Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

Free Valentine Learning Printables and Montessori-Inspired Valentine Activities

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Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. Valentine cards, kindness projects, and valentine learning activities are all meaningful activities for young children. Here, I’m sharing the links to lots of free valentine printables for preschoolers through 1st graders (and sometimes older) along with ideas for preparing Montessori-inspired activities using some of those printables.

Free Valentine Learning Printables and Montessori-Inspired Valentine Activities

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Montessori-Inspired Valentine Activities Using Free Printables

Heart Button Sorting and Counting Heart Button Sorting and Counting

For this activity, I used the free Blank Ten Frames at Teachers Pay Teachers. I found these heart-shaped painted wooden buttons on Amazon. They arrived quickly and are very cute. I love the feel of them for sorting activities. They would be awesome for a Montessori-inspired sewing activity, too.

I used a medium-size tray from Montessori Services. I found small heart-shaped bowls at my grocery store a couple of years ago, but I’m not sure if they’re still available anywhere.

The button-sorting activity is wonderful for visual discrimination skills, and I used the ten frames to add a math activity. I typically use one design or color of material for a counting activity (see “Isolation of Quality”), but I wanted to include a sorting activity to make the activity more challenging.

Young preschoolers could lay out the ten frames on a rug in any order. (I used a Montessori Services rug for my layout.) After the buttons are sorted on the ten frames, the child could line up the ten frames as shown below.

Older children could focus on addition by using the ten frames to see which number could be added to the number shown buttons to get a sum of 10.

Heart Patterning Activity Heart Patterning Tray

The free printable I used is no longer available, but you could use this free printable by Teacher of Superheroes at TPT or use this free printable to make your own pattern.

I used the same type of tray and bowl along with pipe cleaners cut in half and heart-shaped pony beads in the colors on the printable.

Children could use as many beads as they wish to continue the pattern on a pipe cleaner. They could make a bracelet following the pattern, too.

Heart Patterning Layout

 

Valentine Transportation Count and Match Puzzles Transportation Valentine Count and Match Puzzles

I like the printable for this activity for vehicle lovers who might not be interested in traditional heart activities. It’s the Valentine Number Puzzles from I Love Trucks, a Free Valentine’s Pack for Boys by Our Little Monkeys.

The activity was very easy to prepare. It only required printing, laminating, and cutting the puzzle pieces. I used a Montessori Services basket (the small willow basket, which is my go-to basket for many card materials).

Valentine Addition Heart Addition Activity

This activity uses the Valentine Addition printable from the Valentines Pack (part 3) by Cassie from 3 Dinosaurs along with the numbers from part 2 of the pack.
 
I used iridescent heart-shaped pony beads that I thought were very pretty for this. The tray is the Montessori Services large plastic tray, which I use for many types of activities. I found the round container at a craft store a couple of years ago, so I don’t know if it’s still available. (Note: I really like the beads and buttons I found for these activities. They can be used for a variety of activities over a number of years.)
 
You could add small tongs or tweezers for a practical life activity, although I think using fingers is great for fine-motor skills when working with the heart-shaped beads. It might detract too much from the addition work to use a tool with this activity since there are a number of addition problems in the printable. I counted out 10 of each color of bead so the child could complete any of the problems.

Heart Addition Layout

“Letter in the Mail” Beginning Sounds Activity "Letter in the Mail" Beginning Sounds Activity

I used the “Letter in the Mail” printable from the Valentine Pre-K/K Pack {Updated and Expanded} by This Reading Mama. I cut apart the letters and pictures and added a valentine mailbox to make the activity extra appealing and hands-on.
 
I think the valentine mailbox was from the Target dollar section a couple of years ago, but you could use any valentine mailbox that has a slot big enough for the cards in this activity.
 
I added paper clips to the activity so the child can clip the matching picture to the letter. He or she could then “mail” the letter (letter with letter-sound picture). Continue until all the letters are mailed.
 
You can learn more about introducing beginning sounds in my DIY Sandpaper Letters post.
 
Here’s the link to my favorite laminator … inexpensive and great for almost any activity that needs to be laminated!

Free Valentine Printables for Preschoolers-First Graders (some printables for up to grade 3)

To keep this from being the longest post ever, I’m just sharing free printables for valentine learning activities here. As much as I love the free printables for Valentine’s Day cards and gifts, those won’t be the focus in this post.

Montessori-Inspired Valentine Math Trays

Free Valentine Printables linked to in my Montessori-Inspired Valentine Math Trays

Free Heart Printables and Montessori-Inspired Heart Activities {Human Heart and Valentine Hearts}

2022 UPDATE: ALL MY VALENTINE’S DAY POSTS 

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Comments

  1. lucie says

    Deb, thank you for all you do for us all. Our beloved kids and pupils as well as parents and teachers really do enjoy all material you let us share. May the year 2016 bring you all you wish. Lucie

  2. Jill says

    Thank you so much for including E.H.M!

    This is a great resource for Valentine’s DAy learning fun!

    Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!