Valentine Math {part 2}

Our question today? Can candy make you smarter??
 
hmmm.  I know it's certainly motivating some math learning around here!

How much math fun can you have with a bag of chocolate kisses?

Here are a few {little} ideas we had fun with:

Division Practice Example: 24 kisses started in the heart. 

Then Jay separated them into 3 groups to see how many 24 divides into.

Greater/Less Than Game:  Of course we used the alligator mouth/heart again!

 

Estimating: 3 colors of kisses.  How many of each?

We always count in spanish too :)

 

Grouping (division/multiplication): How many groups of five?

Practice counting by 5's (sing to tune of 10 Little Indians)

Adding/Subtracting in groups of 5 (and 2)

 

Since these are our games from last year, I'm looking forward to playing more advanced math games this year.  

 

The kids are always moving forward in math and that keeps it exciting!

 

 

 

{Part 1} Valentine Math here!

Valentine Candy Math {part 1}

The secret to learning at our house is to keep the kiddos excited.  And they always get excited when there is candy involved!  Their Valentine's Day loot is perfect for lots of math learning.

With Valentine's Day coming up I've been thinking about what games we will play this year.  I never take photos ahead of time, just during the real deal so these are some of our games from last year (in 2 separate posts)!

Greater than/Less than with Hearts: (an example with coins)

I love the idea of an alligator mouth wanting to eat the biggest number to show greatest.

It's the way I learned when I was {little} and so I play these kinds of games with my {littles} now.  And a heart is the perfect shape for it!

Depending on the age you are working with, you can change the greater/less than game up.  I did simple coins with Kay, more complex with Jay, and used groups of candy as well.  The kids turned the heart with the jaws to eat the one with more.  They loved it!

 Color matching/sorting with candy hearts.  We always graph these as well.

 

Sizing: small, medium, large:
This is great for toddlers and preschoolers. 
After you sort all the candy you can graph it too!



Any {little} project with a treat is extra fun!

Here are some of our other {little} candy math projects:
Valentine Math 2010
Halloween Math 2012
100th Day of the Year /Easter 2009

Look for part 2 of our Valentine Math soon!
 

Valentine Candy Math

Want to know how to make a {Little Project} more fun? 

Add the treat part to it!

 Lately, we've been "playing with our food."  I figure we may as well learn something while we're getting cavities, lol.

We like to play these games for Halloween, and Easter too.  

This time we added speaking in Spanish to the games.  Obviously, that's optional :)

For the first {Little Project} Jay and Kay estimated how many red (rojo) and silver (blanco) kisses were in the bag and wrote it down. 

 

Then they sorted them (I made two piles-one for each of them to sort so there weren't any tears involved) and as they sorted them the said the color in Spanish they were holding.

 

When they were all sorted we counted them (in Spanish) and wrote down the numbers.

Then we compared the count to our first estimation.  

There were actually 26 of each color!  

Jay was very close!

 This other {Little Project} is a game we like to play with  

conversation hearts.  

I use a cookie cutter to trace hearts of each color of candy onto paper.  Then the kids sort them by color (we said the colors in Spanish this time) and then count them to see which color has the most!

 It's also fun to graph them by color to "see" which color has the most 

(this photo is from our jellybean graphs)

 

When we finished playing math games they both asked,  

"Can we do this all again tomorrow?"

I guess that means it was a fun {Little Project}!

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Bird's Nest Cookies

Some kids build blanket forts all over the house. My kids build blanket and pillow nests.  They are obsessed with birds right now.  So here are some bird's nest cookies from our house to yours. And a GREAT way to use up some of that Easter CANDY!

I have been organizing our DIY pantry (see this post) and noticed that we have a TON of peanut butter. So, it's time for peanut butter cookies with a Springtime twist.  Read on to see how to make a chocolate bird for your little cookie nest.

I used >this recipe. They turned out so soft and yummy. If you don't want to make a ton of one inch balls, just make bigger balls of dough and they make great nests.  I cooked them the same length of time. Some of our cookie balls were 2-3 inches big before they cooked.

The recipe calls for hershey kisses.  But chocolate eggs turn these cookies into little nests!  The cookies come out of the oven looking like little balls.  You just nestle these little chocolate eggs right down into them and they look so comfy!

If you are making these treats with kids, check out >these tips first.
Remember to have your chocolate unwrapped before they come out of the oven.  The chocolate goes on AS SOON AS they come out.

Here is a baby bird sitting with some little eggs.  Want to know how I made it?
It was an accident at first!  I accidently tipped a cookie with a kiss over when I was transferring the cookies to the cooling rack.  When I picked it up the top was bent over.  It looked just like a little bird!  So then I made a few more "accidents" on purpose.

Like this:
I used the back of a butter knife to first tip the top over to the left, and then to make a little feather stand up on top.  I was surprised how easy it was to "sculpt" the chocolate.

Just wait about 3-5 minutes after they come out of the oven to tip the top over.  The chocolate has to be melted enough for it to work.  But if you wait too long it is too melted and doesn't work as well.

Enjoy munching on This Little Project!

Kickin' it up on St. Patty's Day

I'm not sure that I mentioned on the last post that we've been out of town for over a week now. I'm not around a computer a lot. I actually forgot to pack a green shirt for Kay.  So yesterday I stopped by the dollar store and found a green and pink one.  I added the lettering, as you can see below.

 St. Patrick's Day is one of my FAVORITE DAYS!

I'm not even Irish.

But I taught Irish Step Dancing for nearly 10 years. Needless to say, today is a day that Irish Step Dancers LOVE to celebrate.
These aren't my dancers, since I'm not home to put their photos up. But you get the idea :)


If you haven't discovered Pandora yet, today is your LUCKY day! You go to the site, type in your favorite style, composer, artist, genre and it kicks out your personalized music stream! Seriously! And it is Free! Try putting in Irish, or Irish Traditional, or Riverdance and have a listen!

If you want to discover a little about Irish Step Dancing and add some kickin' fun into your day, check out this video.

I should have posted about our upcoming St. Patrick's Day projects ahead of time so you could join in, but feel free to celebrate a week of Irish fun, we will be!

I have a new obsession: This is my first "Peg Person."  She's an Irish Step Dancer.  Her name is Peggy :)  She is wearing a traditional Irish dancing dress and even has her arms down to her side, like a good irish step dancer should.

She is made from a peg and some Sharpie markers.  Kay loves to play with her!

She was fun to make and hopefully I will get better.

Want to try making some irish dancers too?  

Here are some on Flickr

These are some paper dolls to get here too for just a buck :)

And here are some Irish Step Dancers to color.

We've been spoiled by 2 sets of grandparents lately.  My Mom had some fun ideas for recycling left over Valentine's candy to celebrate today. 

BEFORE:
AFTER:
These hearts are wrapped in green plastic wrap and pasted on a "paint card" that you can get for free at home improvement stores.

If we were home we would definitely be making green frosted cupcakes with leftover candy hearts for shamrocks on them!

This chocolate frog (left over from Val. day) is the perfect green treat for Jay, the frog-loving-boy.

She also made these little bags for the kids to collect their leprechaun gold in.  

My sister works at a craft store and brought the Cricut over to show us.  It's pretty spectacular. It cuts out all kinds of things.  She cut vinyl frogs to hang in Jay's room and lots of paper frogs and frog bookmarks, etc.  It even can cut fabric!  

I put some "steam a seam" on some fabric and she cut all the letters out on the Cricut for the finishing touches on Kay's dollar store shirt.  This photo is before the letters were ironed on.

From our family to yours, I hope you have a kickin' St. Patrick's Day with a fun Little Project!