Home About Me Freebies Image Map

Thursday, December 29, 2016

The 3rd Annual Great Canadian Valentine Swap!



It's that time again! It's time for the 3rd Annual Great Canadian Valentine Swap. The 2017 edition! Last year we had over 180 classes from across Canada participate. I'm hoping that this year will be even bigger and better!

 Julie from Plaisirs du primaire and I  have joined forces again this year to bring you a FRENCH version of the same great swap! All the same rules apply. More info will be posted soon about the French swap.

What is a Valentine Swap? 
It is a way for K-6 classes to connect with other classes from across Canada and to learn about their communities. Each class will be responsible for making and decorating 20 valentines. Please, no store bought cards. Classes are encouraged to write a letter describing their community and school. You can photocopy the letter to save on time, especially for younger grades.

If you are looking for Valentine art ideas ideas make sure you check out my Pinterest Board.


These are the cards that my grade one class made two years ago.

 A coworker made these adorable bees with her grade ones.

By Friday, February 3rd, you will need to mail all 20 of your Valentines to the 20 different classes from around Canada. Then, keep your eyes on the mail! I can't wait to see how excited my kiddos are to get 20 Valentines from around Canada this year! 

We mapped where our Valentines came from last year. (Yes I know my map is super old and no longer correct.) We also looked up the different communities on Google Earth. 

Here are some other displays.



Sign Up Information

Sign ups will be open until January 11th or until the maximum number of participants has been reached. 



Inscrivez-vous ici pour recevoir des valentins en français. COMING SOON!


By Signing up, you are committing to:
  • making 20 valentines with your class
  • mailing all of the valentines by Friday, February 3rd, 2017
  • paying for the postage
More details will be sent out the week of January 12, but you can start making your Valentines right away if you want. If you have any questions please comment below or email me before signing up. 

post signature

23 comments :

  1. Is it 20 per class (so 400 cards) or 20 in total? Either way I'm in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! You will make 20 Valentines. Then you send them to 20 different schools and they will send one back to you. You will get 20 different valentines back. Does that make sense?

      Delete
    2. It does. Thanks. Looking forward to it.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for organizing this again. We really enjoyed making and getting the Valentines last year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed it last year! Thanks for joining us again.

      Delete
  3. We participated for the first time last year and it was a great experience! The students were so excited to receive the valentines from across the country and it was a great opportunity to use our map of Canada to track where the valentines were coming from. Thanks so much for organizing this really meaningful and fun event!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I really appreciate your support!
      ~Emily

      Delete
  4. Hello!
    Any update on when the French sign up will be open? Don't wanna miss the date. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! Unfortunately I'm not running the French swap. I will contact the French host and see what her timeline looks like.

      Thanks,
      ~Emily

      Delete
    2. Thanks Emily! I appreciate that.

      Delete
    3. Hi Ashely!
      I meant to let you know the sign up is open for the French Swap.

      http://www.plaisirsduprimaire.com/2017/01/echange-de-valentins.html?m=1

      Delete
  5. Hi Emily, a question for you, can it be more than 20 participants. Lets say I have 26 in my class that would like to participate. Would that be possible.

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Jeff,
    The idea is you will be put in a group with 20 other school. You will send a valentine to each of the schools and they will send one back with a little bit of information about their school and where they are from. Unfortunately not all students will get a valentine. If you want all your students to take one home you could sign up twice but you would be responsible for making 40 valentines and sending them. I hope that makes sense!

    ~Emily

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am teaching Grade 5 French and I think this will be a great project for my students to meet a few curricular goals in a fun way. We would like to participate in the French one if possible. I just want to make sure that I have not missed the sign up for that. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Marlyssa, The French sign up is up. You can find the sign up here.

      http://www.plaisirsduprimaire.com/2017/01/echange-de-valentins.html?m=1

      Delete
  8. I just wanted to make sure I am getting this right. So we make 20 valentines and we will get a list of 20 different schools to send them to? With each valentine we send a letter about our school? This seems very fun, I am looking forward to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely! You have it correct! Thanks for joining!

      Delete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would like to sign my class up. Sounds like a great idea!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Emily, I have signed up, and just wanted to confirm when we will know that we are part of the exchange. I would like to start writing our classroom infomartion letter next week with the class, but just wanted to ensure that we are part of the 20 doing the exchange.

    Thanks!
    Jill Romain

    ReplyDelete