Looking for simple and sweet Valentine treats for your staff that also allows your students to work on job-related skills? You’ve come to the right place! Below I will walk you through the steps of putting together these easy treat bags that will be sure to put a smile on your staff’s faces!
Let’s Get Started
To get started on the Valentine treats for your staff, a few supplies need to be gathered. These supplies include:
- Valentine wrapped Hershey Kisses
- Red and pink markers
- Snack or sandwich size baggies
- A staff list for your building (or the staff members you choose to include)
- Visual task analysis
- A message card
- A student signature card
- A basket for finished treat bags
First, you will want to gather a staff list of your building, team, or whomever you plan to deliver these sweet treats to! When we complete ours, we make for the entire elementary school staff. This includes office staff, all teachers and paraprofessionals in the building, cafeteria staff, maintenance/custodial staff, Pre-K staff, related service providers, and the director of special education.
Next, create a message card with a sweet phrase and cute pictures to include in the treat bags. An example of mine is below! Once the message card is prepared, I construct a visual task analysis. My task analysis includes three steps:
- Gather supplies (kisses, message card, student signature card)
- Put supplies in baggie
- Zip baggie closed
Valentine Treat Assembly
First
My class puts together staff treat bags three times per school year: December, February, and June. You can read about my December treat bags here! They are such a great way to improve staff morale during the more difficult parts of the year. The first thing we do is have the students write or trace staff names on the back of the message cards using pink and red markers. Some students prefer to use one color, while others will create patterns. It is so cool to see how they each choose to complete this part of the project!
Next
It’s time to put the treat bags together! You can choose to do this part as a group activity or as an independent activity, whichever works best for your students. I choose to do this as a group activity, as it helps my students to work on waiting for materials, taking turns, and other important social skills. By following the visual task analysis, each student will put a kiss of each color, a message card, and a student signature card in each baggie. They will then zip each baggie closed, and place the completed treat bag in a basket for safe keeping. Of course, the students are working hard to do this job, so they get rewarded with a Hershey Kiss or two throughout the activity.
Last
Once all of the Valentine treats for your staff are completed, it is time to sort and deliver! For this, I separate each staff member into their specific grade level, and write their name on a piece of paper. The students then look at the names on the cards in the treat bags and match them to the names on the paper. As shown above, I place each color-coded piece of paper into a bin, which helps with delivery of the treats.
A Sweet Treat for You!
So, your students finished putting together the Valentines treats for your staff, and sorted them. Now what? It’s time to deliver! This is another area of this activity where you can choose how to proceed based on the students in your class. My students perform better one-on-one or in pairs to deliver the treats to the staff members. You could also deliver as a whole group and take turns for handing the treats to the staff members. I love this part of the entire activity the most, because it works on my students social skills, helps them become familiar with other staff members in the school, as well as helps them to be more comfortable within the building itself. They get excited to give the treats to the staff, and the staff is just as excited to receive the treats from the students! It truly is a win-win!
GRAB THE FREE TREAT BAG VISUALS HERE.
More Valentine’s Day Ideas to Consider
Looking for another fun treat to make with your students? Check out this sweet and easy strawberry shake recipe!
Here are some Valentine’s Visuals from the Simply Special Ed shop to help you prepare for Valentine’s Day with your students!
Check out this fun and taste-safe sensory bin for Valentine’s Day!
