Winter Boredom Busters

There are so many things to love on Valentine’s Day…including math! Turn all those tasty Valentine’s treats into a fun math lesson and help your kids practice sorting, matching, adding, subtracting, graphing, and more!

1. Candy Heart Estimation

Dump a box of candy hearts into a bowl. Ask your mini mathematician to guess how many hearts they think are there.

2. Candy Heart Count Out Loud

Count the hearts out together, one by one, and see how close your child’s guess was.

3. Candy Heart Color Sort

Ask your little one to sort the hearts out into piles by color. Have them estimate how many pink hearts there are, then count them out together. Try another color, keeping the last correct number in mind, and see if your little one can get closer. Note each correct answer on a sheet of paper.

4. Candy Heart Bar Graph

Now that your hearts are sorted by color and each pile is counted, create an easy bar graph! List the colors on the bottom and the numbers along the side and have your kiddo color each bar to match the number you counted.

5. Candy Hearts Greater Than

Looking at your sorted colors, totals, and bar graph, ask your little one which pile is the biggest. Then ask which is the smallest. Now try asking whether you have more of one color than another.

6. Skittles Shapes

Draw a circle, square, and triangle on a sheet of paper. Then have your candy-loving kiddo place Skittles or colored M & Ms along the lines to trace the shapes. Next, see if your little one can create the shapes on their own, without your drawings to trace.

7. Skittles Patterns

Create a simple pattern out of differently colored Skittles, then see if your child can copy the pattern on their own. Start with a simple alternating pattern, then try something trickier.

8. Skittles Addition

Create your own mouth-watering worksheet by drawing five large circles on a sheet of paper and adding small squares at the bottom of each. Write the name of a Skittle color in each, then place a few of each color in the appropriate circle. Have your kiddo count them up and write the total in each box. Next, challenge them to add one color to another, recounting as a total if need be.

9. Skittles Fair Shares

Count your pile of Skittles, then write down the total. Introduce simple division by asking your child to divvy up their pile of Skittles among the two of you, handing one to you, then one to themselves, until the pile is gone (if you have any uneven leftovers, eat them!). Then count your piles. That total is the total number of Skittles, divided by two! Gather them all up again, then divvy them again, among a few stuffed animals.

10. Candy Construction

Keep the candy learning going all year long, with Learning Resources’ Candy Construction! Kids use candy-shaped pieces to build everything from a Sweet Swing to a Candy Cottage and more, practicing important math and STEM skills along the way! Making math fun by incorporating it into everyday activities (and including tasty treats) is a great way to build your kids’ math confidence, which will serve them well at school. These activities are also a wonderful way to build the foundational math skills kids will need to succeed. Explore more ways to count numbers with Learning resources numbers and counting toys!

Combining sensory play and art is one of our favorite ways to get creative. This star-themed craft will appeal to kids who love water play and making beautiful masterpieces!

Materials needed:

• Primary Science® Jumbo Eyedroppers with Stand
• Bleeding tissue paper
• Small pots half-filled with water
• Coffee filter stars
• Toothpicks
• Oven pan or deep tray to contain the mess

The Set Up

With an activity like this, it’s always good to be proactive and avoid too much mess. I used a large silicone craft mat but then also had a deep oven pan to color the stars in. To prepare the materials I simply added water to the small pots and tore the bleeding tissue paper into small pieces (3 of each color). It really helps to have the Jumbo Eyedroppers in the stand for easy access and minimal mess.

How the Activity Works

The first stage of the activity involves inviting your child to add the pieces of bleeding tissue paper to the small pots of water- one color in each pot. The process of scrunching up the paper, dropping it in the water, and then using the toothpicks to squish the color out of the paper, is so much sensory and fine motor fun. As we did this, we spoke lots about the different colors, using descriptive words, and asking each other questions to stimulate the conversation.

After my little one had finished coloring her water, she picked out the pieces of bleeding tissue and got a blank coffee filter star ready. To add color to the white star she simply used the matching color Jumbo Eyedropper and squirted on the colored water. She loved seeing the color being absorbed by the star and gave out the cutest little gasps as it spread.

It was great to see my preschooler naturally experimenting with color mixing. She watched as the colors slowly seeped into one another and made new colors. Again, this was good for her sensory confidence and also her vocabulary. It is so important to keep the conversation freely flowing and to ask simple prompt questions during activities like this. For example, I would say to her ‘do you know what will happen if you squirt yellow on top of the blue’? You’ll be amazed at how much additional learning can happen through activity discussions with kids.

The Jumbo Eyedroppers are perfectly designed for little hands. The large handle means that the child has to engage those all-important fine motor muscles to transfer the water in and out of the tip. It is great that a fun hands-on activity like this can lend itself to building the hand strength needed for writing further down the line!

Once all three stars had been filled with the color we left them to dry on some kitchen towel. But the play was not yet over! My daughter continued to play with the water in the pots and oven pan for a long time! She mixed all of the leftover colors together and just enjoyed the simple act of filling, emptying, and refilling the pots… over and over again! What’s your favorite way to combine sensory play and art? We’d love some more ideas to try!

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this January, you may have spent a bit of time reflecting on this courageous American’s contributions to civil rights and the difference his work made – and continues to make even today. But we’ve gathered a few fun facts that you might not know about this hero, just in time for the holiday!

1. What’s in a Name? Martin Luther King Jr. was actually born Michael King Jr., named after his father, Michael King Sr. However, when MLK Jr. was just two years old, his father changed his own name to Martin Luther King in tribute to the German theologian Martin Luther, and decided to change his son’s name, too.

2. A 15 year old College Student? In addition to being passionate and extremely articulate, Martin Luther King Jr. was also incredibly intelligent. In fact, he skipped the 9^th and 12^th grades, beginning college at age 15 and graduating at 19. King Jr. attended Morehouse college as a legacy – both his father and grandfather attended the school.

Ebenezer Baptist Church was the pastoral home of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. Like Father Like Sons! The family tradition doesn’t end there. You probably know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister. But did you know that he was at least the fourth in his family to serve the church? His great grandfather was an “old slavery time preacher” and his grandfather was a Baptist minister. Martin Luther King Sr. took over his father’s ministry when he passed away, and MLK Jr. followed in his footsteps, eventually becoming a Baptist minister himself.

4. And the Grammy Goes to… Many honors and awards were bestowed upon King Jr., including being names Valedictorian of his college class. He won the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35; in fact, he was the youngest recipient until Malala Yousef recently won the award at the age of 17. Upwards of 1,000 streets are named after him in the U.S., and even a few in other countries like Italy and Israel. And he’s one of only two Americans to have his birthday celebrated as a national holiday (President Washington is the other). But we bet you might not know that Martin Luther King Jr. actually won a Grammy Award! His “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam” won Best Spoken Word Album in 1971.

5. Last, But Not Least. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech is one of the most memorable and meaningful presentations given in recent history. He was the last to speak at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, attended by more than 250,000 people. No one else wanted the last slot, as they thought the crowd would be dwindling and the media would be gone, but MLK Jr.’s 16-minute plea (it was only supposed to be four minutes long!) will be forever remembered as game changer in U.S. politics and the civil rights movement.

  As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day this month, we remember one of King’s most important messages:

 “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Keep kids entertained this winter with these adorable penguin friends. From their waddle to their formal attire, they are undoubtedly entertaining to observe and explore. Create your own little penguins with this simple, non-toxic dough. Add Learning Resources’ Penguins on Ice to the mix for added activities and learning fun!

Happy winter! Stay warm!

The Set Up

I love using these simple lunch trays from Dollar Tree for little investigations like this. I put out the tools, small bowls (two filled with water), and the large bowl on the tray. This helps to keep the materials neatly organized and gives the child a defined workspace. To turn the packing peanuts into little snowmen I used acrylic paint markers to draw on the eyes, nose, scarf, and buttons. They turned out pretty cute! I then put the snowmen in the third bowl on the tray.