Kids seem to learn so much more when they are having fun. Conversation Hearts are everywhere this time of year. Why not use them for teaching? Kids will enjoy knowing there is a sweet treat at the end of the lesson. Here are 5 fun ways to teach with Conversation Hearts.
Colors – A very basic lesson on colors can be taught using Conversation Hearts. They come in all the fun colors of the season: yellow, purple, pink, orange, green and white.
Counting – Toddlers and preschoolers will have fun learning to count with the sweet, colorful little hearts. Pull out a piece of paper and a pencil to use the Conversation hearts to teach basic addition and subtraction skills.
Reading – Each heart contains a sweet Valentine’s Day message that can be used to learn reading. “Be Mine” “Sweet Pea” and “Love You” are just a few of the phrases children can learn.
Use hearts to teach consenants and vowels. Choose two different color hearts, one to represent consenants and the other to represent vowels. For example, pink represents consenants and yellow for the vowels. Write out a simple word such as “dog”, then have your child lay out the hearts for each letter. In this case the pattern would would be pink, yellow, pink. This a great activity for more visual learners.
Conversation Hearts Mad Libs – Help your child write out a short story, leaving several blank spaces for words, much like you would see in Mad Libs. The sillier the better for this project. Once your story is written have your child choose random hearts and place them in the blank spaces, phrase side up. Then read the story, only this time fill in the blanks with the words on each heart. It never really makes any sense, but that’s what’s so fun about it!
Conversation Heart Bingo Game – I found a fun site with free printable Bingo cards, specifically designed for use with Conversation Hearts. Check it out! It’s really fun! You can also use this Free Bingo Card Generator to create your own Bingo cards.
Science Projects – Inspirational Laboratories has some cool science experiments using… you guessed it – Conversation Hearts! The Dancing Hearts experiment uses ingredients you already have in your cupboard, and the Dissolving Hearts science experiment comes with a printable data sheet.
Learning can be fun! I hope you and your child enjoy these activities.
Great ideas…you sure took me back a couple of decades to the good ole days.
I like the idea of using two colors for consonants and vowels. I would never have put that idea together. Thank you for the ideas to add to my teaching folder.
Love these ideas! I’ll be sharing them with my son’s preschool teacher.
I love using simple everyday items to teach. Thanks for the awesome ideas!
I don’t usually buy conversation hearts for Valentine’s Day, but I just might get some this year to have some fun learning time with both kids! Thanks for the ideas!
My daughter loves playing with candy and math. This will be so fun to do when she gets home with her conversation hearts!
This is so cool. I never would have thought to use these hearts for teaching. Since my 5-year old is learning simple math this would be a fun way to hold her attention while solving math problems.
So fun and clever! I may buy some tonight (or tomorrow on sale)!
What fun and fabulous ideas…..
I have loved this candy all of my life and never
thought about the learning side of it!
Many thanks, Cindi
These would definitely keep the kids interested. As long as they don’t eat them all first.