can come back when you are.
Hi, I’m Shelly! Thank you for being here. I love helping third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers with fun and engaging activities that require no to little prep! Let me help you by taking some of the stress and work off your plate.
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