Valentine Sorting and Counting

Try this easy sorting activity with mini erasers!!

 Materials:  Cupcake liners, mini erasers.

 Set out as many cupcake liners as you have style of eraser.

 Put erasers in a small bowl and set near cupcake liners.

 Invite your child/ren to sort the different types of erasers.

 They may stop here or....

 count each category and chart the amount.

When children are done they can take home an eraser!

Number Heart Match

Make this number match for you Math Center this Valentine's Day!  All you need is an old deck of playing cards!

 Materials:  Deck of cards, scissors, plastic bag

 If you will be making this number match game thematic for Valentine's Day, pull out all the heart suits.  If not, use the whole deck.  If you are using it for number matching, leave out the un-numbered suits.  If you are just doing basic matching, use the whole deck.

 Cut each card in a zig-zag pattern horizontally.

 Place all the cards in a plastic bag and place in your math center.

 Children visit the math center, dump the cards out and proceed to try to match the cards.

If you want to focus on the actual number of the suits, make sure to not cut through them.  That way, when the children match them you can help them count the suits as well.  Ex. "1,2,3,4,5 clovers plus 1,2,3 clovers equal 8 clovers all together.  Let's count all the clovers to check and see if we are correct.  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It's a match!"

White as Snow

Let your little ones explore the color white with this sensory activity. Children dig through pretend snow to find white items that have been hidden.  For an added challenge, they may wear mittens to search through the "snow" and use a check list to mark off what they have found.

                                   

 

 Materials: Sensory tub, packing peanuts, small white items (coffee filter, napkin, straw, spatula, measuring spoons, measuring cups, cotton balls, etc.), mittens, pencil, white paper, clipboard

 Fill your sensory tub with packing peanuts to represent snow.  If you don't have a sensory tub, you may use a big box or tub like I did.

 On a piece of white paper, write a checklist of all the items you will hide in the "snow".

 Hide all the white items in the "snow".

 Let your child/ren wear their mittens and look for the items in the snow.  You may have a box or basket nearby for them to put the items they have found.

 Encourage them to find the item they found on the checklist and mark it off.  For younger children, make sure to use chubbier writing utensils. 

After they have found everything on their list, encourage them to count how many items they have found. Throughout the activity you will also be focusing on the color white. You may also introduce the word "camouflage".  Share with your child/ren that when something is camouflaged it is blending in with its surroundings.  The white items are hard to find because they are camouflaged; they blend in with the "snow" because the snow is the same color.