By Meghan Miller
My son has just entered that age where everything has a category. He matches and pairs and sorts and names everything he can find. With all of the candy hearts everywhere and soon to be on sale, I figured it would be a great inexpensive way to let him so some sorting.
I got a bag of the hearts and dumped them into a bowl. I gave him a choice of bowls or an empty egg carton to sort things into. He was super excited about the egg carton. First we sorted by colors, then by numbers and then he started eating all of the candies.
Since the candies don’t last very long, we took some pictures of the hearts and made a memory game. This can be done by putting the pictures onto one file in any photo editing software. Then, you can print that sheet onto paper or card stock.
I like to turn it over and let him color the reverse side to make it a bit more colorful. (If kids are older, making the backs of the cards varied might be a giveaway.) Then we just cut the cards out and play matching-game or memory.
One of the fun things about the hearts is that you can match by words if your children are in the beginning stages of literacy development. If the text was a bit clearer it would be easier, but as it is, it’s fun challenge.
Make Meghan’s Valentine’s Day matching/memory game! This file (right) can be printed out on a regular 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper. For better results, print on card stock.
Meghan Miller moved to Champaign for school and never left. She is a special education teacher who spends most of her free time taking photos, drawing or gardening. When she’s not at the park chasing butterflies with her son, she is blogging at http://halfayard.blogspot.com/ or taking pictures of children.