Candy Heart Sort and Graph: A Valentine’s Day Math Activity

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Candy Hearts are a Valentine’s Day staple food. What is Valentine’s Day without them? With all of their different colors, I realized they were perfect for a Valentine’s Day math activity. I decided to make a candy heart sort and graph activity.

Candy Heart Sort and Graph: A Valentine’s Day Math Activity

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It really isn’t a surprise that a graph and sort easily popped into my head. Nick has been doing graphing activities in his kindergarten class for months. I often find that he sometimes rushes through those and doesn’t always count the right number of boxes. Given that this seemed like the perfect math activity to create for him.

I designed this sort and graph activity using individual boxes of Sweethearts Candies. You could use any type of candy hearts for the candy heart sort and graph activity, but with other brands, you may find that the colors don’t line up with the printables I’ve made. I know there is at least one brand that has white hearts, but the Sweethearts don’t. You may need to make some adjustments if you use a different brand.

I also designed the activity with the individual boxes in mind. That way if you’re doing this activity with a group of kids you can easily give each child their own box of candy.

Candy Heart Sort

The candy heart sort and graph activity consists of two parts. The first part is the sort. Give each child a box of Sweethearts Candies and a copy of the candy heart sort page.

Then have the children open up their box of candy and sort each candy piece onto the correct colored heart. The children may find some broken candy pieces in their box. I personally chose to not include those when we did the sort, but how you do that is up to you. Just make sure you tell the children which way you want them to do it.

Candy Heart Graph

Once the children have sorted all of their hearts it’s time for them to graph their findings on the candy heart graphing page. After years of teaching I am a bit of a stickler for making sure graphs are labeled, so I have labeled the graph already. Littles ones aren’t going to know how to label a graph yet anyway, but I think it’s important for them to see those parts there.

The graph has enough rows to show up to ten hearts of the same color. Based on what comes in the boxes that should be enough unless someone ends up with a really off box.

Have the children color a box for each colored heart that they find on their sorting page. Just have them count the number of candy hearts on their sorting page and then color the correct boxes in. I chose to color the boxes in with a crayon that matched the color heart that I was graphing, but that certainly isn’t necessary. It does make it easy to look at the graph and quickly see patterns and information that way though.

Eat up!

Alright, I have to admit that my favorite part of this activity is the end. Getting to eat the candy hearts as a reward for a job well done!

Candy Heart Sort and Graph Modifications and Further Learning

Depending on the age and ability of the children you use this math activity with you may need to make some modifications. You might also want to take the activity farther to help the children learn more.

If you have a child that is having a hard time counting the hearts and then coloring the correct number of boxes than have them transfer their hearts to the graphing page. Have them put one heart in each box going up. Then they can remove one heart at a time and color the box that it was in.

For older children I’d add on to the math activity by asking the children questions about the graph. Questions such as…

• Which candy heart color did you have the most of?
• Which candy heart color did you have the least of?
• Did you have the same amount of any candy heart colors?

Download Your Candy Heart Sort and Graph Printables

• Candy Heart Sort Printable

• Candy Heart Graph Printable

More Valentine’s Day Ideas for Kids

• 14 Valentine Books to Read with Your Child
• Easy Craft for Kids: Framed Button Heart
• Valentine’s Day Poppers