Adding play dough to our day always adds in a little more fun! We love coming up with new play dough invitations, and Valentine’s Day is an excellent time to combine our love of chocolate and play dough. For this activity we’re going a bit past open-ended pretend play and incorporating a bit of math. Double duty for the win! In our snowman shape activity we used free printable shape mats to work on shape recognition as we built 2D shape snowmen. In this activity we’re using Valentine play dough mats to work on number recognition, counting and making sets.
FIND EVEN MORE VALENTINE’S DAY ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
ABOUT VALENTINE’S DAY AND HEARTS.
We started with the same materials we used for our play dough chocolate factory invitation. If you’re doing both activities we recommend setting up the chocolate factory invitation for a couple of days, and then introducing this counting activity. This allows kids to have some open-ended time exploring the materials and creating on their own. Then you can extend their interest and learning by using the counting mats to repurpose the materials.
Be sure to laminate your counting mats or slide them into sheet protectors so that they don’t get stained by the chocolates.
You can either choose which mat kids use or leave all of them out for kids to choose on their own. In the classroom offering different sets of mats to different groups of kids based on their needs allows you to easily differentiate the activity.
With this free printable set kids can work on numbers one through ten. If you need additional numbers, our full Valentine’s Day lesson pack includes numbers one through twenty.
As kids make their play dough chocolates they are also working on those fine motor muscles to pinch and grasp those little decorations. (Be sure to supervise little ones or use items appropriate for the children you are working with.)
You can also use these mats in small group to extend the learning. Have kids make a set of chocolates. Then work on number sense by:
- Having kids show a number that is more than or less than a number that you tell them.
- Comparing amounts with a partner
- Adding one more or two more to their set
- Taking away one or two from their set to model one fewer and two fewer
There are so many possibilities!
More Heart Ideas from Other Creative Bloggers
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT (ABOVE):
Heart Letter Puzzles // Pocket of Preschool
Valentine Hearts Ten Frame Clip Cards // Mrs. Jones Creation Station
Heart Digraph Puzzles // The Kindergarten Connection
Printable Valentine’s Math Activities // Stay at Home Educator
Alphabet Hearts // Playdough to Plato
Valentine’s Day Emergent Reader // Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten
Heart Syllable Sort // Recipe for Teaching
Candy Hearts Count and Clip Cards // Modern Preschool
Heartbreakers Sensory Activity // Sugar Spice and Glitter
CVC Hearts // The Primary Post
Valentine’s Day Number Recognition Bingo Game // Schooling a Monkey
Valentine’s Day Activities (Heart Craft & Cutting Practice) // Fairy Poppins
Heart Counting Cards // Powerful Mothering
Sorting Hearts Fine Motor Tray // Teach Me Mommy
Candy Heart Estimation Station // The STEM Laboratory
Contraction Conversation Hearts // The Simplified Classroom
Chocolate Heart Play Dough Mats // Fantastic Fun and Learning
Jar of Hearts: Editable Sight Words to Read and Write // Liz’s Early Learning Spot
Hearts Make Ten Game // Sara J Creations
Heart Roll, Cover and Write Mats // Fun Learning for Kids
Heart Ice and Oil Density Experiment // Science Kiddo
Candy Heart Sentences // Pages of Grace
Heart Sight Word Match // The Letters of Literacy
Heart Name Crafts // Fun-A-Day
Get Your Free Printable Counting Mats
Don’t they look so tasty?! If I didn’t know they were play dough, I’d be ready to dig in!
Inside this free printable you get color mats for numbers 1-10. Click the link below to get yours!
Click Here to Get Your Free Counting Mats
PRINTABLE VALENTINE’S DAY ACTIVITIES & LESSON PLANS
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
VALENTINE’S DAY THEME
GET YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY THEME LESSON PLANS
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
HEART THEME
GET YOUR HEART THEME LESSON PLANS
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
More Valentine’s Day Ideas
Visit our Valentine’s Day activity guide to help plan your Valentine’s Day theme.
Leave a Reply