Use chocolate kisses and these free printables for Valentine math activities to help kids with sorting, counting, graphing, shapes, and measuring in preschool and kindergarten.
If your kids are anything like mine, once the holidays hit all they want to do is eat candy. From Halloween until after Easter there is just one candy holiday after another! Over the years we’ve found many fun ways to incorporate a bit of candy into our learning activities. It can a helpful tool for learning difficult subjects such as math. Here we’re using chocolate kisses as part of our Valentine’s Day theme activities.
There are six free printables that will help kids practice a wide range of math skills including sorting, counting, graphing, shapes, measuring length, and measuring perimeter.
Get a full set of Valentine’s Day theme activities in our Preschool Valentine’s Day Lesson Plan Bundle.
Why use concrete objects for learning?
Children can sometimes use the help of a visual aid when learning math concepts. Having something physical they can use to build with or count with can provide the additional tactile support they are looking for. It also allows kids to physically manipulate and see what is happening as they implement different skills they are learning. Candy is a great way to do this because it’s fairly cheap to buy, and it can be used as a reward once they’ve completed the activity.
Won’t they just eat all the candy?
While it’s true that your kids may just want to eat all the candy, you can use them for incentives instead. You can have your kids only eat a candy once they’ve completed a portion of the activity.
Sometimes I even let them have one piece of candy before they get started to satisfy that initial urge. This is often done as some sort of taste test or science investigation.
And honestly once kids understand the expectations they are often so excited about the chance to play with candy that eating it tends not to be a problem.
In this Sorting Chocolate Kisses activity, your kids can use chocolate kisses to practice color recognition or even counting. This is a fantastic activity for learning comparing or one-to-one correspondence as well.
Chocolate kisses can also be used to create a real graph. This free printable Graphing Chocolate Kisses will encourage your students to learn counting, sorting, combining sets, and even how to use math vocabulary.
If you are looking for a game that will help teach your kids counting, one-to-one correspondence, and name recognition, you need this game! This fun Candy Kisses Game is the kind of game your kids will want to play over and over. Plus it’s a great way to practice fine motor skills.
Use candy kisses to help your kids practice sorting and adding with this Beginning Addition Valentine Math Activity. This activity can be used as a differentiation option for the original sorting activity we shared previously in this post. Choose the option that is best for each group of students based on their current math needs.
Candy kisses make the perfect manipulative choice in this Valentine’s Day Shape Mats activity. Your kids will learn how to create 2D shapes using candy kisses in this fun Valentine’s themed activity.
Use candy kisses to measure length with this Measuring Length with Chocolate Kisses activity. Your kids will be able to practice using math vocabulary as well as learning about measuring.
Your kids will love measuring objects with this Measuring Perimeter with Chocolate Kisses activity. This activity introduces a fun way to practice counting while also measuring the perimeter of objects around your classroom.
There are so many different ways you can incorporate chocolate kisses into your classroom this Valentine’s Day. If you are looking for a few more chocolate kisses math ideas, try these:
- Make patterns using different kinds of kisses.
- Use chocolate kisses to practice visual addition and subtraction.
- Make numbers out of chocolate kisses.
- Use a balance scale to compare the weight of different chocolate kisses.
- Use chocolate kisses to spell words.
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.
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.
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