It’s that time of year again – when we celebrate the mysterious holiday of Valentine’s Day. I cannot tell you the history behind this holiday nor how it evolved into such a money-oriented day, but I do know the importance of showing the people around us how much we love them. So let’s show our preschoolers the importance of love, friendship, giving, and fun of learning with these math Valentine’s Day activities. I hope you will love them, too!
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Valentine's Day Lesson Plans
Bead Patterns
Valentine's Day Math Activity
February is right around the corner. And, while it might be the shortest month, it is packed full of holidays from Valentine’s Day to President’s Day. It’s also National Random Acts of Kindness Month 💞.
This is the perfect opportunity to reinforce compassion, empathy, and friendship in your little learners while working on patterning.
Invite your preschoolers to make bracelets, necklaces, or just make a pattern with beads and these patterning cards. Preschoolers love stringing pony beads to make creations! And, once they have a finished product they can give one to their friends to celebrate one another! Such a sweet way to show kindness.
And if you want to set up a Post Office Dramatic Play center as we did for February, this can be one of the items your little tots can send to friends in a package.
Materials:
Friendship Stew
Counting Sensory Bin
My best friend and I met on the first day of seventh grade.
Our teacher asked us to share our favorite foods, so I, of course, said ice cream (My love of sweets has never faltered). Catrena turned to me and said her favorite food was salad. Um, well, you can imagine the look of sheer confusion on my face, and naturally, we’ve been best friends ever since.
Friendship not only takes those (sometimes weird) connections but also loving hearts and kindness sprinkled in with tons of fun.
And it’s so important for us to teach our toddlers how to be good friends. Not just that they said hi to them at the park and now they’re friends.
This Valentine’s Day math activity incorporates learning about the qualities of a good friend, counting, and number identification – all while making Friendship Stew in a sensory bin. Such an inviting way to learn through play!
Materials:
- Friendship Stew Counting Activity
- rainbow rice
- linking chains
- smiley face erasers
- plastic hearts (Dollar Tree)
- small pot & ladle
Box of Chocolates
Valentine's Day Counting Game
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Well, all I know is life’s gonna be sweet, especially when we get to learn through math games!
In this Valentine’s Day math game, each kiddo will get their own Box of Chocolates game board. Grab some snap cubes and a spinner, and it’s ready to go.
On your turn, spin the spinner and count (or subitize) to find out which number you landed on. Add that same number of chocolates (snap cubes) to your box of chocolates.
But if you land on the pic of the little boy or girl eating chocolate, take one of the chocolates out of the box and pretend to eat it. (You know I would.)
Try to fill up your whole box of chocolates!
And as a bonus, this includes a chocolate play dough mat that encourages your preschoolers to make shapes out of play dough.
Materials:
Measure of Love
Math Valentine's Day Activities
This next math Valentine’s Day activity is off the ch-hearts!
It’s not only adorable but it is packed full of so many skills!
First, use the heart rulers to measure each Valentine’s Day creature or person from top to bottom. Counting – check!
Then, attach the same number of linking chains as the number of hearts in the height. Counting and fine motor skills – check!
Finally, find the balloon with the matching numeral and attach it to the linking chains. Number identification – check!
And after everyone has a balloon, you can even compare numbers by seeing which chain is the shortest or longest.
There are so many ways to learn with this math Valentine’s Day activity for non-standard measurement.
Materials:
Candy Heart Graph
Valentine's Graphing Activity
What sweeter way to add engagement than to use candy in your math activities?
Just print the graph and give each student a box or a handful of candy hearts.
Then, your kiddos can place the candy hearts on top of the graph, sorting by color as they go. Hopefully, they can resist the temptation to eat them along the way!
You can either have them count and compare at this point or have them color in the graph before doing a little math talk.
Finally, for your little ones who are working on number formation, write the total for each color at the bottom of the graph.
Grab this FREE candy heart graph to use as one of your math Valentine’s Day activities
Materials:
- FREE Candy Heart Graph
- candy hearts
- crayons
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MORE Valentine's Day Activities
Are you ready for a blissful night instead of running around trying to come up with your Valentine’s Day lesson plans? Don’t search for days and spend hours creating highly engaging Valentine centers that your students will love. This bundle is ready for you to crush through February! Trust me, you’ll cherish the day when these Valentine’s activities are done, so you can enjoy time with your loved ones. All of these math Valentine’s Day activities for preschool are included in this discounted bundle! Plus, you get your Valentine’s lesson plans done for you with the complete list of Valentine’s books for toddlers!
