Valentine’s Bears Counting Mats for Preschoolers
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I can’t believe is February already, and Valentine’s Day is around the corner. If you have read any of my posts, you will know that I love to switch things around in the classroom and change the routine according to the season or theme, and I wanted to offer you these Valentine’s Bears Counting Mats so you can take advantage of this celebration as well.
These mats are the perfect hands-on activity for your preschoolers because they are fun, engaging, and effective in learning numbers and counting! Better yet, they are completely FREE, and you can find them at the end of this post.
What to Do
Print each page using white cardstock, and laminate the pages, if you want them for multiple uses. If not, just use regular paper. When you are done using the activity, store it on sheet protectors and placed it in a binder, to keep the mats safe.
How to Use These Mats
These Valentine’s Bears Counting Mats can be used in the Math center, as a small group activity, or Quiet area option. You can also place them in the Writing Center, or send them home. You can also combine them in my other Valentine’s activities as a way to create interest and encourage preschoolers to use them, allowing them to do different activities when they rotate for the different centers.
To take the rest of Valentine’s Day activities, just click on the links below. They all come with FREE printables. These are:
- Valentine’s Animals Letter Match.
- Valentine’s Beginning Sounds Clip Cards.
- Valentine’s Day Bingo.
- Valentine’s Day Memory Game.
- Valentine’s Day Number Puzzles.
- Valentine’s Day Word Wall Cards.
It is important to remember that before you place a new activity in a center you should introduce it to your kid, and a good moment to do this is during circle time. That way they will have a better idea of what to do with the activity, facilitate their learning process, and take full advantage of it.
With this particular activity, a good way to introduce it is by:
- Showing the mats to the children and talking about each number and the different characteristics of the shape of the numbers.
- Talking about small and large numbers, such as number 2 has fewer hearts than number 5 because it is a smaller number.
- Explaining that they have to point and count out loud each heart on the counting mats and place the same number of manipulatives on the counting squares.
- After that, the next step is to trace the number word and copy it next to it.
Some of the manipulatives they can use are our Valentine’s candy, mini erasers, felt stickers, gems, buttons, bingo chips, and any other type of small object.
To trace and copy the number in words they need to use dry-erase markers. If you don’t want to laminate the mats but use them as an individual activity instead, the children will need to copy the number words using pencils, markers, or crayons.
Benefits of this Activity
This hands-on activity will allow preschoolers to practice their:
- Number recognition (identifying the number on the mat before counting).
- Counting abilities (counting the ghosts).
- Fine motor development (tracing and writing number words).
- Hand-eye coordination and control (placing the manipulatives in the squares).
- Concentration skills (focusing on the different tasks).
- One-to-one correspondence (counting the manipulatives to be added).
- Language development (counting out loud number sequence).
Valentine’s Day Story Books
As usual, I will recommend you use storybooks related to each theme or season you are working on, every day, multiple times a day. Reading to your children is one of the most important activities you can do because listening to stories allows them to expand their vocabulary, work on their pre-reading and pre-writing skills, get more familiar and interested in the theme, and other benefits.
These are some fun Valentine’s books you can use. You can find them at your local library and used books store, but if you want to keep them for future use, you can purchase them easily on Amazon through my links. Just click on the pictures to get them.
Pin It for Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to your Math and Valentine’s Pinterest boards, so you can have it available when you need it.
I hope that you and your students enjoy this Valentine’s Bears Counting Mats activity, and help to learn or review their numbers and work on their counting abilities!
Don’t forget to grab your FREE printable, by clicking on the link below, and typing your information.
Are you looking for more Valentine’s ideas and activities, similar to this one to do at home or in the classroom? If so, check out the ones below or all of our ideas on our site’s Holidays page. They all come with FREE printables.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.D. Please let me know if these mats worked for you, or if you think I need to add or replace something. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find helpful. Also, if you came up with different ideas and want to share them, I will love to post them as well.
