Here is a fun ten frame counting activity for preschoolers using a Valentine’s Day mailbox. Help your little ones develop number sense skills with these Valentine’s heart counting cards. Be sure to get your free download.
Valentine’s Day Math Activities for Preschoolers
Hearts here! Hearts there! Hearts, hearts everywhere!
It’s time for preschool Valentine’s Day activities, which means we have hearts all over the place, including in our Valentine’s ten frame counting cards!
My preschoolers love them. In February, we always do a friendship preschool theme where we learn how being loving, kind, and caring makes us good and happy friends!
Hearts are just the perfect way to embrace that. They are easily recognized by preschoolers, and these counting cards come in all the traditional Valentine-y colors.
FAQ About Teaching Friendship and Kindness to Preschoolers
One of the best ways to teach preschoolers about how to make and keep friends is by being a model for them during your own interactions with preschoolers. Show your preschoolers appropriate interactions and what it feels like to have a good friend by first being a friend to them.
Show them how to be kind and caring. When you help your preschoolers swaddle their baby doll, or open a cheese stick, or listen to their stories and answer their questions, your preschoolers will notice your kindness and want to be like you.
Modeling friendship is the first and best way to teach preschoolers about friends. Preschoolers also need to learn how to recognize their feelings and to reach out to an adult if they are feeling lonely or hurt.
Including friendship activities in circle time is also helpful. Teach your preschoolers to be good listeners, to respond to things that are said, and to be helpful. Friendship activities for preschoolers should also include collaborative activities and games, and random acts of kindness.
The possibilities for friendship activities are endless. Try playing cooperative games, working together on a single shared art project, doing building activities at the block center, or doing a scavenger hunt together. There are countless picture books that teach preschoolers about friendship, too.
This post features six printable friendship activities; each one is designed specifically to be used with preschoolers and toddlers. They are an easy and effective addition to your friendship theme in preschool.
Around the age of 3, children are starting to play more with each other and are forming new friendships. We talk about what makes a good friend, we do friendship activities, we read friendship stories, and we sing friendship songs. All year long.
Valentine’s Ten Frame Math Cards
As a seasoned teacher, I really appreciate the ten frame model when teaching counting to young children. As a real-life person, I appreciate the organization that the ten frame model offers…cause I’m kinda’ an organization freak. Not quite, but close.
Anyway, teaching in ten frames is not the only way, but it is an effective way to teach counting and number sense.
Materials
- laminator
- heavy card stock
- Valentine-y counters (red buttons, acrylic hearts, pink pom-poms for example)
- free printable at the end of this post
- Valentine’s Day mailbox (optional, but super fun!)
The Set-Up
Print the download on heavy card stock and laminate. Place on a tray with some counters and invite your preschooler to join you for some Valentine theme fun!
OR…you can place all the materials in a zip top baggie and pull it out at quiet time!
Three Additional Ways to Use Ten Frame Math Cards
As parents and preschool teachers, we are blessed to teach children who come to us with unique skills, and those skills may be quite varied. We never can count on the idea of children developmentally or academically being right exactly where it is convenient for us.
So…let me tell you some different ways to use these counting cards so that you can more easily meet the need of multiple children without having to create completely different activities.
- Invite your preschooler to find a matching numbers of items to the number on the card. For example, find seven crayons to match the seven hearts.
- Have your preschooler count the corresponding number of counters off the counting card, then use the counting card to check work.
- Invite your preschooler to count each number on the card with their fingers after completing the card the traditional way.
Practice Number Identification with a Valentine’s Day Mailbox
Who doesn’t love to get mail? I know preschoolers do.
Grab some colorful card-sized envelopes and write a numeral 1-10 on each one. Then, mix up the heart ten frames and randomly place a counting card inside each envelope. Complete the Valentine’s Day mailbox activity by doing any of the following:
- Place them all in the mailbox and invite your preschoolers to carefully open each envelop. See if the inserted counting card matches the number on the envelop.
- Then, sort the counting cards and envelops so they match.
Using a Valentine’s Day mailbox is a different and creative way to practice preschool counting activities. Preschoolers can practice identifying numbers and counting in ten frames, which are both really important math skills. And, finding this counting game in valentine boxes makes it all the more fun!
Will you try practicing counting skills with a valentines mailbox? It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be a homemade valentine box, like the old classics we make out of shoe boxes.
Grab Your Own Copy of Valentine’s Ten Frame Counting Cards!
Think your preschoolers will enjoy these ten frame counting cards? You can grab your own copy by clicking the image below!
Want More Heart Activities?
Then check out these great heart activities for preschoolers! (And don’t forget to keep scrolling to get your FREE Valentine counting cards, too!)
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Play Dough Heart Decorating Kit // Simple Play Ideas
Valentines 10 Frame Counting Cards // Stay at Home Educator
Heart Lacing Busy Bag // Coffee Cups & Crayons
Heart Faces Busy Bag // Powerful Mothering
Counting Hearts Busy Bag // Teach Me Mommy
Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts // Modern Preschool
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
I wanted to say thanks for all your free printables, my budget is so tight! I own an affordable homepreschool, that provides afterschool support for a 1st grader also.! In reference to the latter these 10frames are perfect b/c he’s needing review for common core! Happy Valentines! Stay blessed! Of course I can use them for the preschoolers also but I just like needed the 10frames like yesterday! LOL
love the idea