Valentine's Day Math

Valentine's Day is one of the holidays that I sort of dread as a teacher since the primary basis of the holiday is just one big candy-fest! ((I know, I know! I'm such a Scrooge!)) We still had our fair share of candy-festing, but I managed to squeeze in this cute little math activity first!

Easiest. Prep. Ever. I just used markers in the same color as the candy hearts to draw on the pink sheet of construction paper for each child.

They sorted the candy by color into each drawn heart. The sayings got them practicing letter recognition and a few kiddos were trying to sound out some of the words! Bonus!

And for the ones who felt ready, they counted their candies and wrote the number next to the hearts.

Is anyone else a bit of a Scrooge at candy holidays? What do you to to keep the fun in the holidays without losing all sanity??