Easy Valentine’s Day Math Activities

Adding a little Valentine’s Day to the mix makes math games even more fun. Check out these great, easy, printable and free options to use in the classroom, in your math center or at home.

These Valentine’s Day ladybug printables from Preschool Play and Learn help kiddos learn how to count to 20 and recognize the numbers that go with them. Kids can count the number and then clip or mark the numerals that represent that number on the side.

Use dice and the printables from 123 Homeschool 4 Me to recognize numbers from 1 to 12 in a different way. Here kids can roll the dice, count up the number and then cover up the corresponding number on the heart until they have gotten all the numbers.

The Printables Princess has lots of ideas for math and literacy centers for kindergarten that you can purchase, but if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the post there’s a freebie printable for a flip and find sheet that goes up to 100. You have the numbers on cards and the sheet with all the numbers, and kids (or you) can mix the number cards and then use them to find and cover up the numbers on the sheet. For this one you will need 100 of some small object like pompoms or little heart erasers, or if you only want to use it once you can use dot markers.

These Valentine hearts from A Little Pinch of Perfect ask students to pair half of the heart with the number to a half with the same number of hearts on it.

And Stay at Home Educator has printable ten frame cards showing the number, the word for the number and the same number of hearts. Kids can use buttons, pompoms or erasers to cover the hearts as they count, or just count the number and learn what the numeral looks like.

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Fall Math Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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