5 Valentine’s Day Math Activities that Kids will Love

It can be difficult to engage students in academic activities on or near a holiday. Instead of fighting against the holiday, use it to help you!  These Valentine’s Day math activities will have your students practicing important skills without even realizing it!

What’s better than engaging your students in math practice on or near Valentine’s Day? How about no prep for the teacher!  All of these activities are print and go activities that are ready to print, copy and share with your students. The only exception is the first activity that also needs some conversation heart candies.

Whether you choose to do an entire Valentine’s Day filled with themed activities and learning, or spread out the fun over a week or two – these fun math activities will have your students begging for more!

1. I ❤️ Fractions, Decimals and Percents

Fractions, decimals and percents is one of the most difficult concepts our upper elementary students work on.  Being able to convert from fractions to decimals to percents or vice versa is just hard and takes a lot of practice.  Your students will love practicing with this Valentine’s Day math activity.

Students will begin with a box or bag of conversation hearts.  They will need to determine the number of hearts they have for each color and then the total number of hearts.  From here, they will have all the data they need to determine what fraction of their conversation hearts represents each color.  They will go on to turn that fraction into a decimal and then into a percent.

This activity includes repeated practice of this process so students can practice.  With the repetitions, students are able to work their way to understanding and mastery.

Once everyone is done, try combining the data for the entire class and have students determine the fractions, decimals and percents for the that!

2. Multiplication Match Makers

Your students will love playing match maker with these multiplication problems.  Here students will work on two digit by two digit multiplication.  After solving the problem, they will find and match the correct answer.

Students can use the back of the page, a math notebook or scratch paper to show their work for each problem.  Then they will connect the matching pieces together.  You can also have students color the heart pieces to match if they have time.

Want to make this activity a little more interactive?  Cut apart all the heart pieces and give each student one problem piece and one answer piece.  It’s okay if you have more than one of each problem and answer.  Just make sure you have an answer piece that matches each problem.

Students will need to work their problem and then find and trade their answer with another student who has the correct answer.  Once they are done, have students glue their heart back together on a square of construction paper and decorate it.

3. Cash for Candy

Let your students hone their money skills with this fun Valentine candy shopping activity.

Your students will love working with money as they take an imaginary trip to the candy store.  Students will work on adding, subtracting, and multiplying with money, important money vocabulary, and making change.

Add a sweet twist to this activity for some extra incentive.  Instead of a grade, “give” students twenty-five cents of candy store credit for each problem they answer correctly.  Then open your own Valentine’s Day candy store and let students shop with their candy cash.

For example, if a student answers all 11 questions correct, they would get $2.75 (instead of 100%).  They could then use that to buy their own sweet treats from the class candy store.  This could be done as part of the Valentine’s Day party or just as a fun extra activity.

Students must write out their order complete with the items they want, the quantity, the total cost for each item, the total cost of their order and the amount of change they are due.  A correct order form earns them their order.  You’ll be amazed at how serious they take ordering!  It’s a great way to add a real-world twist to the activity.

4. Mathematical Lovebirds – Equivalent Fractions

This Valentine’s Day math activity will have your students working on equivalent fractions.  Here students will look at two fractions and decide if they are equivalent.  They will color code each set according to the instructions.

If your students are ready for a challenge, have them come up with an equivalent fraction for the hearts that are not already equivalent.  This will cause them to practice both the reducing of fractions and creating of equivalent fractions.

5. A Valentine’s Day Math Riddle

Your students will love working on division so they can solve this Valentine’s Day riddle.  Students will work on dividing by number to 10 in their quest to figure out what one bird said to another bird on Valentine’s Day.

Let your early finishers write their own math riddle on the back.  They will love creating their own and sharing them with their friends.  You could even copy the riddles they create and use them for a future math activity in class.  They will love seeing their work as a real class assignment.

Valentine’s Day Math Fun

You can find all of these Valentine’s Day math activities in one pack in the Appletastic Learning store.  In addition to these five fun and engaging math activities, your students will also love the Valentine’s day themed work search and coloring page.  Add some writing fun by having students use the coloring page as a Valentine’s Day card.  After coloring the front, have them write a poem or note on the back and share it with another teacher at the school, a friend or family member.

Looking for more Valentine’s Day Fun?

Here’s some ideas for adding more education fun into your classroom this February!

• Valentine’s Day Projects – A Cupcake Contest Activity
• 8 Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids That Won’t Stress You Out
• Valentine’s Day Reading Passage and Flip Book
• Valentine’s Day Parts of Speech Color by Number

Save these Fun Valentine’s Day Math Ideas

Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can save these fun and engaging Valentine’s Day math ideas.  Your students will be glad that you did!