Quick Valentine's fun...

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm gearing up for the big day Thursday and thought I would share some freebies!! Besides all of the centers we'll be completing, we will also be making great use of some little hearts I snagged from the dollar bin at Target.

The first activity we'll do is a little coin count. I have 10 heart containers (because I have 10 students). Each lid has a number and inside are some coins. When I say "go," students will open their heart, count the coins, and record their answer. After about a minute, I'll say "swap." Students will have to quickly put the coins back in their heart, put on the lid, and pass the closed heart to their neighbor. I've also played different versions of this game where the materials stay (the heart and coins) and the students travel to other seats with their paper. Either way, after everyone has had a chance to count the coins in every heart, we'll go over the answers. I'll call out number 1. The student with that heart will come to the front, empty the coins, and count them. All other students will count along (I have matching coins on my SmartBoard) and then check to see if they got the same answer. 

The buckets are also from the dollar bin and just a cute way to hold the hearts. Here's the recording sheet. If you would like a copy, click on the picture. It will take you to my TpT store where you can download it for FREE!

Another way I'll be using the hearts is in a part of speech sort. I have a ton of small foam shapes. So I took out some hearts and wrote either a noun, an adjective, or a verb on each one. Then I put that foam heart inside one of the numbered hearts. Obviously, I'll be removing the coins before inserting the foam heart! Just like before, each student will start with a heart. On "go" they'll open their heart and read the word. If the word is a noun, they'll color the corresponding numbered heart on their response sheet pink. If the word is an adjective, they'll color the heart red. And, if the word is a verb, they'll color that heart purple. They will also be writing the word inside of the heart on their paper. After about 30 seconds, I'll say "swap." Students will return the foam heart and replace the lid. Then they will pass the heart to their neighbor. This will continue until we have passed all 10 hearts around. Then, just like with the coins, we'll go number by number and check our answers. 

By the way, I made sure to write the words on hearts that WERE NOT the same color as the answer. For example, no verbs  were written on purple hearts. The response sheet for this activity is included in the download for the coin count. 

Of course, another heart activity is graphing the candy conversation hearts. I'm sure you all do this, too. However, if you're looking to change things up a little, check out my worksheets! Did I mention they're free?!

There are a few questions about estimating and measuring, as well as, graphing.

Well there you have it. Some Valentine freebies for my friends :)

If you're still in need of some centers, mine are a steal at only $5.20 until Wednesday! Click on the pictures to check them out...

Have a great week and Happy Valentine's Day!

Best wishes,