Valentine's Day PE Games: 10 Heart-Pumping Activities for Physical Education
Updated: Oct 26
With Valentine's Day around the corner, it's the perfect time to add some fun and excitement to your physical education classes! Valentine's Day is all about love and kindness, so what better way to celebrate than with games and activities that get students moving? Seasonal activities are timely, and they keep students engaged, active, and focused on learning.
Pictures by Karen Sweazy @SweazyPE
In this post, I'll share why Valentine's Day games are worth adding to your program, give you tips for setting them up, and walk you through 10 movement activities with a Valentine's Day twist that you can use this year. Let's get to the HEART of the matter!
Quick Answer: Fun Valentine's Day PE games include Pass It On Valentine, Move and Groove, Heart-Filled Fitness, Valentine Tag, Have a Heart Relay, Valentine Concentration, a Valentine Fitness Relay, Heart Target Throw, Valentine Limbo, and Jump Rope for Heart. They mix fitness warm-ups, tag games, relays, and stations with a festive theme kids love.
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Why Include Valentine's Day Games in PE?
Valentine's-themed activities and games have lots of benefits. They're timely, and a seasonal theme grabs students' attention and gets them more involved. When kids are actively involved, they're more likely to remember the concepts and skills they learn. A festive theme also creates a positive, fun learning environment.
Pictures by Stephanie Newcombe @ILoveMyLabs4
Valentine's Day games are an easy way to sneak fitness and motor skill practice into your elementary PE lessons. They also build connection and teamwork as students work side by side, and they help students grow in confidence and creativity.
Standards-Based Movement
Valentine's Day games and activities line up with SHAPE America's Standard 4: Develops personal skills, identifies personal benefits of movement and chooses healthy opportunities for movement.* Students see that being active is fun and good for their hearts. The partner and team activities also build Standard 3: Develops social skills through movement.*
Pic by Karen Sweazy @SweazyPE
10 Tips for Running Valentine's Day PE Activities
1. Build Excitement: Start talking about the Valentine's Day activities with your students in the weeks leading up to it.
2. Decorate: Get everyone in the spirit by decorating the gym with red and pink streamers, balloons, and other festive decorations. Invite parents to help!
3. Use Themed Equipment: Use equipment in Valentine's ways, like hula hoops for a Heart Hula Hoop Relay or beanbags for a Heart Toss.
4. Add Visuals: Use Valentine's-themed visuals and cards in your activities and games.
5. Set Up Early: Have all your equipment ready to go before students walk in.
6. Use Stations: A station layout lets every student try every activity.
7. Play Music: Fill the room with upbeat music that speaks "right to their hearts."
8. Move Around: Walk around during activities to watch, help, and give feedback.
Pictures by Stephanie Newcombe @ILoveMyLabs4
9. Share: When the activities are done, have a few students share their favorite part with the class.
10. Clean Up Together: Have students help tidy up and get ready for the next class.
Video by Christine Mason @LPESVB
Show your love of movement and fitness this Valentine's Day with these 10 warm-ups, games, relays, and stations!
Fitness Warm-Ups and Activities
1. Pass It On Valentine (Instant Activity with Exercise Cards)
Game Set-Up: Make and laminate some Valentine's Day exercise cards and hand them out as students enter the gym. Direct students to an exercise area in your space. My Valentine Exercise Cards and 4 Fitness Activities set has everything ready to go.
Example exercise cards
Directions:
Hand out the exercise cards as an instant activity as students walk in.
Students go to the exercise area and do the exercise on their card for the listed reps.
When a student finishes, they find another student who is also done and trade cards.
They do the exercise on their new card.
Students keep trading and exercising.
Keep it going for 5 to 15 minutes.
2. Move and Groove (Exercise Cards)
Game Set-Up: Make and laminate some Valentine's Day exercise cards (see the examples above). Place them in the center circle of a basketball court or in several hula hoops in the middle of the room. Put 4 cones on the corners of the court, or use gym lines, for students to travel around.
Directions:
Demonstrate (or have students demonstrate) some of the locomotor movements and exercises they'll use.
Show students how to read the cards and get back out to the perimeter quickly.
On a signal (music works great), students travel counterclockwise around the room using a movement like skipping, crab walking, hopping, or jogging.
When the music stops, students go to the middle, grab a card, and do the exercise for a Valentine minute.
After the exercise, students go back to traveling around the room.
Repeat, changing the travel movement each time.
3. Heart-Filled Fitness
Game Set-Up: Cut out hearts from construction paper and write a simple exercise and the reps or time on each one, like jumping jacks, running in place, squats, or lunges. Laminate them so you can use them again. You'll need at least twice as many hearts as students. Place the hearts face down in the middle of the playing area.
Directions:
Place 6 to 12 cones (or painter's tape marks) around the edge of the gym and split students into small teams, one at each cone.
On the signal (music works great), the first student in each line runs to a heart, flips it over, and does the exercise for the listed reps or time.
After the exercise, the student runs back to their line.
They tag the hand of the next student in line, who goes out to find a new heart.
Keep going for 5 or 10 minutes.
Games and Relays
4. Valentine Tag (Exercise Cards Chasing and Fleeing Game)
Game Set-Up: Place exercise cards in hula hoops just outside the lines of a court or coned-off area. Pick about 20% of your class to be taggers and give each one a red squishy heart, beanbag, or foam ball. My tag games post has more ideas.
Directions:
Tell students which locomotor movement to use before each game (walking, skipping, hopping, jogging, and so on).
On the signal (music works great), taggers try to tag players with their heart, beanbag, or ball while everyone else avoids being tagged.
Tagged players FREEZE and make a heart shape by curving their arms over their head.
To free a frozen player, another player (not a tagger) gets an exercise card from a hula hoop and hands it to them.
The frozen player does the exercise on the card, then puts the card back in a hoop.
Then they're back in the game. Keep playing while tagged players work their way back in.
5. Have a Heart Relay
Game Set-Up: For every 2 lines of students, place a regular deck of playing cards face down in a hula hoop across the gym. Keep lines short (3 is ideal) so students get more turns. Place a cone for each line on the opposite side of the room as a starting point.
Directions:
On the start signal (music works great), the first student in line goes to the cards, picks one up, and brings it back to their cone.
No peeking and switching! Whatever card they pick, they keep.
They lay the card on the floor near their cone.
The next student goes.
When all 52 cards are gone from the hoop, each group counts how many heart cards they have.
The team with the most hearts wins!
Play again with a different locomotor movement each round.
6. Valentine Concentration Memory Game
Game Set-Up: Copy, laminate, and cut out the Valentine's Day memory cards, making sure every card has a match. Double or triple the set for big groups. Place the cards face down, under cones, poly spots, or flying discs if you can, all around the gym. My Valentine's Day Concentration set has 32 matching cards.
Example Concentration memory cards
Directions:
Place 6 to 12 cones around the edge of the gym and split students into even groups.
Each group lines up behind a cone.
On the signal (music works great), the first person runs (or uses a teacher-chosen movement) to a card, picks it up, and brings it back to the group.
The group looks at the card, and the next student goes out and looks under another cone or spot. If it's a match, they bring it back.
If it's not a match, they leave the card there and come back to tell the group what they saw.
The next student heads out to check a new card.
Keep going for a set time to see which group makes the most matches.
7. Valentine Fitness Relay (Exercise Cards)
Game Set-Up: Place exercise cards in the center circle of a basketball court or in several hula hoops in the middle of the room. Break students into groups of 3 or 4 and line them up around the outside of the court.
Directions:
Students wait their turn in groups of 3 or 4.
The activity starts on a signal (music works great).
The first player in each line runs to the card area, grabs a card, and brings it back to the group.
They read the card, and the whole group does the exercise together.
After the exercise, they put the card in a pile at the end of the line, and the next player runs for a new card.
Keep going for 5 to 10 minutes. Each team tries to collect the most cards.
Valentine Stations
8. Heart Target Throw
Game Set-Up: Draw, paint, or print some large hearts. Laminate them and place them on a wall, a cone, or a mat as targets.
Directions:
Place poly spots or cones at different distances from the heart targets.
Students line up in small groups behind the spots and take turns throwing a yarn ball, gator skin ball, or beanbag at the target.
To build hand-eye coordination, have students try different objects and distances. My throwing stations post has more ideas.
9. Valentine Limbo
Game Set-Up: Put students in teams of 3 or 4 and give each team a wand, pool noodle, or jump rope to use as a limbo stick. Let the fun begin!
Directions:
Students take turns holding the limbo stick and going under it one at a time while the music plays.
As they go under, students can add a Valentine's move, like flapping their arms like Cupid's wings.
10. Jump Rope for Heart
Game Set-Up: Put students in small teams of 4 or 5 and give each team a long jump rope.
Directions:
Students take turns turning the long rope by the handles and jumping it for a Valentine minute.
Jump challenges can include: 1) jumping over a still rope, 2) jumping over a slanted rope, 3) jumping a pendulum swing, 4) running through without touching the rope, 5) single jumps, and 6) jumping with a partner. My long jump rope post has lots more ideas.
Final Thoughts
I hope these Valentine's Day activities bring lots of joy, laughter, and friendly competition to your lessons, along with quality physical activity for everyone. Each one builds teamwork, coordination, and physical literacy in its own way, so there's something for every age group. For more seasonal ideas, check out my posts on Christmas PE games, winter PE games, 100th Day of School activities, and instant activities. If you'd like everything ready to go, my Valentine's Day 7 Set Super Bundle has stations, warm-ups, and games for the whole season. Have fun!
What are your favorite Valentine's Day PE activities? Share them in the comments below! If this post helped you, please share it with other PE teachers. Thanks for reading!
*National Physical Education Standards are used under license from SHAPE America. © 2024, SHAPE America, https://www.shapeamerica.org/. All rights reserved.
Need Some FREE Valentine's Day Instant Activities?
Looking for fun Valentine's activities to get students moving the minute they walk in? Here's one to help!
Fill in the form below to download the FREE PE Valentine's Day Instant Activities: 10 Actions Visual Set to use in your PE program! It has 10 quick movement and skill activities that are simple for students to do at the start of class, with a Valentine's theme they'll love in the weeks before the big day. It works for a wide range of ages.
If you're looking for Valentine's Day games and activities for large, medium, or small groups, check out my Valentine's Day PE Stations and Fitness: 7 Product Super Bundle!
This Super Bundle includes 7 active Valentine's Day game and fitness sets for PE classes, classrooms, or camps. Together, they give you several weeks of movement experiences that you can copy, laminate, and use in the weeks before Valentine's Day for years!
You can find this bundle in my TPT store: PE Valentine's Day Activities and Games: Seasonal 7 Set Super Bundle for the Gym
What's in the Valentine's Day PE Stations and Fitness 7 Set Super Bundle? 1. Valentine's Day PE Stations: 15 Heart-Power Station Cards 2. Paper Plate Activate: Valentine's Day Edition 3. PE Valentine Exercise Cards and 4 Valentine's Day Activities 4. PE Concentration: Valentine's Day Version, 32 Matching Memory Cards 5. Heart-Filled Fitness: Activity Plan and 28 Heart-Shaped Exercise Cards 6. Valentine's Day PE Instant Activities: 20 Movement Signs 7. Valentine's Day Fitness Blasts: 12 FUN Workouts
About Pete Charrette
Pete Charrette is a National Board Certified physical education teacher and former Georgia PE Teacher of the Year with more than 30 years of experience teaching elementary PE. He is the creator of Cap'n Pete's Power PE and has developed more than 1,000 PE and health resources used by teachers around the world. Pete loves helping PE teachers build programs their students enjoy.
