Fun Valentine's Day Counting Centers for Kindergarten

Here's something really simple that I've come to find out as a teacher: Kids love themes. 

And, yes, I think teachers do too. For a while now, I've been trying to immerse students in learning across subject areas through themes. On the weeks that we do this really well, I notice an increase in engagement, and therefore in learning. 

A few weeks ago our theme was penguins. We read penguin books, learned about the life cycle of a penguin, and even made our greeting for Morning Meeting: Waddle Like a Penguin.

Knowing that incorporating a theme into as many aspects of our day as possible helps keep my students engaged and excited about learning, has made me realize that I need more themed activities for our centers.

Valentine's Day is coming up and I've been working hard to add themed activities to our learning fun. From Valentine's Day STEM (written for The Kindergarten Connection) to a Cards Writing Center, and now Counting Centers for Math! The following 3 activities are ideal for students to practice identifying, representing, and writing numbers 1-20.

Valentine Cookie Clip Cards

I absolutely love clip cards because they allow students to work on an academic skill while practicing their fine motor skills too! But I also love them because when I accidentally misplace my clothespins (oops!), my students can use dry-erase markers to circle the answers and that helps them practice their writing grips. Win, win! 

The recording sheets for this activity make a great extension. They're especially helpful to have on hand for early finishers. The recording sheet for the Cookie Clip Cards allows students to practice reading and representing numbers in ten frames. 

Valentine Delivery Counting Sets

This center is one of my favorites because students get to "deliver" valentines. The center includes number cards for 1-20 and Valentine envelope cards to get "delivered"/counted out to each number card.

The included recording sheet for this Valentine Delivery Counting Center extends student learning by allowing them to count a given set of valentines and record the number. Teen numbers in particular can be tricky for young children to learn, so I love that this focuses on the number formation aspect of numbers 1-20.

(A Chocolate of) Counting Puzzles

Chocolate and counting? Yes, please! My kids love puzzles and the chocolate theme makes these even more enticing. Fair warning: you may be in the mood for chocolate after seeing Creating4 the Classroom's ADORABLE chocolate boxes.

Just because number formation can be challenging, the recording sheet for these Chocolate Counting Centers also has students practice counting and recording numbers 1-20.

Want to have plenty of Math activities ready to use for February? Grab the discounted bundle here: