Introduction

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and you have decided to write your own valentine for your special someone instead of buying one from the store.  You want yours to be original and unique so you decide to do some research to find out the history of the holiday in hopes of adding that special "something" to it.  You also want to find some great images to add to your valentine. 

What is it that makes Valentine's Day so special?  Why do so many people send cards with such touching sentiments?  How can you prepare yourself to write the your best Valentine message?

You task is to create a unique and interesting Valentine's card message for someone special.  It could be a friend, your mother or father, another relative, or a teacher.  To prepare for this writing, you will 

• complete an Inspiration activity that focuses on the idea of love;
• complete a scavenger hunt on the background of Valentine's Day;
• find at least 1 interesting graphic;
• bring a picture of yourself or the person you are writing the card for and then use the scanner to scan that photograph in order to insert it into your message;
• write a Valentine message of at least 8 lines;
• include in your message at least 5 adjectives and 3 adverbs;
• complete the self-evaluation check list and attach it to your final copy.

• First, complete the Inspiration activity on the idea of love. Save a copy of it to your student folder on the H:\drive as valentine.  Be sure to put your header on the page and then print.

• Next, you'll need to access the Valentine's Day scavenger hunt in order to gather information about the holiday. Save a copy of the scavenger hunt to your student folder on the H:\drive as valentinehunt and then once you've completed answering the questions, print to the appropriate printer. 

• Once you've completed this activity, you will need to find at least 1 graphic to add to your card.  Remember that the graphic should be saved to your student folder on the H:\drive so that you can access it later.

• Scan your picture or the photograph of the person you are writing the card to.  You will be saving this to your student folder also. 

• Open Publisher and use the information that you came up with about love and Valentine’s Day to write your message and add your images. Remember that it must be at least 8 lines long.  It does not have to rhyme, but it must have within it 5 adjectives and 3 adverbs.  If you need to review adjectives go to Chapter 5 Lessons 1-3 or adverbs go to Chapter 5 Lessons 4-7 in your grammar book.

• Complete the self-evaluation check list and then print your Valentine's card using the color printer.  Ask your teacher for help with this.

This is your self-evaluation check list.  Click here to go to a copy that you can use to evaluate your completion of this activity.

	YES	NO	Points
I have saved my Inspiration activity to my student folder under the name valentine.			____/5
I have completed my Inspiration activity and printed to the appropriate printer.			____/15
I have saved my scavenger hunt to my student folder under the name valentinehunt.			____/5
I have completed my scavenger hunt and printed to the appropriate printer.			____/15
I have located an appropriate graphic and saved it to my student folder.			____/5
I have scanned my photograph and saved it to my student folder.			____/5
I have completed my Valentine message in Publisher.			____/25
I have underlined the 5 adjectives and 3 adverbs within my message.			____/15
I have completed my self-evaluation check list and printed it out.			____/10

Many times we do not share with people that we appreciate them, and holidays like Valentine's Day help us remember to do this.  Wouldn't it be nice if we thought to tell those around us that we care about them?  Consider the possibilities of giving a smile and a hello to at least 5 people every day.  A random act of kindness as simple as this could be the difference in a person having a day filled with smiles and good thoughts or not.

Click here to read the script from Oprah Winfrey's show titled "Random Acts of Kindness."

Language Network:  Grammar, Writing, Communication.  McDougal Littell:  Illinois, 2001.

Oprah Winfrey's Random Acts of Kindness:
http://www.intouchmag.com/oprah.html

Valentine's Day History
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine

Valentine's Day History
http://www.howstuffworks.com/valentine.htm

Valentine's Day Clip Art
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/val/clip.html

Valentine's Day Clip Art
http://dgl.microsoft.com