It is really fun to incorporate holidays into your math instruction, and I am always looking for ways to do that creatively and with real world applications; not just putting holiday graphics on a worksheet or a reference to the holiday in a word problem. I have gone through hundreds of “Valentine math” resources online to find the best ones that will enrich your students’ understanding of math.
These are all FREE!
*All links checked 2/4/23*
For upper elementary students:
I love math wire for engaging hands on activities that go way beyond paper practice. Their Valentines list includes:
- making symmetrical hearts and valentine faces
- using conversation hearts for fractions and graphing
- two Valentine themed games to practice coordinate graphing
- patterning and problem solving activities including one using Pascal’s triangle that would be perfect for GT students.
The Mobius strip is such a cool “math trick” which actually introduces the topology field of mathematics. If you haven’t seen one before you need to check out this post and video from What We Do All Day.
Heart Tessellations is a math art activity using repeated geometric patterns with markers on graph paper. (if your students have not done tessellations before, Toads and Tessellations is a super fun book to introduce them)
Tangrams are one of my favorite activities for building spatial reasoning skills. The hands on practice with rotating, reflecting, and sliding shapes will build your child’s foundation for geometry.
Build Valentine Polygons with straws and pipe cleaners
Broken Hearts Equivalent Fractions Center. This is a free TPT resource where hearts are made with equivalent fractions on each half then cut apart. Students match the equivalent fractions to put the hearts back together.
Valentines Day Division Code Breakers. The math is straight computation but the kids will love these and the code breaking aspect is good for developing their thinking skills too. The riddles are silly and fun.
For lower elementary students:
Valentine estimation jar activities
Non standard measurement with doily hearts
This simple dice addition game to practice addition facts turns into a heart craft when you are done!
For all elementary:
20 Conversation Heart Math Activities for Grades K-5
Heart Marshmallow Toothpick Structures
These require supervision to not become a big mess, so are best done in small group,but they are a consistent holiday favorite and a fun way to make 2D and 3D shapes and review the vocabulary of vertices, edges, faces, sides, angles, etc.
For preschoolers:
Valentines Day Pattern Block Printable-
Valentine Hearts Number Line Matching Game
Heart Cookie Cutter Matching: A Measurement Activity.
Candy Heart Printables. — This resource is fabulous! She includes ten frames, beginning perimeter and area (how many hearts can go around the heart, how many can fit inside,) estimation, color sorting, patterning, and beginning graphing.
Montessori Inspired Valentine Math Trays
For middle school students
10 Ways to Add Valentines Day to a Middle School Math Classroom