Overview:
This is a minimal-to-no prep presentation about the origins of Valentine's Day, St. Valentine, and Valentine's Day traditions America. However you can easily adapt the slides to your own country/culture.
St. Valentine was thought to have been a Bishop during the Roman empire. His dream and legacy are said to have inspired the Valentines Day traditions we celebrate today.
The animated history video is about 3 minutes and animates St. Valentine's story. The other is about 2 mins and shows how to make an origami heart.
Slides:
Most slide are animated, so click through in order.
These slides worked well for my classes, of course edit and change as needed for yours. Slides start with a short story at the beginning, then a short animated reenactment. I have students think about the meaning of each sentence, then move on to the animation slides for confirmation. Afterwards, the video explains more about who Valentine was, why he was killed, and how his martyrdom led to the first Valentine letter.
Afterwards, we flash forward from history into the present. That was the first Valentines Day. So what does Valentines Day look like today? The slides following the Video transition to modern Valentines Day Customs in America. Transition the conversation over from history to present day. I explain how ever since Valentines Death, the tradition of writing Valentines Day cards carried on and what normal celebrations are now.
Activity:
In total, this activity averages about 10-20 mins. Click on the Origami Heart video and walk the students through creating their own heart, then have them write a message inside the heart. I'll bring some red and pink origami paper and have students fold their own heart and write a nice message about another classmate. Then, in a hat or box, I'll shuffle and redistribute cards for students to keep.
I only used the first half to present about the history of St. Valentine. I thought the order was flow was a bit awkward, and the slides do not ultimately connect the dots between St. Valentine's death on Valentine's day and how that brought about the tradition of writing Valentine's cards. (it is only discussed in the video). I would add this before the video slide.
I would suggest creating one statement per slide to tell the story (instead of packing them in at the beginning on Slide 2).
Note:
There is a translation error on slide 4. "魔が軍は戦争に負けている" is incorrect (it means demon...). modify to "私の軍は戦争に負けている。"
On slide 2 the phrase "1754 years ago In Rome, 1754年前に…" is misleading. It looks like the year 1754. I would only use 270AD for writing (consistency) and stick to centuries (3rd century AD ３世紀) or less accurate language ("nearly 2000 years ago" 2000年ぐらい前 or 約2000年前) when speaking.
Has been edited! Thanks for the suggestion. For my class, I simply transitioned from the history of Valentines historically to how its celebrated today. I relied on the video but you can feel free to add slides as needed to fill in the gaps.
Added word edits to the slides in the new version