counting valentines

Sung to the tune of Michael Finnegan {listen to Michael Finnegan here}:

1 red, 2 red, 3 red valentines
4 red, 5 red, 6 red valentines
7 red, 8 red, 9 red valentines
10 red valentines!
10 red, 9 red, 8 red valentines
7 red, 6 red, 5 red valentines
4 red, 3 red, 2 red valentines
1 red valentine!

I love using felt manipulatives to go along with the songs we sing at line time, and counting these felt hearts has been quite a hit! In the past, I only used the manipulatives at line time, but now I make them available for the children to use during the work period, too. As you can see, they LOVE singing the song and moving the hearts all by themselves!

The hearts were cut from red felt. I numbered and decorated them with fabric paint and sequins. {This was my favorite part!} If you wanted to be really profesh, you could glue on the same quantity of sequins as the number on the heart. {the 4 would have 4 sequins, etc}

After the decorations were dry, I hot-glued magnets to the back of the hearts. The magnets I used are almost too burly for the felt - smaller magnets probably would have worked better.

At the beginning of the song, I stick the magnets to the back of a baking pan. As we count up, I bring each number to the front of the pan, and as we count down, I move each number to the back of the pan. When the song is over, the children always beg to see where the hearts are hiding on the back of the pan!