As a educator and a mom, I know it can be tough to come up with new & exciting activities all year round. I love using the holidays throughout the year to help inspire new activities and learning centres.

When I created these Valentine’s Day Printables, my goal was to make beautiful resources that were ready to use in a variety of ways. I recommend printing them on to cardstock, or laminating for extra durability. This is the laminator and laminating sheets that I personally use.

I wanted to share some different activities and ideas that are easy to prep and pack lots of play and learning!

Literacy

Salt Tray

Salt trays are a fun tool to practice printing. You can use our alphabet chart to support letter recognition and formation by playing a “write-and-cover” game, writing one letter at a time and then covering until you finish the alphabet. If you are working on sight words you can use the cards to read and then practice writing each word.

For this fun Valentine’s Day inspired salt tray, all you need is:

• Table Salt
• Liquid Food Colouring
• Glitter/Small Confetti

Just shake it all up in a Ziploc bag until the color is evenly distributed, then add to a rimmed tray (mine is the box from an old Melissa & Doug puzzle!) Use a popsicle stick, paintbrush or finger to write, then shake gently to erase!

Numeracy

Counting Beads

Using the number cards, punch a hole in the bottom or side of each, attach half a pipe cleaner, and have your little ones count and string the corresponding number of beads on each.

10 Frame Cards

There are a couple fun ways you can use these cards!

1. Print on cardstock or laminate. Then use loose parts like acrylic hearts, candy hearts or jelly beans to practice filling in the ten frames.
2. Another fun option is to print these cards on regular paper and use a bingo dabber or stickers to fill in each ten frame. Then you can either staple them together and make a cover for a personalized counting book, or string them in your classroom/playroom for a fun number line. (Make sure to have your little ones help put the cards in the right number order of course!)

Bingo

Use the number or sight word sheets to create your own Bingo game. Print two copies but only cut out one. Then call out the cards one at a time and cover until you get a line (or full card)

I hope these printables and ideas help inspire some fun new learning activities, either at home or in the classroom!

Be inspired to play always!

❤ Hannah