Valentine's Day Math Activity: Candy Hearts Addition and Graphing

Valentine's Day math activities can be both fun and educational for students in kindergarten through second grade. Children will enjoy the hands-on approach to the Valentine's Day candy hearts addition and graphing activity. This math activity can be used to practice some basic math skills, while adding some hands-on fun to any Valentine's Day celebration.

Supplies

For the Valentine's Day Candy Hearts Addition and Graphing activity, a few basic supplies are needed. The following supplies will be necessary to complete the activities, though others may be added to adapt the activity to a specific math lesson.

-Candy hearts (small boxes or bags with ziplock bags)

-Crayons or washable markers

-Pre-printed graph handouts

-Worksheets (designed to fit the math activity goals)

Basic Skills

The Valentine's Day Candy Heart Math Activity can help students practice the following math skills: addition, sorting, counting, graphing, and fractions for older students. Subtraction activities can also be added to any classroom worksheet.

How to Introduce the Math Activity

The Valentine's Day Candy Heart Math Activity can be used as part of a math lesson or at the start of any Valentine's Day celebration. If there is not time in the classroom, students can take home the supplies for a homework assignment.

An overview of the math activity goals should be presented before handing out supplies. Students should be given any applicable worksheets to preview before handing out the candy hearts.

The Candy Heart Math Activity

The first step for the Valentine's Day Candy Heart Math Activity is for students to count the candy hearts and write down a total. Candy hearts can then be sorted, counted, and graphed on the handout worksheet. This part of the activity should take 15-20 minutes.

Once students have sorted, counted, and completed a basic colored graph of their candy hearts, students can then be instructed to work on the worksheet questions. Addition problems can consist of questions such as, "How many green and yellow hearts do you have," "How many pink and white hearts do you have," and other basic counting and addition questions.

Older students can do simple fraction math exercises with the Valentine's Day Candy Heart Math Activity. Students can create fraction based on how many of a certain colored candy heart there are compared to the total number.

Creating Worksheets

Worksheets for this math activity can be created to fit many math objectives. The activity is designed as a stand alone lesson for practice with basic math skills. Since this is meant to be both a fun and educational activity, worksheets should be limited to about 10 questions. Home educators can easily use this math activity, as well as parents who want to include a fun, educational activity on Valentine's Day.