Valentine's Day Fun: Heart Math for Preschool & Kindergarten

Recently, I have shared lots of Valentine Themed Crafts with you. Today, I am bringing you some learning fun with

Heart Themed Math

My Kindergartener is working on addition and subtraction number sentences at school so I thought it would be great to have some fun focusing on that with her at home as well.

Broken Heart Addition

(Kindergarten)

What You Need:

heart cut-outs

scissors

markers

What to Do:

1. Fold heart cut-outs in half. Write basic addition problems on one half and the answers on the other half.

2. Put down the half with the answers, face up for child to see.

3. Have child go through the addition problems on the other halves. Once they have reached an answer have them place it with the correct heart half to make an entire number sentence.

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Valentine Number Stories

I spent some time telling the Oldest Diva various number stories and having her identify if they were addition or subtraction stories and working out the answers.

What You Need:

dry erase markers, eraser & board

heart manipulatives

What We Did:

1. I told various number stories. For example: A girl had 4 valentine hearts.  Her friends gave her 4 more. How many hearts does she have in all?  (addition) A girl had 10 hearts. She gave 10 hearts to her friends. How many hearts does she have left?  (subtraction).

2. The Oldest Diva worked on writing the number sentence as I told her the stories. She was free to use the heart manipulatives is necessary to help her find the answer.

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My Preschooler is working on identifying numbers. For some reason, 10-20 are really coming slowly which I find surprising because she usually picks things up very quickly.  Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be very interested in numbers in general. So, to get her attention I really have to make sure it's fun and enticing. Here's what I came up with especially for her.

Musical Hearts
(Pre-K)

Who doesn't like to play party games? I re-worked musical chairs to fit our math needs & the Littlest Diva loved it! It gave her the opportunity to do lots of fun movements while also practicing her number recognition for #'s 10-20.

What You Need:

Heart cut-outs

marker

music

How to Play:

1. Arrange numbered heart cut-outs face down in a circle.

2. Child walks around circle as music plays. To make it a little more fun we gave the Littlest Diva different actions each time the music played. For example, we had her hop, skip, jump, dance, twirl, walk backwards, take big steps and little steps around the circle. She really enjoyed this & it was fun to watch too!

3. When music plays, child picks up closest heart & identifies number. If number is identified correctly, the heart is removed from the circle. If it is identified incorrectly, return it to the circle - this allows another opportunity to review the number.

4. Repeat until all numbers have been removed from floor.

Expansion Note: This activity can easily be done with number words, sight words, letters & more for a fun heart themed review game of whatever concept you are working on! I plan to play again using sight words with the Oldest Diva - I know she'd enjoy it as well. 

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Heart Number Match 

& Scavenger Hunt

(Pre-K & K)

Nothing beats a good scavenger hunt! 

This one got the Littlest Diva excited 

about uncovering some numbers &

I was easily able to include the Oldest Diva

by making the number match portion suitable to her.

What You Need:

felt hearts 

(I used stickers I got from the $1 spot at Target) 

marker

paper to make number match sheet

What We Did:

Prep: Number your felt hearts with your target numbers (11-20 for my Pre-K) and number words (one thru 10 for my K). Have your Number Match sheet ready to use throughout the hunt.

 

1. I hid the heart cut-outs around the playroom. Each Lil Diva was given  their own color hearts so there were no mistakes in finding each others hearts. They were good about keeping quiet if they spotted a heart that wasn't theirs too!

2. The Littlest Diva went around searching for her hearts. Each time she found one, she had to read me the number and then place it on the correct heart on her Number Match sheet. This way she knew how many were left and practiced number recognition as she enjoyed her scavenger hunt. A sneaky but fun way to help her practice her numbers 11-20!

The Oldest Diva went searching for her hearts which had number words written on them. Each time she found one, she had to read the number word and then place it on the correctly numbered heart on her Number Match Sheet. 

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A few more heart math ideas for you from last year....

Heart Sticker Patterning

Candy Heart Counting

 Candy Heart Sorting & Graphing

Have fun doing some heart math!

Bern

Looking for more math ideas?

Check out our Fun w/Numbers Pinterest Board