These activities use Valentine heart candy. I bought a box for each child in my class. I found them at the Dollar Tree, 4 boxes per pack for $1.00. You might not want to do all 3 of these activities, but you can pick and choose the ones you want.
Candy Heart Sort & Count
Children sort a small box of candy hearts onto the colored hearts on the mat. When they are done, have them count how many hearts of each color and write the number on each heart. These could be laminated & used with dry erase markers if you don’t want to print one for each child.
Download: Candy Heart Sort/Count
Note: These are free printables, just click to download.
Candy Heart Pattern Cards
This set of pattern cards will help your kids practice patterns while using candy conversation hearts.
This set includes the patterns: AB, ABC, AABB, AAB, and ABB. Print these out and laminate so they can be wiped clean if they get sticky. The cards can be cut into individual cards or just leave four to a sheet. Children duplicate the first part of the pattern by placing the matching colored candy hearts on the colored hearts on the card. They continue the pattern by placing colored candy hearts on the white hearts. The white hearts are for the children to figure out the rest of the pattern on their own.
Download: Candy Heart Patterns Printable
Candy Heart Count
Children place one candy heart on each heart on the paper. You might want to have them color the hearts the same colors as the candy. Then they count how many they have of each color & write or stamp the number in the space. It would be a good idea to underline each color word with a crayon for non-readers.
Candy Heart Graph
Basically the same activity as above, but in a graph style. Graph and count how many candy hearts of each color. Optional: Have children color the graph.
I have more ideas & printables on my Valentines page.
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Love the ideas! I’d lost the graph I used to use. You saved the day! Thanks!
I love this original idea. Very helpful.
Thanks You!
I too lost my graphs. So I am going to hard laminate these so they will last. As long as I don’t misplace them!
Thank you for practical hands-on activities that work for my kids & what they need! These just add more fun to their learning.
I gave you an award on my blog today! Thanks for all you share! 🙂
http://littleilluminations.blogspot.com/2010/02/beautiful-blogger-award.html
Thanks for the award! Thanks also for posting your link– it’s great to see another pre-k blog!!
I love using these little Sweetheart candies for V-day activities. Now I have some fresh ones for next year. Thanks!
One of the problems with using candy is, of course, that kids want to eat them. I don’t really care, but we have a lot of parents who are strictly anti-candy. My solution is to make sure to start the activity by dumping all the candy on the floor and emphasizing that now it’s too dirty to eat. A few still get swiped, but I have some candy that’s over 5 years old that’s still in use! How’s that for conserving resources? =)
You saved the day. I lost my graph and wanted to use this along with an extension activity for my 2nd graders. They have to take this data and create a line plot and a bar graph on their own. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
You are so creative and a blessing to many. I’m not very creative and you give so many neat ideals. I’m also VERY visual and LOVE that you show the pictures. I also love that you give other resources and EVERYTHING is affordable ESPECIALLY since most things come out of my pocket. I don’t mind though because I love my children and always find myself going to the learning sections and buying things for my classroom. I love you and thanks for making learning FUN.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO.
p.s. On the fine motor section I have tried to find the suction cups at the dollar store and everywhere else, but I can’t find them. Can you please help me or anyone else that reads your posts ? Thanks again
Thank you so much, Ronda! I haven’t seen them at the Dollar Tree lately, but they will probably have them again.
Thanks for the candy heart graphs.
You are very creative and have so many good ideas. Thank you for sharing so generously. Your website has really helped me put together a preschool class. I love the valentine candy heart ideas.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m a kinder teacher and needed scaffolding for my younger kiddos. This is perfect!
I LOVE YOUR WEBSITE!! It was such a life-saver for a new teacher like me, and I really wanted to pay it forward (and also keep an archive for myself as an educator turned early interventionist) so i had to spread the word about your site starting with this activity right here that I’ve used myself! Thanks so much for sharing and offering free resources for hardworking teachers out there!!!!
Thank you so much, Valerie!
Thank you so much! I absolutely love these! I did a similar graphing and sorting in the past but couldn’t put my hands on them, so thank you for sharing!