My kindergarten students always love counting with manipulatives during math, so I was excited to pull together this Valentine’s Day-themed heart counting mat to give young learners hands-on practice counting 1 to 20.

Grab the freebie below and then snag our Number Formation Pack in our shop for more math fun!

Getting Ready

This heart counting mat was super easy to prepare!

I just printed the download (below) and ran the mat through my laminator since students would be using a dry erase marker to write the number of hearts they counted. You could place it in a plastic sleeve instead if you’d prefer.

I grabbed some plastic red and pink hearts that I had picked up from the Dollar Tree. Candy hearts, mini erasers or foam-shape hearts would work well, too. You could even change up the manipulative that students are using.

I like to give my students their manipulatives in a small container.  The plastic container for storing the hearts also came from the Dollar Tree.

I grabbed a paper clip and pencil for spinning the spinner and a dry erase marker for writing the number.

We were ready for some heart counting!

Heart Counting Mats

For this center, my students first spun the 1-20 spinner.  In the example below, the clip landed on the number 8.

The children counted out the number of hearts to match the number they spun on the spinner.  Since the student spun 8 on the spinner, they counted out 8 hearts on the ten frame.

Counting out the hearts was great one-to-one counting practice!

After the students counted out the 8 hearts on the ten frame, the final step was for them to write how many hearts they counted.

It’s important for my students to be able to write the number that matches the set they counted, so I love giving them the opportunity to practice writing numbers on these heart counting mats

Students repeated the some process: spinning, counting and writing until their time was finished.

The heart counting activity would be great for independent or partner work.  Once students are familiar with it, it would even be a great addition to a math station in the classroom!

Grab Your Download

Ready for some heart counting fun?!  Just click the button below to grab your free download and then snag our Number Formation Pack in our shop!


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4 Comments

  1. The heart counting mat link is not connecting to the free download.

  2. I would love to use this resource, but the download link will not connect after entering my email. 🙁

    Thank you!

    1. Hi Charity,
      Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry you’re having trouble downloading. We never want that. Please check out our troubleshooting video HERE for help. You’ll also want to make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader Other and that you’re allowing pop ups from our site. If that still doesn’t work, email me at hello@www.playdoughtoplato.com.
      Warmly,
      Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

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